Hello, I’m Janice Curnes. I’m the Medical Library at the
Milwaukee VA Medical Center. I’ve been at the Milwaukee VA since 1990. I manage
day to day operations of both the Medical Library and the Patient Library.
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| Janice Curnes |
The Milwaukee VA Medical Center is celebrating 150 years of
Outstanding Veteran Care this year. I
thought I would share a little of our library history.
In May of 1867 the
first veterans moved onto the grounds. There has been some form of library
service for 148 years.
1869 – Old Main, the main residential building whose tower
you can see from Miller Park, included a reading room for Veterans, containing
all the daily and weekly papers published in Milwaukee.
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| Old Main Reading Room |
1891 – Wadsworth Library was built. Wadsworth is still open
and under library service supervision. It is staffed by veteran patients. Its
primary focus is recreational reading.
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| Wadsworth Library |
1946 – Medical Library service started and a medical
librarian was hired when the VA became a teaching hospital, establishing a
residency program with Marquette University school of Medicine. The medical library
collection would grow rapidly in the 1950s moving first to a Quonset hut until
a larger medical library was opened.
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| Quonset hut |
1966 – The Medical and Patient Libraries moved to a shared
space in the then new hospital.
2003 -The Medical and Patient Libraries moved to their
current location on the 6th floor. Veteran and staff computer areas
were added as well as archive storage.
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| Medical Library |
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