On the first day of term, 27 September 1999, the clinical sciences collections re-opened as the Cruciform Library in the basement of the former University College Hospital, now known as the Cruciform Building. The area now occupied by the library in the south-east wing had accommodated various Hospital departments including radiotherapy, pharmacy and sterile fluids immediately prior to its closure in 1993. It is interesting to note that as part of the Institutional Plan submitted to the Universities Funding Council in 1990, the whole of the former Hospital building was proposed for use as the
"future library" for UCL and would have brought together many of UCL's library collections under one roof had it been successful.
A year ahead of the first joint intake of students to the new Royal Free & University College Medical School in September 2000, collections were broadened to encompass textbooks in anatomy, biochemistry and physiology, enabled through special funding from the Medical School. Together with the Medical Sciences collections in the Science Library (DMS Watson Building) and the Boldero Library these have formed a core resource for students at the Medical School's Bloomsbury Campus. With a total area of 840 square metres the Cruciform is more than twice the size of the old Clinical Sciences reading room and with a seating capacity of up to 240 the study space is greater than the Boldero and Clinical Sciences Libraries combined, which had 67 and 90 places respectively. In its short life the Cruciform Library has already seen many changes, not least in IT provision which includes the introduction of wireless networking and terminals for in-library access to UCL's several thousand electronic journals.
