The University of Michigan Medical School will greatly expand and improve its space and technology for training future physicians, with a $55 million project approved by the U-M Board of Regents today.
The project, which will convert and renovate 137,000 square feet of space in the Taubman Health Sciences Library, will allow U-M to better meet the evolving needs of 708 medical students and other health professional students on campus.
The project will create more advanced space to support collaborative learning, studying, and computing for learning and assessment. In addition, existing space for clinical skills training, including a clinical simulation suite, will be greatly expanded to help students develop communication, diagnostic and management skills. The project will enhance opportunities for learning experiences that involve medical students and those from other health professions, such as pharmacy.
The conversion of library space reflects another changing reality of medicine and other health professions: the dramatic rise in the availability of online resources such as electronic medical journals and databases which doctors and students can access from anywhere, at any time.
U-M's health sciences librarians offer an incredible range of services, and continue to help students, faculty and staff in all of U-M's health-related schools find and access the information they need. But more and more, the interactions are virtual, or take place outside the library building.
While the project plan calls for a portion of the library's less frequently used book and journal collection to be moved off-site, a robust plan is in place to ensure that students and researchers can readily access it.
The project has been planned over the past 2 years through cooperation among the Medical School, the Taubman Health Sciences Library, the Provost's Office, the University Architect's office and U-M health sciences schools that train other health professionals and also use the Taubman library. The opinions, ideas and insights of students, faculty and staff have all contributed to this process.