New Galvin Medical Library at the University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame Australia is due to open the new Galvin Medical Library in February 2004. The new library is being developed to service the College of Health students and academic staff and will be situated in the new School of Medicine in the old Fremantle Furniture Factory. Our first group of medical students is due to commence study in Semester One 2004, and so, the race begins to have the Medical Library ready in time.

It has been an exciting year planning and working towards opening a new library for the College of Health. The process has been fraught with frustrations, challenges, mixed with an overriding sense of satisfaction. What have been some of the most interesting moments?

Convincing people that the library action plan was now five months behind schedule and we needed staff and a budget urgently;
Experiencing the difficulties involved in obtaining the human resources required in order to fulfill the project;
Developing collaborative relationships with other organisations such as Curtin University and St John of God Hospital Libraries (Subiaco and Murdoch);
Reclassifying the existing health collection from Dewey to the National Library of Medicine Classification Scheme.

What has been achieved for the Galvin Medical Library to date has been done through dedication, devotion and a lot of hard work. It will be interesting to see if we can maintain the momentum until February, or will the planning and development of the library break us?

Virginia Dickson
College of Health liaison librarian
University of Notre Dame Australia

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