Thursday, August 31, 2017

WHSLA Spotlight – Janice Curnes at the VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, WI

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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 
Medical Library

No comments:

Post a Comment