Lungegård Hospital’s collection of medical books

As a research hospital, Lungegård Hospital acquired a large collection of medical books. In 1913, it consisted of about 14,000 volumes, and included everything from magazines to major volumes, and from minor printed matter in Norwegian to books from all over the world. When Lungegård Hospital closed, the collection was taken over by Pleiestiftelsen.

The collection has been described as Bergen’s medical book collection. At Lungegård Hospital and at Pleiestiftelsen, it seems that the collection itself and the rooms in which it was kept have commonly been referred to as a library. The collection helped form the basis for the publication of the journal Medicinsk Revue in Bergen from 1885.

Parts of the collection have later been moved, and the collection stored in various different places. Certain books can now be found in the University Library collection, while part of the collection can still be found at the old Pleiestiftelsen, in a room that, since 1962, has been known as the Armauer Hansen Commemoratice Rooms.

A printed catalogue of the old Lungegård Hospital library from 1904 can be found in the collection of the University Library in Bergen and has also been published online. You can find it here

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Title page and table of contents from the library catalogue ‘Katalog over Lungegaardshospitalets Bibliothek ved udgangen af Aaret 1904’. The University of Bergen Library.