150 · Representative Documents: Regional Accrediting Agency Reports
Texas A&M University
SACS Reaffirmation of Accreditation. Comprehensive Standard 3.8.1
Section 3: Comprehensive Standards Standard 3.8.1, Page 2
The Medical Sciences Library (MSL), as one of the libraries under the Texas A&M University
Libraries (TAMUL) umbrella, provides facilities and learning/information resources in support
of the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAM HSC) teaching, research and service mission,
which is to advance the knowledge and technologies of our professions, and to bring Texans the
finest in health education, promotion and care. The HSC mission is clearly supported in the
MSL mission, which is to “improve health by providing the finest information resources and
exceptional service to the Texas A&M worldwide community.” The MSL supports the TAM
HSC service mission through its facilities and programs available across TAM HSC locations,
through the delivery of learning/information resources and through educational outreach
programs aimed at the general public and unaffiliated health care providers of the Central Texas
region. To accomplish its mission, the MSL provides on campus and secured remote access to
electronic information resources to the TAM HSC population wherever they are and whenever
they need it.
Facilities
The units responsible for providing facilities and learning/information resources to support the
teaching, research and service missions of the TAM HSC include the Medical Sciences Library,
the Baylor Health Sciences Library in Dallas, the Bryan campus Teaching and Learning
Resource Center/Library, the Round Rock campus Teaching and Learning Resource
Center/Library, the College Station campus Learning Resources, the Temple campus Learning
Resources, the Scott and White Memorial Hospital Richard D. Haines Library, the Drug
Information Library at Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy in Kingsville and the Houston
Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library.
The MSL serves as the anchor library for delivering learning/information resources to the TAM
HSC. In order to effectively serve all TAM HSC schools, centers, institutes, campuses, faculty,
staff and students, the MSL has four physical sites. The central administration of MSL is located
in College Station, with specialized onsite collections and services provided at campuses in
Bryan, Kingsville and Round Rock. In addition, the MSL collaborates with other libraries and
learning resource units that serve TAM HSC populations at all campus and clinical locations.
Eleven separate libraries and learning resources centers have established a consortium, the TAM
HSC Alliance of Libraries, to ensure information access that is consistent across all HSC
populations and the librarians serving them [TAM HSC Alliance listing].
The College Station MSL provides seating for 625 users, 12 group study rooms and 29
individual study rooms, a computer classroom with 40 workstations, 28 public workstations, 2
public printers, 1 public scanner, 2 photocopiers and a presentation practice room equipped with
video recording capabilities. The MSL makes the following equipment available for checkout:
15 laptops/netbooks, 6 Kindle electronic book readers, a digital video camera and 2 Apple iPads.
The entire second floor of the MSL is considered a quiet study area and is separated from the
remaining library spaces through glass enclosure. Wireless network access is available
throughout the MSL. The MSL is open 119 hours per week. Use of the MSL facility has
increased steadily over the past several years. From September 2007 to August 2010 the use of
the MSL facility increased over 42%.
The Teaching and Learning Resource Center/Library in the Health Professions Education
Building (HPEB) at the Bryan Campus provides seating for 98 users, 16 group study rooms
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