Med Library Just May Be World's Best

President Pusey dedicated the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine at the Medical School yesterday afternoon, bringing to an end two days of elaborate ceremonies. The Countway Library will house the combined collections of the Boston Medical Library and the Harvard Medical Library and will be the largest university-affiliated medical library in the world.

The final round of dedication festivities took place at the awning-covered plaza of the new building, a strikingly modern six-story edifice that somehow blends well with the existing neoclassic buildings of the Medical School Quad-strangle in Roxbury. Principal speakers were Pusey, Dr. George P. Berry, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Howard S. Sprague '18, president of the Boston Medical Library, and Archibald MacLeish, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, Emeritus.

Pusey pointed out that the completion of the Countway was the fruition of many years of effort to bring together the two great collections of medical literature in Boston. He said it was, at last, the fulfillment of a dream of the founders of the Medical School.

In 1782, the report to the President and Fellows of Harvard College recommending establishment of the School envisioned the building of a "Library enriched with a collection of the most approved authors in anatomy, surgery, physic, chemistry, et cetera--a collection more perfect than any in America, as soon as circumstances will permit." One hundred and eighty-three years later, circumstances have permitted.

Dean Berry, who is retiring at the end of this academic year, spoke of the importance of the Library to Boston, New England, and all of American medicine. With its more than 500,000 volumes, the Countway will be a major research center for all medical scientists. In addition, its futuristic equipment makes it a model for all up-to-date libraries.

Eventually, Countway readers will be able to obtain instant photocopies of scientific texts and articles from other regional scientific libraries throughout the country. Computerized filing systems will enable the most dimwitted students to locate the most obscure references.

Representing the Boston Medical Library. Sprague said he felt "like the father of the bride who has arrived with her at the altar after a rather adventurous trip down the aisle lasting over seven years." Within the Countway, the Boston Medical Library will retain its corporate entity, the rights to its collection, and its own associate Librarian it will also remain the library of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

Finally, MacLeish, a former Librarian of Congress, spoke gracefully of the problems of a scientific library in the face of growing difficulties of communication among scientists. He pointed out that the coherence of a library depends upon the coherence of the knowledge it problems and that the apparent fragmentation of scientific knowledge poses a serious intellectual problem.

Finally, President Pusey officially dedicated the Countway by reading the words his predecessor, Charles W. Eliot, used in dedicating the buildings of the Medical School Quadrangle in 1906. The new library will be open for use on Wednesday morning, June 16