History

Started In – Seth G. S. Medical College “Library” was started in 1926-27 along with Seth G.S. Medical College.

The first Librarian of Seth G.S. Medical College was Mr. W.W. Patange (1933 to 1961). During his tenure two deputies from World Health Organization, visited the library along with 28 other medical college librarians to know the working of the library and they were extremely happy with the services rendered by our library. It was creditable that only two libraries were promoted by them. One of them was our library of “Seth G.S. Medical College”. Soon after that the United Nations rewarded our college with a separate library building with all up to date (World Standard) facilities, lecture rooms and lecture theaters etc. Also the personal efforts partly helped in promoting G.S. Medical College for higher medical degrees of the Bombay University.

Mr. N.G. Wagh was the next librarian from 1961 to 1980. And Mrs. Minoti Chatterjee was the librarian from 1980 to 1983.

In 1983 Seth G.S.M.C. Library was shifted in New, Separate and Centrally Air Conditioned Building. Mrs. K. Rangan was the librarian from 1983 to 1992. At present Library has, ‘Postgraduate Section’, at ground floor, undergraduate section, at 1st floor, and ‘Old books & Bound Volumes section’ at 2nd floor.

In 1987 a separate, ’Audiovisual Section’ was started with kind donation received from Dr. Laxmi Baxi, in memory of her sister, late Chandrika Bhatia.

It was renovated in 2011 with kind donation from 1984 Batch. It is well equipped and used for small lectures and learning activities.

In 2016, Audio Visual Room Converted into Reginal Resource Center (RRC. Western Region Head) and Telemedicine centre.

In 1989, Information technology was introduced with the purchase of computer in the library. To keep up to date, and to handle the information explosion due to advancement in medical sciences, library has accepted modern technology and introduced new facilities for students and staff.

Mrs. S.B. Kolekar , Chief Medical Librarian took charge from 1992 to 2014. In her tenure ‘Medline on CD ROM’, was purchased. In 1993 ‘Medline database’ is prepared by National Library of Medicine; it contains indexed information from 1966, with abstracts of articles from more than 3600 Medical Periodicals, published all over world. This has proved to be a boon to the Medical students, Researchers and Doctors.

In 1997, E-mail facility and Internet-text search was started, by taking separate telephone line from M.T.N.L. A LAN (Local Area Network) was set up within the library, with novel Netware, a Server and six terminals. Inauguration done by A.M.C. Mrs. Pushpa Bhave.

The “Yashwant Doshi, Home lending library for undergraduates” was started in 1993 with kind donations of Rs. 1, 80,000/- by Dr. Himanshu Doshi and Dr. Mayank Doshi, in memory of their father, Mr. Yashwant Doshi.

The, ‘Book Bank Section’, was started with special grant received from Social Welfare Departments of ‘Govt. of India’ and “Govt. of Maharashtra”. This grant is utilized for purchase of Medical Books for students from lower socio-economic strata. Books are issued for One Academic Year.

In 1997, ‘State Bank of India’ accepted our proposal and donated, Rs. 7, 00,000/- for further progress of library. This enabled us to purchase, ‘CD NET with 14 CD ROM drive tower’, and four computers and to search Medline from any terminal and in faster way.

In 1998, we subscribed for ‘Internet TC/PIP account from V.S.N.L. This enabled to search graphic information on Internet and send E-mails through V.S.N.L.

In 1999, Information about ‘Library’ and ‘Library Holdings’ was entered in, ‘KEM Website which is available on Internet (Website- http://www.kem.edu).

Year 2001 was “Platinum Jubilee year” for the Institution. M/s. Infosys Co. Ltd. offered ‘Intranet facilities with Internet connection’. All the computers in the campus were connected to K.E.M. server. This enabled all doctors to search holdings of the library from their department computers. The Internet facility is available to all on five terminals in the library on payment.

In 2007 for the first time MD Consult a Medical database from Elsevier Company was subscribed. It contains online full text journals & E-books. It also gives information about medical conferences, news etc. Now it is converted to ‘Clinical Key’.

In 2009 we became a part of NML consortia. We got special grant for purchase of computer and data entry. From this grant the bar-coding of Books & Bound Volumes was done and the SLIM software was upgraded. We got access to 2400 full text journals from NML.

In 2010 the first floor library i.e. Undergraduate section was fully renovated, by changing flooring & Electric connections, new tube light fittings etc

In 2023 the Ground floor library i.e. Faculty & Postgraduate section was fully renovated, by changing flooring & Electric connections, new tube light fittings etc.