Lane is one of the oldest medical libraries in the West, and both Lane Medical Library and the Stanford School of Medicine are direct descendents of the first medical school on the Pacific Coast (the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, established in 1858 by Dr. Elias Samuel Cooper).
LANE'S BEGINNINGS
Even before Lane Medical Library was officially named and established, it was part of the Cooper Medical College of San Francisco, as shown in blueprint drawings from 1882. During its first 20 years, the library acquired over 10,000 volumes, and a library staff was hired to circulate these volumes. Lane Medical Library was officially established in August 1906 by a resolution of the directors of the medical college and with an endowment from Dr. Levi Cooper Lane, and it became part of Stanford University in 1908 when Stanford acquired Cooper Medical College.
In 1907, with the addition of books and journals purchased from the New York Academy of Medicine, Lane's collection grew to over 35,000 volumes, making it the largest medical library west of Chicago. This collection is especially noteworthy for its works by ancient medical authors, mid-Eastern medical works, Persian and Arabic manuscripts, incunabula, and early California medical texts.
In 1912, the first Lane Medical Library building (what is now the California Pacific Medical Center's library, on the corner of Webster and Sacramento streets in San Francisco) was dedicated. This event was deemed sufficiently momentous that one of the dedication addresses was published in the December 6, 1912 issue of Science:
"The library is a natural center for creative effort and hence for all research...
All new work must be based upon knowledge that has gone before... Each investigator must...stand on the shoulders of the past if he is to look into the future.
To know what has come before is only possible where accumulated records are at hand.
In the library which we dedicate to-day is massed the product of thousands of minds, some great and far-seeing, some small but earnest, but all seeking after truth."
Download entire dedication address (PDF, 776K)
Lane arrived at its current home in 1959, with the opening of the Palo Alto-Stanford Medical Center, which was comprised of Stanford Clinics, the Palo Alto-Stanford Hospital, and the Stanford University School of Medicine. During this time, the teaching, research, and clinical programs in San Francisco were all transferred to the Palo Alto campus, and the library was moved to the Lane building.
LANE CHRONOLOGY
1906
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Lane Medical Library is established by the directors of Cooper Medical College, with an endowment from Dr. Levi Cooper Lane. The 1906 earthquake devastates San Francisco.
1908
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Cooper Medical College becomes the Medical Department of Stanford University. Stanford promises to erect a medical library as a memorial to Dr. Lane.
1912
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The first Lane Medical Library building (in San Francisco) is officially dedicated. The dedication address is published in the December 6, 1912 issue of Science magazine.
1922
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Dr. Karl Sudhoff procures for the Lane Medical Library a private collection focusing on ancient medical authors, mid-Eastern medicine, Persian and Arabic manuscripts, and incunabula.
1945
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School of Medicine alumni and members of the community help Lane by donating books during the war.
1959
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Stanford University School of Medicine and Lane Medical Library move to the Stanford campus in Palo Alto. The library's new home is the Lane building.
1971
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Lane Medical Library offers online searching of MEDLINE.
1982
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Lane Medical Library offers its first end-user search class (Dialog, with 6 people in attendance).
1987
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Lane's catalog goes online and becomes LOIS (Lane's Online Information System).
1989
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Dean David Korn establishes the Lane Medical Archives. The Loma Prieta earthquake hits the Bay Area.
1993
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Lane offers access to its first electronic journal, the Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials (OJCCT).
1994
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Lane Medical Library's first home page goes onto the Internet.
2000
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Dr. John L. Wilson publishes his seminal digital book,
Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools: An Historical Perspective.
2003
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Lane Medical Library replaces its old carrels and stacks with wired tables and soft seating, and establishes wireless access throughout the library.
2006
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Lane Medical Library celebrates its 100th birthday.
100 YEARS SUPPORTING PATIENT CARE, EDUCATION, AND RESEARCH
Lane Medical Library has been dedicated to supporting patient care, medical education, and medical research since its inception.
The San Francisco Era: 1900s Through 1940s
Patient Care
As part of its mission to support doctors and nurses in their care of patients, Lane Library opened its doors to all San Francisco area physicians and to students and faculty of Cooper Medical College, Stanford School of Medicine, the Lane Training School, and the Stanford School of Nursing. Shortly thereafter, Lane also opened its collections to the public (anyone could use the books within the library, and community borrowing privileges were available for a fee). Even before the turn of the century (in 1882), Dr. Levi Cooper Lane began a series of free popular lectures, open to the public, in which he demonstrated that medicine is based on science, not magic. Lecture topics varied widely, covering everything from animals to nutrition to tuberculosis.
Education
Medical students were introduced to Lane Library in San Francisco after completing their first 15 months of coursework in Palo Alto. Lane hosted a variety of courses and student meetings in the library's reading room, including History of Medicine classes (in which students examined historical instruments and books from the library's collection) and the Zadig society (an elite group of junior and senior students who met to present cases and review peers' presentation styles). Beginning in 1948, librarians gave in-depth orientations to Lane's collections and study areas.
Research
Lane began its life as a comprehensive research library: it was founded on donations of books and journals as well as money from faculty and physicians beginning in the 1880s, Dr. Levi Cooper Lane's estate (including his personal library of over 2,000 important books) in 1902, and the purchase of a collection of some 28,000 duplicates from the New York Academy of Medicine in 1907. Library staff provided personal research services for students and physicians using card catalogs and the Surgeon General's catalog (later Index Medicus). As the library grew, Lane made its extensive collection of second copies of core journals available to patrons so that they could take material back to their offices for more leisurely research. Doctors traveled great distances to use the most extensive collection west of the Mississippi.
The Palo Alto Era: 1950s Through 1990s
Patient Care
With the move to Palo Alto in 1959, Lane Library was placed at the heart of the medical center, adjacent to hospitals, clinics, classrooms, and laboratories. A growing collection of journals from around the world supported patient care. When online search capabilities for MEDLINE appeared in the 1970s, Lane librarians attended training courses and began to perform hundreds of searches per week, often answering urgent questions about patient care. In the 1980s, Lane pioneered personal searching, offering its first searching class in 1982. In the late 1990s, Lane provided access to newly available web-based resources, including PubMed, which made MEDLINE freely available to anyone, and full text electronic journals. By 1999, Lane subscribed to over 500 electronic journals.
Education
The new Palo Alto Lane facilities provided both a quiet study area away from the clinics and a social gathering place for students. Beginning in the 1980s, Lane began building a collection of media and educational technology resources, including the Fleischmann Learning Research Center in 1984 and the Medical Informatics Training Lab in 1987. Lane was also an early proponent of computer and information literacy education in the medical curriculum, and formally integrated the Computer Literacy Requirement for medical students in 1992.
Research
In the 1950s and 1960s, Lane's one and only reference librarian (Anna Hoen) spent her mornings scanning new journal arrivals and telephoning individual faculty to help them stay abreast of the current literature. In 1971, Lane joined a handful of experimental libraries to use AIM-TWX, the first computerized search protocol for Index Medicus (the precursor to MEDLINE). With the web revolution in the 1990s, Lane rapidly expanded its online journal subscriptions and provided access for physicians and students.
The Digital Era: 2000 and Beyond
Patient Care
In the 21st century, Lane Library supports patient care with digital resources and portals for rapid information retrieval. At patients' bedsides, wireless networks, handhelds, and Computers on Wheels (COWs) provide access to patient records and information resources. The "library without walls" is already a reality, providing "anytime, anywhere" access to an ever growing array of resources. In the near future, prescriptions for information will personalize patient care. Genotype, lifestyle, occupation, cultural background, and many other criteria will be used to shape and enhance patient care.
Education
Lane's educational technologists support innovative uses of new technologies throughout the medical school curriculum. Librarians are active in the School of Medicine curriculum, providing classes in information literacy, scholarly research skills, and using evidence-based medicine to provide patient care. Lane reaches thousands of people a year through workshops and the Liaison Program, which connects individual librarians with the different medical center departments. The new Learning and Knowledge building opening in a couple of years will move Lane even more into the center of the educational environment.
Research
Lane's collection currently stands at over 500,000 print volumes and periodical titles and nearly 6,000 digital resources. Articles not available online are provided through an on demand web-based document delivery service. The Lane Liaison Program provides the medical center with current research, in-depth support for meta-analyses and systematic review searches, and consulting services. The new Learning and Knowledge Center will be a library without walls, providing digital content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.