Presentation
The Library of the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice is a university-wide organizational unit, performing one of the basic statutory tasks of the University, which is to disseminate and multiply the achievements of science by collecting and making available library and information collections.
The SUM Library is made up of the Main Library and its branches, forming a unified library and information system of our University. The Main Library is located in the center of Katowice, and the branches are located in Katowice-Ligota, Zabrze (along with a reading room in Rokitnica) and Sosnowiec. The SUM library centers secure the needs of the University's five faculties: Faculty of Medical Sciences in Katowice, Faculty of Medical Sciences in Zabrze, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Sosnowiec, Faculty of Health Sciences in Katowice, Faculty of Public Health in Bytom and Branch of SUM in Bielsko-Biała.
The SUM Library serves as a center for scientific documentation and information, carrying out service, scientific and teaching tasks, while being a public scientific library serves the residents of the city and the region.
Library staff provide library services to all interested users. Library collections are made available: in reading rooms, through individual loans outside and inter-library loans, as well as to authorized users by making copies of wanted materials for a fee. The functioning of the Library is based on the implemented procedures, ensuring the greatest possible efficiency of the tasks carried out by the Library and a high level of reader satisfaction.
Library users have access to highly specialized library materials and information resources necessary for conducting scientific research work in the fields of medicine, pharmacy, public health and related sciences. Information services are performed on the basis of an appropriately prepared in-house collection and external resources. Both the Main Library and branches offer textbooks, monographs, atlases, patient guides, leading titles of Polish and foreign scientific journals. The SUM Library's electronic collections are made available in computer reading rooms equipped with modern equipment. The library offers readers ompetent assistance from librarians with experience in the field of medical librarianship. It houses the richest book collection in Silesia in the field of medicine and related sciences, which includes nearly 185 thousand volumes of books and scientific journals. More than 300 titles of Polish and foreign journals are subscribed to in printed form. Noteworthy is the rich and constantly expanding range of medical databases and foreign journals made available online. Proxy services and remote work allow users to use all library collections (databases, electronic journals) available on the network from outside the academic network, e.g. from home computers. This service can be used by employees and students at SUM.
An integrated library system, ALEPH, is used to acquisition and cataloguing the collection, as well as to make it available (including ordering and reservations), which supports all the Library's centers.The SUM Library Catalogue, which functions within this system, informs users about the Library's resources.
Readers have at their disposal a number of information sources created in the LibraryThese include: SUM (formerly ŚAM) Doctoral Dissertations Catalogue, which is an electronic continuation of the traditional card catalogue, with departmental classification and abstracts of doctoral dissertations produced at the University since 1996; SUM Publications Database, within which Bibliometrics and Analysis modules enable multifaceted presentation of bibliometric data in tabular and graphic form. Between 1996 and 2020, a unique in the country SUM Employee Publications Citation Database was created, including citations recorded in the Web of Science (Web of Knowledge) database.
A constantly updated website provides readers with reliable and complete information about the Library's operations and collections. As a result of the efforts of the librarians, the website has been enriched with many elements which make it easier for readers to find interesting materials. Among them, it is worth mentioning, among others: "SUM Library User's Guide", which contains information on the services offered by the Library; "Multi search engine", which allows searching all electronic resources and the ALEPH printed collection catalogue, in a single search window.
In terms of teaching and training activities in the SUM libraries, teaching classes in library preparation, medical scientific information and individual user training are conducted.
As part of the implementation of the tasks set out in the "Library Act", the SUM Library carries out scientific and research activities, including the documentation of the achievements of medicine and pharmacy in Upper Silesia.This activity is reflected in a multi-volume publication, i.e. "Dictionary of Medicine and Pharmacy of Upper Silesia". A continuation of the publication is the online database of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Upper Silesia Documentation Centre, containing, among other things, approximately 2,000 biographical entries. The Library also publishes the "Proceedings of the Centre for Documenting the History of Upper Silesian Medicine and Pharmacy" (18 issues to date).
As a result of the particularly intensive efforts of the University authorities in recent years, comfortable conditions have been created in the Library and its branches for both users and staff (computerised lending rooms, computerised and equipped with multimedia elements, spacious reading rooms, modern technical and architectural solutions).This makes the SUM Library a unit that occupies a special place in the SUM structure, thanks to which it can play the role of guardian of scientific thought, being a shelter for the University's output.
