About us
Welcome to the Library for the Medical Faculty of Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg.
We are constantly honing our services – such as our selection of literature, document delivery, enquiries, learning opportunities, access to electronic media (e-books and e-journals) and training courses – for you in close cooperation with the Medical Faculty to keep pace with the latest medical teaching and research. You can find out more about the Library on the following pages.
If you have any questions about the Library or its services, feel free to contact us at any time.
The Library is the Faculty Library for the Medical Faculty of Mannheim and as such belongs to the library system of the University of Heidelberg. It is supported by the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Tasks
Procuring and providing (bio)medical literature for research, teaching and further education purposes.
Use
The Library can be used as a lending library by students and staff of the Medical Faculty of Mannheim and staff at the University Clinic of Mannheim. The only interdisciplinary medical library in the Mannheim area, it is open to the public and not just reserved for doctors in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. Instead, it can also be used by scientists and students from the life sciences field (medicine, biology, chemistry, pharmaceutics and interdisciplinary fields) as well as by the general public.
The Terms of use specify who is authorised to borrow which items.
The Library in figures
Stocks (2011)
- 52,671 books (in total)
- 16,374 volumes in the textbook collection and reference section of the reading area
- 5,718 faculty theses
- 214 journal subscriptions (print)
- about 12,000 biomedical journals with online access
- about 5,000 free and licensed e-books
Services
Users (2011): 3,903 registered users
Jobs: 11.19 (full-time equivalents)
2012 is an anniversary year:
The library will exist since 90 years on July 8th.
When the "Städtische Krankenanstalten" hospital in Mannheim opened its doors in 1922, a Doctors' Library was set up in a 40m2 room next to the doctors' canteen. This belonged to the Medical Clinic and was run by a "library nurse". In 1951, the first qualified librarian was employed with a 50% position. At that time, the Library had 30 journal subscriptions. 13 years later, the Doctors' Library was given the task of procuring and managing stocks for the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg – Mannheim Clinic as well, following the establishment of a second Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg in Mannheim. The Doctors' Library slowly evolved into a modern medical science library thanks to special funding to build up the stocks, its new location in larger rooms in the clinic's laboratory building, the establishment of decentralised libraries and the permission for students, doctors and, in exceptional cases, medical support staff to use the Library.
In 2001, the Library moved into the faculty's new multifunctional research building, occupying 1,300m2 of space on the ground floor and several rooms of closed stacks in the basement. The newer stocks and textbook collection can be presented in full and journals up to 1985 are presented on open-access shelving. Along with conventional reading desks and workstations, users have access to a generous number of IT workplaces, a printing and copying room and a group study room.
The introduction of the new library system in early 2006 with self-issue machines and a self-return machine enabled more independent use of the Library's stocks, thanks to RFID technology. That autumn saw the Library stocks being extended to include pre-clinical subject matter as well. When the faculty name was changed to "Medizinische Fakultät Mannheim" (Medical Faculty of Mannheim), the Library also gained a new name: Library for the Medical Faculty of Mannheim.
Since 2008 the Library offers additional 40 reading desks and IT workstations as well as two computer study rooms in its new extension building, spread over a total of 1,680m2.
To reduce the overall sound level in the Library accoustic measures that had been planned in 2009 were implemented in summer 2010. The "Rossoacoustic CP30" elements, a product of the Nimbus Gruppe and Fraunhofer Institut für Bauphysik, improve the sound level within the affected areas at the entrance and group study rooms without interfering with the open spatial impression of the Library´s architecture.
