About the NYAM Library

The New York Academy of Medicine Library was founded in 1847, and now contains over 550,000 volumes. The Library is one of the largest medical collections in the United States open by appointment only to the general public, to whom it has been available since 1878. Our resources are housed in closed stacks and cannot be browsed.

The Library forms part of the New York Academy of Medicine’s new Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health. The Center promotes the scholarly and public understanding of the history of medicine and public health and the history of the book. Established in 2012, the Center aims to build bridges among an interdisciplinary community of scholars, educators, clinicians, curatorial and conservation professionals, and the general public. More news about the Center and its programs and activities can be found on its blog, Books, Health and History. Reflecting our changing focus, the library now collects in the histories of medicine, public health and the book.

A significant part of our rare book collection is housed in the Malloch Suite, in addition to many of the secondary sources related to the history of medicine and the history of books and printing.

Although the primary emphasis of our activities focuses on our historical collections, the NYAM Library remains committed to serving the needs of the general public and health care professionals. We no longer collect contemporary materials in clinical medicine, but we continue to add grey literature materials to the collection and publish the bi-monthly Grey Literature Report. We continue to provide reference and information services to members of the general public who need assistance doing research about current medical or public health topics, with the understanding that some materials they discover may be available only on a pay-per-view basis or by requesting them from other libraries.

Contemporary information services are provided using the serials to which we continue to subscribe, full text electronic databases, document delivery, and inter-library loan. Our electronic databases include MD Consult, which provides access to full text medical journal articles and text books. We also remain an active member in several resource sharing programs that allow us to interact with major medical libraries in the United States and internationally. Our relationship with these libraries gives us access to most medical information not held at NYAM via inter-library loan. We remain open to the public via appointment. Please consult the Library web pages for our hours, services, and fees.