Description of the Academic Program From the BioMed site: "Brown has five Biology Departments which comprise
the largest single discipline for the university. In addition to top quality
research, biology provides education for undergraduates, graduates, and
medical students. Biomed researchers are exploring areas that range from
neural implants that control movement to sleep behavior. Many of the top
researchers in a particular field are faculty at Brown University's Division
of Biology and Medicine."
Journals Through the last twenty-five years, the numbers and prices of biomedical
journals increased greatly. The Library spending could not keep up
with that growth. Therefore, the collection lagged behind the needs
of faculty and students. The Interlibrary Loan service was expanded
and partially addressed the demands. Over the last few years, Library
consortial deals with a number of the major publishers in the life sciences
have enabled the Library to provide access to a tremendous number of electronic
journals. This desktop access to a growing portion of the collection
certainly provides improved convenience but also fosters a much greater
use of the collection than what was feasible before. Here are several
of the important publishers that the Library has made deals with for electronic
access -
General Collecting Guidelines The Library attempts to maintain a RESEARCH level collection.
A RESEARCH (Collecting
Levels) level collection includes the major source materials required
for dissertations and independent research. It also includes important
reference works and a selection of specialized monographs. With the
heavy reliance on journals in biology, the literature of the faculty and
graduate students is also an important literature of the undergraduate
life science concentrators.
Specific Collecting Guidelines
Language: English, original or in translation.
Imprint Date: Current imprints. As needed - retrospective materials
in support of research needs and replacements to missing or damaged volumes.
Infrequent - acquisition of out-of-print material.
Types of Material Included: Monographs and journals. Selectively,
proceedings and textbooks.
Electronic Books/Sets: In the near future, the Library will
be purchasing an increasing number of monographs and sets in electronic
form.
Additional resources for the Life Sciences are linked at the Subject
List (Medicine/Life
Sciences) from the Library's E-Resources page and also at the Medical
Connections Web page.
Special Collections - Lownes Collection of Significant Books in the
History of Science contains over three-quarters of those texts recognized
by scholars as the great books of science published since the middle of
the 15th century. This collection is held at the John Hay Library.
Related Collections and Other Resources Brown's participation in the National Network
of Libraries of Medicine provides an efficient means of obtaining articles
from journals we do not own. The resources of the Ivy League institutions'
libraries are available to Brown faculty and students via the Borrow
Direct service. The Virtual
Catalog
makes the resources of the participating members of the Boston
Library Consortium available upon request. For further information, check
with the Interlibrary Loan Office (Phone: (401) 863-2750; Email: sci-ill@brown.edu
