It offers librarian services, and provides biomedical information for education and research activities to take place, and study space for students for these schools to help maintain their accreditation.
The TMC Library was founded in 1915 to serve the physicians of the Harris County Medical Society (HCMS) and has expanded significantly over the last 100 years.
These individuals secured funds from major Foundations and other leading community philanthropists to build a separate facility to house the Library.
The cornerstone of the 1954 building reads: “Jesse H. Jones Library Building of the Houston Academy of Medicine for the Texas Medical Center.” As educational institutions, research facilities and hospitals began moving to the campus, the needs placed upon the library increased proportionately.
During the digital age in the 90's, the Library added computerized classrooms and a lab for education classes and computer workstations for students and patrons.
In 2004 a considerable investment in technology ensued, and wireless routers were added that managed to cover 45% of the building – in spite of 3 foot concrete floors.
The Library allows the educational institutions of the TMC to meet the accreditation standards necessary to remain in operation, including Baylor College of Medicine and UTHealth Science Center.
The Library's annual budget for basic operations is derived from assessments from its eight governing and thirteen supporting institutions.
The TMC Library is organized as an extension under the Houston Academy of Medicine headquartered at 1515 Hermann Dr., and shares the same tax ID and reporting forms (990's).
Remote access via the Library's proxy server is available to authorized clientele logging in from locations worldwide.
In addition, the archive includes manuscript collections from American rheumatologists, the life sciences departments at the Johnson Space Center, historical manuscripts such as the McGovern Collection on the History of Medicine, the Menninger Collection of Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis and the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission which recorded the after-effect of the bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Soon after his arrival in Houston, John P. McGovern, MD became one of the Library's most staunch supporters, annually supplying funds for the purchase of rare books.
In 2010, the McGovern Center acquired rare books about dentistry from the University of Texas Dental School at Houston.
Individuals, medical associations and societies, hospitals, corporations and foundations are invited to become members of the Friends organization.