New collaborative workspaces coming to Health Sciences Library

An artist’s rendering of ‘The Clinic’ coming soon to the first floor of the Health Sciences Library.


Construction is underway at the Health Sciences Library in the Health Sciences Centre to make room for the Michael G. DeGroote Initiative for Innovation in Healthcare (MGDII).

The new area on the library’s first floor will incorporate collaborative workspaces to be used in building a culture of health entrepreneurship at McMaster.

To make space for what will be called ‘The Clinic’, several rows of print journals were removed as most of the paper titles have been replaced with electronic versions of the journals. Although some of the study rooms will be temporally unavailable during construction, library staff has ensured that overall, the number of library seats has remained the same.

The renovated and new space is expected to open early in 2020. The Health Sciences Library will be open on its regular hours during the renovation.

“The Health Sciences Library is committed to providing quality spaces to support both individual study and collaborative and interdisciplinary work,” said Jennifer McKinnell, director of the Health Sciences Library. “Once the project is complete, we will have a several refurbished collaboration spaces that can be used to work on team projects, practice presentations, or complete course group work.

“But, in addition to renovating our existing spaces, we believe our partnership with the MGDII will allow us to take the best of what we do in support of research excellence to help to both transform health care delivery, and support economic development across the region.”

John Kelton, executive director of the Michael G. DeGroote Initiative for Innovation in Healthcare, says the space encourages a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation, which will be built around teams and individuals with different skill sets, often led by students.

He adds that The Clinic will be a place where ideas are generated based on the identification of clinical problems and supported by such technology as whiteboards and videoconferencing.

“This beautiful space, which was enabled by a generous gift from the Heersink family will serve as a place where students, staff, and faculty can come together to develop solutions to health problems,” said Kelton.

“Our vision, as encouraged by Dean Paul O’Byrne, would be that a culture of innovation and commercialization develop within the Faculty of Health Sciences. In the long term we anticipate these activities leading to innovations which will benefit people and potentially the creation of good jobs for people in Hamilton and its surrounding cities.”

Check the Health Sciences Library’s website for updates. Questions can be sent to hslib@mcmaster.ca.

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