EMERGING DISCIPLINES IN THE HEALTH SCIENCES AND THEIR IMPACT ON HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARIES: THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Interest in human behavior has always been present in schools of medicine. Particularly since World War II, this interest has been amplified, as shown by a number of trends. These include increasing time in the medical school curriculum for the teaching of the behavioral sciences, increasing numbers of people on medical school faculties who are studying problems of human behavior, and more emphasis on integrated teaching of human behavior by a number of disciplines. The behavioral sciences have also had impact on a number of the methods in medical schools. These various trends have changed the literature needs of the community that the library serves in that there has been an increase in the amount of material available and in the people interested in this material. The library has also profited as an institution from the increasing body of knowledge available in the behavioral sciences. From the level of learning to the level of social interaction in the library it is becoming increasingly possible to organize this important institution in the medical center in a conscious goal-directed way.