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The John A. Prior Health Sciences Library and Center for Knowledge Management

History
1846 - the Willoughby Medical College near Cleveland, Ohio transferred to Columbus, Ohio. This college was to become The Ohio State University College of Medicine. The medical school's first session was held in a large frame building originally called the Clay Club House on State Street. Half of this wooden structure was then moved to the northwest corner of Gay and High Streets. Under the classroom amphitheater were three small rooms. One of these rooms held a few books that had been transferred with the school. These materials, bearing their original bookplates, are currently housed in the Coleman Memorial Alcove.

1850-1851 - As the school expanded a new building was needed. St. Francis Hospital was constructed (where Grant Hospital is currently located) to house a new hospital and the medical school under one roof. Due to lack of funding the Library remained unfinished until 1887 when additional funding became available.The book collection continued to grow with the merger of three medical schools: Starling Medical College, Ohio Medical University, and Columbus Medical College. The new college, the Starling-Ohio Medical College was organized in 1907.

1914 - To the surprise of the medical faculty, as legislation was being prepared to finally recognize this merged medical school, an amendment was adopted to establish a College of Homeopathic Medicine in 1914 through a merger with the Cleveland-Pulte Medical College. The controversial homeopathy school closed. Their collection of over 1800 volumes became part of the Library collection. Eventually housed at University Library, this homeopathy collection was moved to remote storage in 1992.

1925 - The Medical Reference Library (later called the Health Center Library) was moved into 1188 sq. ft. on the first floor of Hamilton Hall. Space for storing less-frequently used material was acquired in the Main Library, its Annex, a basement room in Hamilton Hall, and the headquarter building of The Ohio Tuberculosis Association at 1575 Neil Avenue. The use of library materials was maintained by a messenger service.

1934 - The Library maintained 18,500 monographic volumes and subscribed to 164 journal titles in the fields of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and optometry. In 1947, The Albert D. Frost Collection in the Department of Ophthalmology came under the direction of the Health Center Library. Members of The Columbus Academy of Medicine were given privileges at the Health Center Library in 1948.

1951 - Construction of an addition to Hamilton Hall allowed the scattered collection to be returned to one building. Floor space was increased to 6890 sq. ft. The library at Children's Hospital came under the direction of the Health Center Library in 1954. Between 1955-1957, The Lionel Topaz Memorial Library in the School of Optometry and the medical reading room of University Hospital came under the direction of the Health Center Library.

1959 - Holdings were enhanced by the donation to the University of approximately 8000 medical and 4000 dental books and periodicals by the Columbus Public Library. These volumes had been deposited in the Public Library by the Columbus Academy of Medicine, the Ohio State Dental Association, and the Columbus Dental Society. By this date the Library consisted of 67,000 monographic volumes and subscribed to 1,460 journal titles.

1960's - Believing that Library facilities in Hamilton Hall were totally inadequate for the needs of the Library and medical complex, Dr. Richard L. Meiling, Dean of the Medical College, instigated a search for funding a new library facility. A grant was obtained through the National Institutes of Health. A stipulation for funding required that innovative technology be included in the construction of the building. Dr. Meiling, Hugh Atkinson, Director of University Libraries, and Mr. Curtis, architect, decided to invest $800,000 in an automated book storage system called the Randtriever (named after the company which developed it).

1972 - The new Health Sciences Library, at 376 West 10th Avenue, was completed at a cost of $5 million and was designed to accommodate 1,250 users. Most of the collection, 120,000 volumes, was placed in random order in the Randtriever. Due to cost increases and difficulty in maintaining a current optometry collection, the Topaz collection merged with the Health Sciences Library in 1987. Although several reference books were left in Fry Hall at the request of faculty to maintain a reading room collection, approximately 4,000 volumes were moved to the Health Sciences Library.

The library building was dedicated the John A. Prior Health Sciences Library on November 1, 1988. Dr. Prior, a respected colleague and teacher, had chaired the committee responsible for coordinating the construction of the Library in the 1970's.

1993 - Funding is approved for the Library renovation which is scheduled to be finished in the Fall of 1996. Work to be done includes removing the The Randtriever, utilizing the first floor, expanding computer resources, adding greater shelving space for collections, and further developing the Library's Medical Heritage Center.

1995 - The Jesse Owens Recreation Center South, 175 West 11th Avenue, is transformed into temporary housing for Library collections, staff, and services while the Prior Library is renovated. Journal volumes dated prior to 1960 and books published prior to 1970 were shipped from the Goodale storage facility to the new Book Depository on Kenny Road.

1995 - The Prior Health Sciences Library reopened in the Fall, 1995. Several ceremonies took place in late 1995 and early 1996 to recognize the improvements made to the Library. The number of volumes in the collection at this time was approximately 140,000.

2003 - To meet the needs of diverse user communities, the Center for Knowledge Management was created in 2003 as a unit within the John A. Prior Health Sciences Library, The center's goal is to leverage the strengths of people, processes, data, and technology to foster the creation, analysis, and dissemination of new knowledge.

2009 - A coffee bar opened on the first floor. Construction began on the second floor to house the Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

THE Randtriever
The Randtriever was a first generation automated storage and retrieval system, and the first installed in a library in the United States. The system, build by Sperry Rand, was designed to have twelve aisles, but only eight were installed, along with four calling stations/circulation desks located at both ends of the machine on each of two floors of the library. The system, which originally cost $811,799, required constant maintenance resulting in expenditures of $889,191 through June 1990, plus $139,575 for conversion/renovation of the system. In 1989, the university made the decision to remove the Randtriever in conjunction with anticipated expansion and renovation of the library.

As it was apparent that the Randtriever could not handle the mechanical stress of retrieving items, heavily used materials were pulled out of the Randtriever in 1973. Books were placed on the third floor and journals were placed on the second floor.

Maintenance costs for maintaining the Randtriever became prohibitive and equipment failure was extremely high. So, in 1992 Library staff began to evaluate methods to empty the Randtriever and house the collection.

On August 1, 1992 the outside maintenance contract for the Randtriever was discontinued and on August 23, 1992 the Randtriever shut down. In the following months the collection was manually removed from the Randtriever, sorted by call number order, and transferred to remote storage on Goodale Avenue or placed on new shelving in the Library. The very last book removed from the Randtriever was, Orthoptics: A Discussion of Binocular Anomalies.

OSU:pro
OSU:pro helps to organize scholarly activities and streamlines the building of faculty dossiers, thereby ending duplicative efforts in reporting to help save time and money across the academic enterprise. The tool communicates your professional accomplishments to visitors searching for local expertise, thereby expanding opportunities for the community to interact and engage with us. OSU:pro puts knowledge management into practice- by reshaping the tools we use to document and share our knowledge and skills at The Ohio State University.

In 2007, OSU:pro was honored with the inaugural Innovation Award by the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL)

The Mural


The mural on the first floor of the Prior Health Sciences Library was created by Marguerite Gaudin of the Willet Studio in Philadelphia, PA. Artists for the mosaic were Costante Crovatto, Giovanni Travisanutto, and Nicky Milanese. Installed in 1974, it is the centerpiece of the first floor. The mural shows the development of human communication across time.

The theme was developed by a commitee within the College of Medicine comprised of Georgr Hahn, Dr. Richard Meiling, Dr. Karl Klassen, Dr. John Prior, and Dr. Donald Westra.

Measuring Sixty-seven feet long and nine feet tall the colorful mural uses marble, colored cubes of silica mettalic oxides, glass cubes with gold leaf veneer and onyx. Before the building renovation in 1996, the mural was along a dimly lit exterior walkway. Part of the renovation process involved cleaning and restoring the mural.



Highlights of the mosaic include2:


 * 1) Primitive man communicating with smoke signals.
 * 2) Primitive man creating sounds with a hollow log.
 * 3) Cave paintings, telling the story of a hunt.
 * 4) Babylonian Cuneiform.
 * 5) Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
 * 6) Mosesreceiving the 10 Commandments.
 * 7) The Greek alphabet, represented by Alpha (α)and Omega (Ω).
 * 8) Medieval Monk writing on parchment.
 * 9) Illuminated Scrolls, used for royal edicts and religious proclamations.
 * 10) Gonfalones used to identify leaders in battle.
 * 11) Chinese and Cyrillic characters.
 * 12) Printing press with moveable type.
 * 13) 18th century typesetter and reversed letters.
 * 14) Morse Code, spelling out "peace" (.--. . .- -.-. .)
 * 15) Replica of 1st U.S. Postage Stamp, featuring Benjamin Franklin's likeness. [[Image:180px-Mural3 (1).jpg|thumb|1st Floor Mural: Moses]]
 * 16) Braille letters spelling out "love."
 * 17) The Typewriter.
 * 18) The Telephone.
 * 19) A camera with moveable plates.
 * 20) A microphone, representing radio broadcasting.
 * 21) Two children watching TV.
 * 22) Radar antennae.
 * 23) Telstar Satellite
 * 24) Mariner II.
 * 25) An early computer.
 * 26) Neil Armstrong and the Moon Landing.

The Medical Heritage Center
Occupying the 5th floor of the Prior Health Sciences Library at The Ohio State University, The Medical Heritage Center (MHC)recognizes and celebrates historical health and medical personalities and events; collects, displays and archives artifacts; provides a venue for historical medical research; and supports medical history education. The MHC also serves as the repository of data, artifacts, and historical information relating to the health and medical education and the medical profession in central Ohio.

The foundation of the MHC was made possible by a grant from the Columbus Medical Association (CMA) Foundation and the Ohio State University Medical Center. It grew from a vision held by Barbara VanBrimmer. These organizations saw the need to preserve and celebrate the region's medical heritage. From its establishment in 1997 to today, the Center stands as a testament to a unique collaboration between the CMA, the region's professional medical society, and the OSU Medical Center.

The MHC is the only scholarly facility in Central Ohio concentrating solely on the accomplishments of the people, organizations and institutions at the forefront of the development of health care and medicine in the region. It is the only institution dedicated to researching and collecting the region's health and medical past and sharing the information through exhibits and scholarly publications for the educational benefits of scholars, students and the general public.