Welch Medical Library

What Welch Medical Library does

Welch Medical Library (legal name: William H. Welch Medical Library) is the health sciences information arm of Johns Hopkins University, founded in 1929 through the merger of the School of Medicine, School of Hygiene and Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Hospital libraries. It operates as a nonprofit academic unit serving the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Bloomberg School of Public Health, alongside affiliated hospitals including Johns Hopkins Hospital, Bayview Medical Center, Howard County Medical Center, Sibley Memorial Hospital, Suburban Hospital, All Children's Hospital, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. The library provides access to approximately 20,000 journals and 1,200 specialized health sciences databases (with the broader JHU system offering 150,000+ journals and nearly 1 million e-books), accessible via JHED authentication and discovery tools including Scopus-integrated article search, the Catalyst catalog, and WorldCat.

The library's core service is its embedded informationist model: specialized information professionals with clinical, public health, basic science, or nursing domain expertise are assigned to specific academic departments and affiliated hospitals, providing consultations, systematic review participation, citation management training, scholarly communication guidance, grant and funding support, NIH Public Access Policy compliance assistance, and data management consulting. Physical service is delivered through six Baltimore locations (the historic Welch Library Building, Welch Service Center, Welch at Armstrong, Welch at Bayview 24/7, Welch at Public Health, and Welch at School of Nursing), supplemented by remote chat, email, and class-based instruction. Specialized assets include the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives and the Institute of the History of Medicine. Integrations span citation managers (RefWorks, EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero), research tools (ORCID, SciENcv, Dimensions, Pivot-RP, DMPTool), clinical decision support (UpToDate, ClinicalKey, VisualDx, AccessMedicine), systematic review platforms (Covidence), and LMS systems (Canvas, CoursePlus).

Welch is funded through an annual allocation formula distributed across ten JHM-affiliated entities, supplemented by grant funding and voluntary donations, with no external equity ownership. Revenue is not publicly disclosed. In February 2026, Director Anne Seymour departed to the University of Manitoba, with Elizabeth Whipple assuming the interim director role; the Chesney Medical Archives is undergoing integration into the broader JHU Libraries and Archives system under Barbara Pralle's interim directorship. Recent strategic moves include a PLOS Flat Fee agreement waiving APCs for JHU authors effective July 2026, and the launch of Hopkins KnowledgeNET providing alumni access to licensed journal content.

Name

Welch Medical Library

Legal name

William H. Welch Medical Library

Website

https://welch.jhmi.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1929

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Welch Medical Library is the nonprofit health sciences library of Johns Hopkins University, serving JHU Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health faculty, staff, and students with access to 20,000 journals and 1,200 databases, embedded informationist research support, and systematic review and scholarly communication services across six Baltimore campus locations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Health Sciences Library Services

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (51921)

akta.pro primary industry

Academic & Research Library Operations (College/University Libraries) (EDAEAGAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Library Collections & Cataloging Services (Acquisitions, Metadata, Circulation) (EDAEAGAE), Special Libraries (Law, Medical, Corporate, Government) Operations (EDAEAGAD)

Keywords

• Academic medical library
• Health sciences information services
• Library research support
• Systematic review services
• Scholarly publishing support

Headquarters

HQ city

Baltimore

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices8 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Institutional Funding: Primary funding from annual operational budgets developed by staff and library director, with allocation distributed to School of Medicine, Bloomberg School of Public Health, School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center, Sibley Memorial Hospital, Suburban Hospital, Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, and Kennedy Krieger Institute.
2. Grant Funding: Additional funding from grant-based project accounts supporting specific library initiatives and services.
3. Donations: Voluntary contributions from donors supporting collections, services, expertise, and spaces of the Welch Medical Library.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Welch Medical Library is an academic medical library that provides Johns Hopkins Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health faculty, staff, and students with access to approximately 20,000 journals, 1,200 databases, and research support services. Its core offering centers on the informationist model: subject-specialist librarians deliver tailored consultations, systematic review collaboration, citation management training, scholarly publishing guidance, and grant support. Distribution occurs through the historic Welch Library Building in Baltimore plus staffed service points at Armstrong, Bayview, Public Health, and the School of Nursing, with remote access via JHED authentication.

Product overview

Welch Medical Library is a health sciences information service serving Johns Hopkins Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health. It operates the Welch Library Building at 1900 E. Monument Street as its primary facility, supplemented by staffed and unstaffed service points at Armstrong, Bayview, Public Health, and School of Nursing locations. The library's core offerings center on expert Informationist Services providing research consultations, comprehensive literature searching, systematic review support, scholarly publishing guidance, grant support, and citation management training. Its digital collection includes approximately 20,000 journals and 1,200 databases accessible via proxy, supported by the Welch Article Search (Scopus), Catalyst catalog, and WorldCat discovery tools. The library provides document delivery through Interlibrary Loan and BorrowDirect, course reserves via Canvas and CoursePlus LMS integration, and event space booking through 25Live. Specialized collections include the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives and the Institute of the History of Medicine. The library supports citation management with free access to RefWorks for JHU affiliates plus guidance on EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero. Educational programming includes Welch Classes on database use and research skills, while the Mary Elizabeth Garrett Book Club provides community engagement.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Informationist Services Expert information professionals providing tailored services including individual and group consultations, comprehensive literature searching, evidence-based practice support, systematic review participation, citation management, curriculum support, classroom and online instruction, grant collaboration, and scholarly publishing guidance. Services are provided for faculty, staff, and students of Johns Hopkins Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health.
• Systematic Review Services Informationist-led systematic review services covering consultation, search design and execution, citation management, and full research team participation for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
• Scholarly Publication Support Services including journal identification across subscription and open access options, copyright and plagiarism advice, navigation of publisher agreements, NIH Public Access Policy compliance support, and comprehensive information searching for authors.
• Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Service delivering items not held in Johns Hopkins collections to JHU users, including BorrowDirect (3-6 business days) and traditional interlibrary loan (1-28 business days).
• Course Reserves Service creating course pages, gathering and digitizing materials, and posting reserve readings for faculty, course coordinators, and TAs across Canvas, CoursePlus, and ereserves systems at the School of Medicine and School of Nursing.
• Citation Management Support Support for citation management tools including RefWorks (free for JHU affiliates), EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero, with training and troubleshooting assistance for faculty, staff, and students.
• Data Management Consulting Consulting and training on data management planning, research data sharing, data science tools, and JHM data governance policies, including NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy support.
• Grant and Funding Support Informationist services helping researchers find federal and private funding opportunities and supporting use of BioSketch, ORCID, and SciENcv researcher profile tools.
• Research Tracking and Impact Services Services using tools including InCites (Clarivate), Scopus, Web of Science, and JH Research Expert Profiles to demonstrate research productivity and influence.
• Welch Classes Scheduled educational sessions including Introduction to Library Resources, RefWorks Basics, BioMart, EndNote Desktop, Embase, and other database training offered in-person and online.
• Research Guides Curated online guides organized by topic including Bioinformatics (NCBI Gene, BioMart, dbSNP, Nucleotide), Data and Statistics, Departments and Disciplines, Literature Searching, Publishing and Impact, Research Methods, and Special Topics.
• Covidence Not-for-profit systematic review platform partnered with Cochrane, available via self-registration for Johns Hopkins affiliates.
• Databases A-Z Collection of 134 health sciences databases including AccessEmergency Medicine, AccessMedicine, AccessPediatrics, AccessSurgery, APA PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane, Embase, and specialized resources.
• Welch Article Search Article search functionality powered by Scopus, providing comprehensive searching of scientific literature with facets for efficient scoping of results from the Welch homepage.
• Welch Service Center Staffed service point in the lower level of the Welch Library Building providing in-person circulation, document retrieval, interlibrary loan, reference assistance, and reserves services.
• Welch Library Building
• Welch at Bayview 24/7 clinical research library at 4940 Eastern Avenue with study carrels, computers, and reservable conference room for Johns Hopkins Bayview researchers.
• Welch at Public Health Library service point at 615 N. Wolfe Street near the Bloomberg School of Public Health Daily Grind, staffed 9am-2pm.
• Welch at School of Nursing Library service point at 525 N. Wolfe Street, Room N301, staffed 12pm-1:30pm with a silent study area (Room 313) for School of Nursing students.
• Welch at Armstrong Library service point at 1600 McElderry Street, Room 306/309, providing access by appointment with a meeting room for consultations.
• Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives Archives dedicated to preserving historical records of Johns Hopkins Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health for operations, teaching, research, and publication, located at the Mt. Washington campus.
• Institute of the History of Medicine Historical collection located on the 3rd floor of the Welch Library Building documenting the history of medicine.
• Event Space Rental West Reading Room and 2nd floor conference room available for reservation through the 25Live system for library and campus events.
• PLOS Flat Fee Journals Open Access Support Open access publishing support waiving APCs for 9 PLOS Flat Fee journals for JHU corresponding authors as of July 1, 2026.

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration28 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• PLOS (Public Library of Science)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2026Johns Hopkins Libraries has an agreement with PLOS for Author Publishing Charges (APCs) to be waived for JHU faculty, staff, and students publishing in PLOS Flat Fee program journals. Covers journals including PLOS One, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Computational Biology, and others.
• Johns Hopkins University School of MedicinecoreOthersPrimary funding entity contributing to Welch Medical Library operations through an annual allocation formula.
• Bloomberg School of Public HealthcoreOthersPrimary funding entity contributing to Welch Medical Library operations through an annual allocation formula.
• Johns Hopkins School of NursingcoreOthersPrimary funding entity contributing to Welch Medical Library operations through an annual allocation formula.
• Johns Hopkins HospitalcoreOthersPrimary funding entity contributing to Welch Medical Library operations through an annual allocation formula.
• Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical CenterminorOthersAffiliated hospital contributing to Welch Medical Library funding.
• Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical CenterminorOthersAffiliated community hospital contributing to Welch Medical Library funding.
• Sibley Memorial HospitalminorOthersAffiliated hospital contributing to Welch Medical Library funding.
• Suburban HospitalminorOthersAffiliated hospital contributing to Welch Medical Library funding.
• Johns Hopkins All Children's HospitalminorOthersAffiliated hospital contributing to Welch Medical Library funding.
• Kennedy Krieger InstituteminorOthersAffiliated institute contributing to Welch Medical Library funding.
• Peer Community In (PCI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJH Libraries supports the Peer Community In preprint peer review service and its Diamond Open Access journal Peer Community Journal. Preprints peer reviewed by PCI can be accelerated for publication through PCI-friendly journals.
• PubMed Central (PMC)coreTechnology or IntegrationFederal repository for author accepted manuscripts and open access publications. Popular destination for depositing postprints from JHU researchers to make research freely accessible.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library: Emory University's health sciences library serving the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health. Closely parallel mission and customer base to Welch, including systematic review and data services.
• Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library: Columbia University's health sciences library serving the medical center, including clinical decision support and embedded librarian programs comparable to Welch's informationist model.
• Cushing/Whitney Medical Library: Yale School of Medicine's medical library providing clinical and research information services to faculty, students, and affiliated hospitals — directly analogous to Welch's role at Johns Hopkins.
• Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences: Virginia Commonwealth University's health sciences library, serving schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dentistry — a peer library with a comparable multi-school health sciences mission.
• Galter Health Sciences Library: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine's library, providing liaison librarian services, systematic reviews, and scholarly communications support to clinical and basic science departments — strong operational analog.
• NIH Library: Specialized biomedical research library serving the National Institutes of Health intramural community. Comparable as a high-end health sciences research library with deep informationist services, though federally rather than university funded.
• Bernard Becker Medical Library: Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine's library. Comparable peer medical library offering liaison services, systematic review support, and similar collection depth in clinical and basic sciences.
• Countway Library of Medicine: Harvard Medical School's health sciences library serving Harvard Medicine, Dentistry, and Public Health. Directly comparable as a peer academic medical library with embedded liaison/informationist services, large digital collection, and historical special collections (Warren Anatomical Museum).
• Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences: University of Alabama at Birmingham's health sciences library serving a large academic medical center — closely comparable in mission, with embedded liaison and systematic review support.

Broad incumbents

• National Library of Medicine (NLM): World's largest biomedical library and operator of PubMed/MEDLINE. Broad incumbent providing infrastructure that Welch leverages (PubMed, PMC, MeSH) — not a direct competitor for institutional services, but the upstream backbone of health sciences information.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/WelchLibrary
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCKJ4HvODRVJ-U8mW9kvUZow
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/welch-medical-library

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Welch Medical Library