In April 1981, the School of Library and Information Science, Keio University, introduced two new special courses in medical librarianship. One is the special course in library and information science X (medical literature and information) and the other is Special Course Y (introduction to medical information). Both of them are one-year (two semesters) courses. Course X is taught by a team of medical librarians including an information specialist and a full time teaching staff. Course Y is taught by a medical doctor who is a leading expert in medical electronics in Japan. These courses emphasize the roles of health science library and medical literature in the information flow of health and medical care. Course X covers mainly medical bibliography with stress on environmental background, MEDLINE search, and computerized bibliographic information networks. Course Y introduces medical librarians to the structure and activities of health and medical care in Japan. It also covers computerized information systems now in operation in hospitals and in regional medical care. Fifteen students enrolled in these courses the first year. Seven were librarians working in medical libraries and an information center in Tokyo. There were some points that should be improved in future. One is to provide the students enrolled in these courses the opportunity to gain actual experience in using MEDLINE and other related data bases.

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MeSH is apt to be considered a tool of machine searchers as a keyword of MEDLARS. However, MeSH is essential material which requires all librarians working in medical, pharmaceutical, and hospital libraries to understand the terms. I believe that it is necessary not only to study how to use MeSH effectively but also to understand completely each MeSH as a source of absorbing medical knowledge. In this sense, I also believe that a librarian should aim to be a terminologist and machine search should be made mainly by the librarian who possesses knowledge of the subject. Recently I systematically studied MeSH in the gastrointestinal system field and ensured the importance of introducing the conception “facets for analyzing medical periodicals” in indexing of MEDLARS into the systematic study of MeSH (ex. Cardiovascular system, Respiratory system, Musculoskeletal system).

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Two important functions of the interlibrary loan process for which a librarian is needed are the negotiation of a request from an individual to be sure that the requested document is necessary to fulfill his information requirement and the verification of bibliographic citations. Of two negotiation cases which are given, one requires a paper presented at a symposium in the 1970s, and the other requires a thesis published at an American university in the 1950s. It is essential to remember that the responsibility for verification of accuracy of a citation rests with the borrowing library. Complete, accurate citations are essential in obtaining copies of articles, and they are also essential when citing references to be published. Thus verification is recommended to be done in such a way so as to give the individual the use of the citations needed. Verification problems require much bibliographic skill on the part of the librarian. Thus to improve the interlibrary loan process, it is suggested that the librarian reads the information for authors contained in academic journals, style manuals, writing guides, and so on. With the increase of medical research, journal collections are used more and more. Many large lending libraries seem to have been forced to meet the situation by increasing the time-consuming work of bibliographic checking. This trend must be reconsidered the possibility of cooperation with hospital libraries in the future.

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Beginning in 1980, in the Tokyo Medical College Library (main library, branch library, Kasumigaura Hospital library), a computer agency was commissioned to enter bibliographic data of foreign books into a computerized data base and to issue a catalogue of the contents semi-annually. The maintenance of the card catalogue has become difficult, and we have reorganized the catalogue system of our library. This paper describes the partially computerized system. In addition to its original function speed and accuracy of bibliographic data is required and we cannot organize and maintain a catalogue system without the help of a computer agency. At present, only the catalogue of current foreign books is computerized. As a result card filing has become unnecessary and indexing much simplified. However, typing on worksheets and proof reading of data sheets have become necessary. The conclusion is that we recognize computerized effectiveness and intend to proceed with further computerization in our library.

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Mutual communication is important for better understanding between users and librarians. Classifying the several types of communication in a medical college library, methodogically there are direct communication and indirect communication, and administratively there are formal and informal communication. Affairs on public work as a type of formal communication and the library bulletin as its medium are described in this paper.

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[in Japanese]

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