Kornhauser Library- A Brief History
The Kornhauser Health Sciences Library houses materials and services supporting the health-related programs of the University of Louisville, including the schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health and Information Sciences. The library's collection contains over 250,000 cataloged volumes in print and thousands of journal subscriptions both in print and electronically accessible and represents a significant resource for the entire medical community of the Louisville metropolitan area and the western half of Kentucky.
The library was founded in 1837, as the Library of the Louisville Medical Institute which in 1846, became the Medical Department of the University of Louisville. Libraries of the hospital College of Medicine, the Louisville Medical College, and the Jefferson County Medical Society were incorporated into the present collection at different times early in this century. In 1970 the libraries of the School of Dentistry and the School of Medicine were combined and housed in the present building. Today the library is a comprehensive health sciences information resource center providing access to the most current information resources available.
The library's web site serves as a gateway to the Minerva - University of Louisville Libraries' online catalog, databases of the biomedical literature, electronic texts and journals, educational tools, and other medical and health sciences-related information resources available both on and off campus. The historical collections and medical school archives include numerous items relating to health care in Kentucky and the Trans-Appalachian West. Library services include circulation of materials, reference, instruction, interlibrary loan, and literature searching
The Library is named for the late Dr. Sidney Isaac Kornhauser (1888-1959), Professor and Chair of the Department of Anatomy at the UofL School of Medicine (1922-1959). Dr. Kornhauser was the son of Hungarian immigrants, served in the US Army during WW I, and had a distinguished career in medical education.