The conception.....
The Florida Mental Health Institute was conceived in the 1960s, a time when the nation's mental health system was undergoing tremendous change. In 1969, W.D. Rogers, Director of Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, and E. Arthur Larson, Coordinator of the Division of Mental Health, were committed to fully realize the potential of the new Research Institute. This included a "professional library which will include eight study rooms housing various library materials of specific subject matter.". Larson also envisioned the Institute library having a computerised system that would allow it to link to other state and national systems. Such an innovation was not realised until 1986, when the Institute Library became part of the State University' System's automated library catalogue, LUIS.

Christine Guignard, a member of the Planning Staff, was acting as librarian for the Division of Mental Health Library in Tallahassee which was established in 1972 with 300 monographs and 23 serials. When Guignard explored the possibility of grant funding for the Institute's library, she was advised that a professional librarian would be a requisite. Larson responded with A Division of Mental Health Policy which mandated the Institute's Library to be "the central professional library for the Division" and thatpatient and professional library services of all the facilities of the Division of Mental Health would be considered satellite libraries of the Institute. This vision of Larson's was not achieved. To date, libraries serving the state psychiatric facilities and other mental health settings are still unlinked.

The Institute Library was to be staffed by a library director, three other professional librarians, a library technical assistant, and a clerk typist. The director of the library was also to supervise the audio-visual studio since training films were expected to become a major export of the Institute's training component.

Funding for the Institute's Library included $65,000 for monographs, $30,000 for shelving, and an addiitonal $100,000 for audio visual equipment. The Program Description for the LIbrary at FMHI described the collection content, "The library will contain materials whose scope will range from neurophysiology and psychology thorugh social welfare and sociology to religion and philosophy as well as materials on psychosomatic medicine." In addition to monographs, the Library was to acquire all informational formats from microforms, 35 millimeter filmstrips, and videotape recordings.

The Library opens....
Elizabeth Mann was the first Institute librarian from 1973-1974. She submitted a Library and Construction Services Act (LSCA) grant proposal to support a patient library for the Children's Program but the proposal was not funded. She resigned later that year.

Nancy Nelsen assumed the director's role and supervised both the Libary and the audio-visual center. She was busy initiating service to patrons when the library opened its doors officially in August 1974. In her Long Range Planning Document , Nelsen listed bibliographic, interlibrary loan, and reference services as standard services. She also described a potential problem with space. With a 3,000 volue reference collection already in-house, an additional 3,287 monographs and 232 periodicals arrived with the dismantling of the Bureau of Alcoholic Rehabilitation Library in Avon Park , Florida. Patient needs were also considered in the planning document with strong support for a separate client library.

In 1976, Nelsen resigned and Sarah Harmon became the new director. She instituted computer searching from the National Institute of Mental Health Clearing House, completed the cataloguing of monographs, created a vertical file, and assigned accession numbers to all government documents.

During 1976 to 1982, the number of clients increased to more than 1,000 per year. Harmon initiatied LSCA funding and received monies to create a patient library with 2,000 books, popular magazines, filmstrips, and audiotapes. The client collection was catalogued in Dewey, to facilitate daily living skills training with the clients and their therapists. Harmon resigned in 1982 and Josephine King assumed the directorship in 1984.

The Library automates........
During 1981-1983, the Institute was transferrred from the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services to the University of South Florida. With this transition, the Florida Mental Health Institute's Research Library became one of the University of South Florida's libraries, and by extension, part of the State University System's Libraries. This role allowed the collection to become part of the state universities' holdings and was incorporated into LUIS, the state university system's automated catalogue. Other changes were adopted as well. The research collection was converted from National Library of Medicine classification to Library of Congress classification. LUIS access was available from three patron terminals and two staff terminals.

During 1984-1990, King received over $22,000 in funding through the Library and Construction Services Act grant to enhance the client library's monograph collection and to provide computer equipment for a computer literacy program for the Institute's clients. Clients were also able to work within the Library performing clerical tasks, shelving, and additional jobs based upon their skills levels.

By 1990, the collection had increased to 9,000 volumes and 200 periodical subscriptions. PsycLIT on CD-ROM and Social and Behavioral Sciences -Current Contents on Diskette had been added to the basic research collection. King took a Professional Development Leave in 1989 and created a formal archival collection of Institute documents. King bought Pro-Cite, a bibliographic database management system to aid in the acquisitions tracking process within the Library. Staffing had increased to two full-time library technical assistants,two professional librarians, and a graduate assistant from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida

The Library becomes electric........

In 1990, King left the Institute and Ardis Hanson became the new library director. She continued the push to automate the library, adding four networked PCs and additonal CD-ROM titles. She added two online services, Grateful Med and Policy Information Exchange Online. In 1991, The Institute Library became the first USF Library to have internet access with its gopher. In 1992, it became the first USF Library to initiate Mosaic and have a homepage. Hanson began an electronic selective dissemination program, the "loop", covering grants information, legislative news, research news, table of contents of special topic journals, and routing of the first electronic psychology journal, Psycoloquy. Working with the Computer Support Center, Hanson was able to mount a web-based search engine to search the Library's holdings via Netscape.

She obtained a grant from the Association of Mental Health Librarians to fund a three-part training videotape for librarians working with special populations and a twelve-part, bilingual audiotape series on "Issues in Aging and Mental Health". She worked with other USF Librarians as part of the USF Libraries Virtual Library Implementation Team in the design of the USF Libraries Virtual Library.

The Library today.........
The library has always been an integral part of the Institute. From its conception, the Institute has planned for and expanded library facilities and resources. Even with the inevitable budget cuts imposed on the University system, the Institute has retained its commitment to the Library.

The research collection has continued its growth to over 30,000 monographs and maintained its serials collection at 202 titles. It has a large collection of video- and audiotapes on mental health issues. Its archive has over 120 linear feet of catalogued items and is growing.

The Library's interest and focus on technology has continued, with presentations at the annual USF Symposium on 21st Century Teaching Technologies and the Internet2 meetings. It recently mounted a streaming video server to provide a way to view training and educational tapes created by Institute faculty and staff, the meetings of the legislatively appointed Florida Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, and Institute conferences.

To continue its focus on parent- and consumer-based issues, the Library maintains several special collections. These include the CH.A.D.D. collection, a collection of monographs and audiotapes from the local Chapter of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder; the CARD collection, from the Institute's Center on Autism and Related Disabilities; the Multicultural Mental Health Training Program materials, a collection rich in African-American literature, reports, and bibliographies on mental health and multiculturalism; a new Consumer collection focusing on peer- and consumer-developed materials; and the Colleen Bevis Resource Collection, a collection based on issues in child and family studies as related to mental health. All of the above collections are housed in the Colleen Bevis Resource Room within the library's new location.

The Library also maintains an Policy and Epidemiology Collection which contains research reports, statistics, and other documents dealing with national and state mental health issues and research. A new core collection on managed behavioural health care was started in 1997. There is also a collection of monographs, serials, and videotapes supported by the Center for HIV Education and Research.

The Library also accepted an outstanding collection on child and maternal health from The Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies. The Library will be archiving print and media items on the recent death of Governor Chiles on behalf of the Chiles Center. The Library is continuing its push into the "virtual world" by expanding its web pages and services over the web. For more information about the library and its collections, click on this link.

This snapshot of the library shows its implementation and growth, almost decade by decade.Much of this information came from the Larson Papers collection in the Library Archive. The Archive owes its creation to one of the Institute's Librarians - Josephine King.

The stained glass panels on this page have been in the Library since its inception. The painting was done by a Library staff member who preferred to remain anonymous. The painting was placed in the client library's children's room. Unfortunately only a portion of the painting shows on this page. The actual painting occupies a prominent place in the Library's new space. The vivid colours and large scale provide a warm welcome to our visitors.

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