Before the formation of the CHLA/ABSC, Canadian health science librarians belonged to the Canadian Group of the Medical Library Association, CG MLA, an official group of the Medical Library Association. The Group's annual meeting was held during the annual meeting of the Medical Library Association. Its purpose was to permit Canadian members of the MLA to meet on an annual basis to discuss issues unique to Canadian health science librarians and to be listed in the MLA programme. In June of 1975, the Ad-Hoc Committee to Study the Organizational Status of Canadian Health Librarians was established to review the organization of Canadian health science librarians and to recommend a system to improve communication between such libraries and to provide a means of communication with Provincial and Federal governments. The committee was chaired by David S. Crawford of McGill University and had the following members: Philippe Lemay, Head of the Health Sciences Resource Centre at the Canada Institute for Science and Technological Information, CISTIJ Alan Macdonald, Head of the Kellog Health Sciences Library at Dalhousie University, Richard Fredericksen, Head of the Health Sciences Library at Memorial University and Chair of The Canadian Group of the Medical Libraries Association, Dorothy Sirois, Head of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Library and a member of l'Association pour l’avancement des sciences et des techniques de la documentation, ASTED, Section de la Santé Executive, Martha Stone, Head of the Library of Health and Welfare Canada and Sheila Swanson, President of the health sciences section of the Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services, CASLIS.
Questionnaires were sent to 920 individuals. In June, 1976 the Canadian Group of the MLA, accepted the report resulting from the survey which underlined the need for a separate Canadian organization. The Report was also accepted by the meeting of the Health Sciences Section of CASLIS at its 1976 meeting held in Halifax. The Health Sciences Section of CASLIS then voted to dissolve. The CG MLA agreed to dissolve in 1980 as a Bi-lateral Agreement had just been signed between CHIA and the MLA. The first constitution of the CHLA/ABSC came into effect in October, 1976.
The Executive consisted of a President and six additional elected members. The Annual General Meeting of the Association was to be held in the same city and close to the annual meeting of the Canadian Library Association. Letters Patent were issued to the CHLA/ABSC by the Ministry of Consumer and Corporate Affairs Canada, on December 5, 1979. The CHLA/ABSC published its Newsletter from 1977-78. The journal is now entitled Bibliotheca Medica Canadiana, and is published four times a year. The Directory contains pertinent information for its members, for example the CHLA/ABSC mandate, by-laws, list of presidents, current committees and published reports.
The Osler Library is the official repository of the CHLA/ABSC archives.
