Med School To Construct New Library

The Harvard Medical School will build the first comprehensive Medical Library in the Boston area, probably within the next five years, it was learned yesterday. Dean Berry announced recently to the Faculty of Medicine that the long-awaited decision had been taken. More definite plans for the library will be revealed as soon as the necessary funds for operation and maintenance of the Library are raised, Berry indicated.

It is nearly certain that the project, when more definitely formulated, will be undertaken by Harvard alone and not, as was previously speculated, in conjunction with other nearby medical schools. These schools will have access to the new library as they now do with Widener, but the affiliation will not be official.

The building will be constructed out of funds raised by the Harvard Medical Center Fund Drive, the estimated cost being approximately $7.5 million. The Medical Center includes the Medical School and seven affiliated hospitals--the Peter Bent Brigham, the Massachusetts General, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Free Hospital for Women, the Boston Lying-in Hospital, the Children's Hospital, and the Beth Israel Hospital.

It was primarily the needs of this group of institutions which brought about the proposal for a new library. At present, medical texts, pamphlets and slides are scattered all over the Boston-Cambridge area in various small libraries, such as the one in the Harvard Medical School.