Institute
of Child Health Library
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The
Friends of the Children of Great Ormond Street Library,
the Library’s official title due to the generous financial
support of the Friends, is jointly funded by the Institute
of Child Health (ICH) and the Great Ormond Street
Hospital for Children NHS Trust (GOSH). It is the
recognised specialist library for paediatrics within
the University of London, and is of great national
importance. The Institute formally merged with UCL
in 1996.
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The
new extension to the ICH Library
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GOSH
was founded in 1852. ICH was founded in 1946. Its mission
is “to improve the health of children by being the foremost
centre of excellence in Europe for specialist paediatric services
and for research, evaluation and education in the field of
child health”. The ICH was originally
based in
converted ground floor rooms in GOSH, but in 1966 new premises
at 30 Guilford Street were opened by the Queen. Since then
the premises have been greatly extended, to include the Wellcome
Trust Building (1998), and the more recently completed Philip
Ullmann Wing (November 2000).
In
1996 the Library’s facilities were refurbished, entirely
replacing those dating from 1966. The Philip Ullmann Wing
incorporates another extension to the Library. The Library
incorporates the Centre for International Child Health’s
Resource Centre, containing multimedia materials relating
to disability and maternal child health in less developed
countries (LDCs). Further to the main Library’s holdings,
the Resource Centre takes over 300 journals and newsletters,
many produced in LDCs. These collections are virtually unique
within the UK and are extensively consulted.
The
Library is currently staffed by four full-time staff, John
Clarke, Sue Woodburn, Anna Mitman and Teresa Wood. The Library
is specifically designed to serve all staff on site and
it takes over 250 current journals, housing about 11,000
books and monographs. The Library supplies photocopies from
its specialist journals to the North Thames Region and to
a number of paediatric libraries throughout the UK. ICH
and the Institute of Ophthalmology were jointly assessed
by the Quality Assurance Agency and scored 23/24. Learning
resources scored 4/4 and the Library was highly praised
by the assessors.
Content by John
Clarke
Further information from
library@ich.ucl.ac.uk
or from the ICH website: www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/library/libguide.htm