GEORGE EMIL PALADE UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE, PHARMACY, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY LIBRARY, TÂRGU MUREȘ
The Library of the “George Emil Palade” University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Târgu Mureș operates under the authority of the “George Emil Palade” University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Târgu Mureș and holds the status of an academic library.
The university library, an active partner in the educational process, fulfills a dual mission:
- the design, development, and management of information and documentation services in support of its users;
- the promotion, facilitation, and expansion of access to information and documentation sources through the use of advanced information technologies and by training users in acquiring the necessary skills to search for, select, identify, and effectively use information.
The university library continuously seeks to adapt its structures, collections, and services to meet the evolving educational and research demands. This adaptation takes into account new information technologies, such as software applications, integrated programs, digital catalogs, databases, and services based on electronic information.
Through all its activities, the university library contributes to the educational, training, and research processes within the University, developing collections of encyclopedic and specialized publications with scientific content, across all types of documentation media, in accordance with educational programs and research activities. The publication collections are distinctly multidisciplinary, reflecting works relevant to all faculties and study programs of the university, published in various languages, both nationally and internationally, and meeting the requirements and criteria of ARACIS.
BRIEF HISTORY
The existence and development of the university library are closely tied to the evolution of Romanian education in general, and to the development of the “George Emil Palade” University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Târgu Mureș in particular.
In 1945, the Institute of Medicine was established in Târgu Mureș, having separated from Bolyai University in Cluj. Initially, it operated as a branch of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Cluj, headquartered in Târgu Mureș.
In 1948, the Faculty of Medicine in Târgu Mureș became an independent institute, named the Medico-Pharmaceutical Institute of Târgu Mureș. That same year, the Library was relocated from Cluj to Târgu Mureș, with its first location being the current central building of the University.
In 1991, the Library moved to a new location, in the building of the former Department of Social Sciences, which provided a student reading room with a capacity of 43 seats, and a periodicals and reference room with 18 seats.
In 2000, the first steps toward computerization were taken, and in 2003, the first library software (Alice 500) was implemented.
In 2010, the Library received a more spacious facility, tailored to the demands of a dynamic educational process and a growing academic community: 8 reading rooms with 200 seats, storage spaces, and offices, covering a total area of 2000 m².
In 2012, professional equipment for scanning and digitizing publications was acquired, and the development of the Institutional Repository became one of the Library’s priorities.
In 2018, following the merger of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy with “Petru Maior” University, along with their respective libraries, a new university library was formed, structured as follows:
- Library of Medicine and Pharmacy (central location)
- Library of Sciences and Humanities
- Library of Engineering and Information Technology
- Library of Economics and Law
As a result of combining their document collections, the newly established library enriched its holdings by approximately 177,000 volumes, bringing the total collection to over 340,000 library documents at the time of unification.
The library’s documentary heritage includes: monographs, treatises, courses, practical works, encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, doctoral theses, serial publications, electronic resources, online database platforms, and other categories of documents.
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
The university library possesses a remarkable collection of works dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries, consisting of: old books and periodicals, manuscripts, diplomas, and iconographic materials. These form the Special Collections Fund, housed in the Museum Room of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy.
Alongside written documents, the museum also houses medical and pharmaceutical instruments and objects, testifying to the evolution of medicine and pharmacy: medicine boxes, pharmaceutical vessels, scales, devices for extracting plant concentrates, stamps and seals, pharmaceutical emblems, diplomas, and medals.
In 2018, over 4,000 publications belonging to the “Petru Maior” University Library, dating from the 18th, 19th, and the first half of the 20th centuries, were added to the existing old books collection of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Library in Târgu Mureș.
The oldest work in the Special Collections of the “George Emil Palade” University Library in Târgu Mureș is:
- 1532 – Epitome opusculi de curandis pusculis ulceribus & doloribus morbi Gallici, mali franzos appellati, Basel, author: Laurentio Phrisio.
Other 16th-century works, in chronological order:
- 1533 – Nova medicinae methodus curandi morbus: ex Mathematica scientia deprompta, nunc denuo revisa, & exactissime emendata, authors: Virdung, Johann; Kobian, Valentin
- 1534 – Hoc In Volumine Haec Continentur Artificialis Medicatio Constans Paraphrasi in Galeni Librum de Artis Medicae Constitutione, Mogunst, authors: Christoph Heyll; Nicolaus Bertrutius; Johannes de Saint-Amand; Abu-Zakariya Yuhanna Ibn-Masawayh; Nicolaus Myrepsus
- 1551 – De Partu hominis, et quae circa ipsum accidunt, adeo[que] de parturientum & infantium morbis atque cura, author: Eucharius Rösslin
- 1557 – De conservanda bona valetudine, opusculum scholae Salernitanae, ad regem Angliae, Germanicis Rhytmis illustratum, authors: Arnoldus de Villanova; Johannes Curio; Joachim Camerarius; Otho Cremonensis; Philipp Melanchton; Johann von Andernach Winter; Antonio Musa Brasavola; Hippocrates
- 1563 – Traité des Hernies, author: Pierre Franco
- 1563 – Apoteken Tax der Stadt Anneberg/und Wuerderung aller Ertzneyen/so in der Apoteken alda ver=kaufft werden
- 1566 – Moschionos peri gynaikeion pathon, id est, Moschionis medici graeci de morbis muliebribus liber unus, authors: Moschion; Conrad Gessner; Caspar Wolf
- 1570 – Liber unus: De secretis Antimonij, authors: Alexander von Suchten; Michael Toxites
- 1570 – Alchimia: das ist, Alle Farben, Wasser, Olea, Salia, und Alumina, damit mann alle Corpora, Spiritus unnd Calces prepariert, sublimiert unnd fixiert, zubereyten: Und wie mann dise ding nütze, auff dabeta Sol und Luna werden möge, author: Peter Kertzenmacher
- 1570 – Von dem Bad Pfeffers. Gelegen in Ober Schweitz, Von seinen tugenten, krefften, und wirckung, ursprung und herkommen, Regiment und ordinantz
Evolving and operating within a university that values tradition while constantly adapting to modern-day demands, the “George Emil Palade” University Library of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Târgu Mureș is continuously developing and modernizing its activities and services to support the education and research processes carried out within the university.