Cleveland Health Sciences Library Stakes New Ground for Libraries in Symbolic Hyperlinking of Undergraduate Medical Curriculum Syllabi

Abstract

Cleveland Health Sciences Library (CHSL) supports health sciences programs at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). The CWRU School of Medicine (SOM) made a major innovation in medical education in the 1950s by introducing the organ-system-based Western Reserve curriculum, which influenced many other medical schools. CWRU SOM again assumed a leadership role with its WR₂ curriculum, introduced in 2006. CHSL has staked out new territory for the role of libraries in medical education by taking responsibility for embedding page- and paragraph-level hyperlinks in the SOM's “e-Curriculum” documents. This article discusses the background to, and implications of, this innovation. CHSL staff expect demand for these services to continue and become central to the library's identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Case Western Reserve University
• Cleveland Health Sciences Library
• e-Curriculum
• e-syllabus
• electronic reserves
• hyperlink
• reserve readings
• undergraduate medical education

A version of this paper was presented at the Medical Library Association's Midwest Chapter Annual Meeting in Troy, Michigan, on October 20, 2008.