The Doctor Who Forgot To Read

In 2001, a young physician, eager to carry out clinical trials as well as to treat patients, established a clinical trial at a major medical center. The physician did a search of the literature on the MEDLINE database, the trial was approved and the volunteers were obtained.

Then tragedy struck. A healthy young volunteer was dead. A promising young physician's career was in ruins. Why? The investigator had failed to do his homework. He limited his search to a single online resource, the MEDLINE database.

Librarian Emerita Lucretia W. McClure recently addressed the New York State Board of Regents and told them this story. She emphasized we must resist those who believe the advent of the Internet has made libraries and books superfluous, and those who ask, "Who needs librarians now that anyone can find anything with the help of a search engine?" Libraries are the only places that can provide access to critical information in any format, and librarians are the experts who know how to find and disseminate that information.

Our students must appreciate the value of textbooks, of reading history and biography to understand how a certain practice came to be. The library holds this wealth of information and along with these materials has the best-trained librarians to open the way to find and evaluate this information.

Ms. McClure said the strength of New York libraries is in the networking that allows resources to flow from one center to another. The mechanism that links all libraries and systems is the nine Reference and Research Library Resources Councils (NY3Rs). With school library systems, public library systems, and academic, hospital, and special libraries as their members, the 3Rs Councils form the infrastructure of cooperation and support.

All the libraries come together under the 3Rs umbrella and give even the smallest public library or the library in a remote rural area the same opportunity to obtain resources, including expertise of the staff, from other libraries, she said.

"I have been very encouraged by the dedication of the Board of Regents to the successful implementation of the New Century Libraries legislative initiative," Ms. McClure said. "Its visionary plans for the future, combined with much needed new funding for libraries and library systems, will provide a tremendous impetus to library services in New York State."

Strengthening our network of library systems through programs such as NOVEL (NY Online Virtual Electronic Library), will enhance resource sharing and provide greater access for all, according to Ms. McClure.