Bogomolets National Medical University

I was recently invited to tour Bogomolets National Medical University in Kyiv.  

Bogomolets National Medical University 

The main purpose of my visit was to see the research library, as my tour guide on this day, Stanislav Ustinov, has a goal of upgrading it to a modern library.  It may surprise some readers that a national medical university does not have a modern research library, but this is Kyiv, Ukraine, which suffered under years of Soviet domination, and Ukrainians are currently fighting a war with Russia, so many public universities lack funds to make necessary improvements.  For instance, a few years back, Bogomolets National Medical University began constructing a twenty-four story building in attempt to modernize the university, but funds were depleted, and construction was halted in 2011, leaving only a towering empty concrete shell.

The library at Bogomolets is small and antiquated.  Students are not permitted to peruse the stacks, and they must search for books using an old card catalog system that dates to the time of the Soviet Union.  When they locate a title they need, they hand their request to a library worker who retrieves the book for them.  

The card catalog at  Bogomolets National Medical University

Furthermore, the collection is actually not very large for a medical university and many of the volumes are old and outdated.

Stanislav has a dream of creating a modern library with a larger collection of up-to-date books, a computer lab where students can access international medical databases such as PubMed to search for articles on medical research, (which students currently cannot access), and install a computerized library database for searching the collection, along with a bar code system for quickly and easily checking out volumes.  Stanislav's goals are hardly unrealistic.  It is unfortunate that young future doctors at Bogomolets National Medical University do not have access to the same quality of library services that medical students in the United States and Europe have.  In reality, this is a serious need.  If medical students are going to be effective learners and develop the critical skills and knowledge to be competent physicians and surgeons, they must have access to the most current medical research and information available.  A modern library at the medical university is not a luxury.  It's a critical need.

I am trying locate grants that will help fund Stanislav's highly important initiative, but it's extremely difficult.  If any readers might have some information that will help Stanislav, please feel free to e-mail me.  Thank you!

Incidentally, the university is named after Dr. Alexander A. Bogomolets whom Joseph Stalin tapped to lead a team of researchers in the quest for prolongation of life.  

Bust of Bogomolets in front of the university

Bogomolets never really succeeded in discovering how to extend life expectancy, though he did do some important and interesting hematology research.