A Brief History of MAHSL
In 1963, fourteen medical librarians from hospitals and schools of nursing libraries came together to form an organization called the Hospital Librarians of Metropolitan Baltimore. The purpose of the group was to exchange ideas, share resources and promote health sciences librarianship. A note written by a Mrs. Berge in March 1964 explained, "Our feeling about this affiliation was that it would be of great benefit in raising the standards for hospital librarians, and would be of value in making our existence known. Some directors will not even allow librarians to come to our meetings as they do not think of librarians as professionals but merely as clerks."
In 1964, the organization changed its name to the Baltimore Hospital Librarians Association, which in the early 1970s became the Maryland Association of Health Sciences Librarians. At that time a letter was sent to all medical librarians in Maryland inviting them to join. The original dues were $2.00.
A wide variety of programs and continuing education courses have been presented over the years. In 1964, William Caldwell, Deputy Chief, Bibliographic Services Division, NLM presented The National Library of Medicine's MEDLARS User Orientation Program. Topics throughout the years have ranged from specific library issues such as resources sharing, copyright and end user searching to broad library issues such as future trends in libraries and the changing role of information professionals. General health care issues such as JCAH standards, history of medicine in Maryland, medical devices and biomedical engineering have also been included.
MAHSL continues its commitment to promote excellence within the health sciences information profession by offering quality programming and valuable networking opportunities.