Monday, September 6, 2010

The Common Curator Launches

The Common Curator blog has recently superseded the Carolina Curator, which was previously cited by OnlineUniversities.com as one of the "100 Best Curator and Museum Blogs." After approximately 220 postings on a wide variety of topics since its inception in December 2008, all the content of the Carolina Curator has been incorporated into the Common Curator blog, which will continue in much the same--if broader--vein to document developments in the history of the health sciences, digital libraries, archives, museums, and special collections, as well as tend other issues of import, such as freedom of information, open access, preservation and conservation, public policy, human rights, etc.

All readers of the Carolina Curator are encouraged to follow the Common Curator by visiting the blog's website, or by subscribing to its RSS feed with Google Reader, Bloglines, or your favorite RSS reader. In addition to the new blog, the Common Curator also has a presence on other social media, including Delicious, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.

So, thanks for your collective interest and comments--hope to continue hearing from you at the Common Curator!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Ask a Curator Day

September 1, 2010 is "Ask a Curator Day," a one-time worldwide Question & Answer event on Twitter. Modelled on the successful Follow a Museum event on February 1, 2010, users of Twitter can post questions to participating curators of art, history, science, and other collections at #askacurator. A list of individuals and institutions from over 20 countries available for questions can be viewed here.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

New Consortium for History of Medicine Finding Aids

The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is pleased to announce the release of its prototype History of Medicine Finding Aids Consortium, a search-and-discovery tool for archival resources in the health sciences that are described by finding aids and held by various institutions throughout the United States.

The new resource crawls existing Web content managed by partner institutions, provides keyword search functionality, and provides results organized by holding institution. Links point to the holding institution's Web sites. Formats indexed consist of HTML, PDF and Encoded Archival Description XML. The project does not include content held in bibliographic utilities or other database-type information. Crawls are conducted monthly to ensure information is current and to capture new content as it is released.

Current Consortium partners are:

-- NLM History of Medicine Division, Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program
-- Columbia University Health Center Library Archives and Special Collections
-- Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
-- University of California-San Francisco Library Archives and Special Collections
-- University of Virginia Health Sciences Library Historical Collections
-- Virginia Commonwealth University Tompkins-McCaw Library Special Collections and Archives

NLM's History of Medicine Division invites libraries, archives and museums which include in their collections archival materials related to the history of medicine and health sciences to join.

For more information about the project or requests to join the Consortium, please contact John P. Rees, Archivist and Digital Resources Manager, NLM, at reesj@nlm.nih.gov, or visit the Consortium's web site.

"The Gross Clinic" Restored and on Exhibition

"An Eakins Masterpiece Restored: Seeing The Gross Clinic Anew" is an exhibition currently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that will run through January 9, 2011. It features Thomas Eakins' famous painting of 1875, Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic), which has recently undergone a major restoration effort.

The large-scale painting (measuring 8' by 6'6") was purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with the support of over 3,500 donors in 2007 after its previous longtime owner, the Jefferson Medical College (Dr. Gross' alma mater), proposed its sale to museums outside Philadelphia.

The Museum's web site provides much detailed technical and historical information about the painting's conservation treatments over the decades, and dramatically documents the painting's evolving appearance. The image depicted here reflects its current state.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

New Curator for Duke History of Medicine Collections

Rachel C. Ingold has been appointed the new Curator for the History of Medicine Collections at Duke University Medical Center Library. She will start September 1, 2010. The previous Curator, Suzanne Porter, retired at the end of July after a long and successful career at Duke, UNC, and other institutions.

Prior to this appointment, Rachel has served in the Conservation Unit in the Duke University Libraries, as an intern at the EPA Library, as an intern the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, and as a Library Technician at the Library of Congress. She has nearly 13 years worth of experience in a library setting.

Rachel holds a BA in Political Science and a BA in Women's Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MA in Women's Studies from George Washington University, and an MLS from North Carolina Central University. She is a member of the America Library Association and the Special Library Association.

Truman G. Blocker, Jr. History of Medicine Fellowship

The Moody Medical Library of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is pleased to offer the Truman G. Blocker, Jr. Fellowship to support research related to the history of medicine conducted at the Moody Medical Library.

The Truman G. Blocker, Jr. Fellowship will provide between $2,000 and $4,000 per year to support travel, lodging and incidental expenses for the period between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011. Upon completion the recipient will deliver a paper at the University of Texas Medical Branch outlining the research, provide an expense report and a copy of the final research product. The University of Texas Medical Branch also reserves the right to post excerpts from the work, a photograph and biographical material of the Fellow on its website.

The fellowship proposal must demonstrate that the Truman G. Blocker, Jr. History of Medicine Collections contain resources central to the proposed topic. These collections consist of over 18,000 titles and 10,000 pamphlets and reprints documenting the development of Western medicine and allied sciences. The Moody Medical Library's holdings of books printed prior to 1501 place it among the top medical sciences libraries in the United States. Collection strengths include fundamental and secondary works in anatomy and surgery, anesthesiology, immunology, and occupational medicine. The Titus Harris Collection of the History of Psychiatry maintains over 4,500 volumes and is considered one of the most comprehensive accumulations of works on the subject.

The archival collections housed at the Moody Medical Library are among the largest and most significant in the history of the biomedical sciences in the southern United States. These collections provide records of state and national organizations, and professional societies in medicine and related fields in addition to the private and professional papers of University of Texas Medical Branch faculty, staff, students and alumni. An inclusive list of these archives may be found at the Texas Archival Resources Online website.

While preference will be given to applicants who live beyond commuting distance of Galveston, all are encouraged to apply, including graduate students. Applicants should submit a fellowship proposal outlining the subject and objectives of the research project and historical materials to
be used, (not to exceed 2 pages), a project budget including travel, lodging and research expenses, curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendation by November 1st, 2010. Award decisions will be made by December 1st, 2010.

Applications should be mailed to:

Robert O. Marlin IV, Archivist
Truman G. Blocker, Jr. History of Medicine Collections
Moody Medical Library
University of Texas Medical Branch
301 University Blvd.
Galveston, TX 77555-1035

Call for Papers: Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science

The Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS) invites paper proposals for its thirteenth annual meeting on March 4-5, 2011, at the famous Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, sponsored by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Library.

SAHMS welcomes papers on the history of medicine and science, broadly construed to encompass historical, literary, anthropological, philosophical and sociological approaches to health care and science including race, disabilities and gender studies. Participants may propose individual papers or panels of several papers on a particular theme. The deadline for submissions is September 30, 2010.

Each presenter is limited to 20 minutes, with additional time for questions and discussion. Please do not submit papers that have already been published, presented or scheduled for presentation at another meeting. All participants are responsible for their own travel expenses and must pay registration costs in advance of the meeting. Student travel awards are available each year; for more information, contact SAHMS President Michael Flannery at flannery@uab.edu.

To submit proposals, please visit the online submission site. Required elements for the online proposals include Title, Purpose Statement, Rationale and Significance, Methodology, Sources, Findings & Conclusions, and Three Learning Objectives. For questions or problems with the submission site, contact Richard Nollan (rnollan@uthsc.edu) or Lisa Pruitt (lpruitt@mtsu.edu).

Friday, July 16, 2010

An Odyssey of Knowledge: A New Online Exhibition from the National Library of Medicine

"An Odyssey of Knowledge: Medieval Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the National Library of Medicine," is a new online exhibition at the National Library of Medicine by visiting curator Dr. Alain Touwaide of the Smithsonian Institution. As described on the exhibition web site:
Medicine in the Old World arose from many components: the classical Greek tradition, its Christian re-elaboration, the contributions of the Arabic World, and the unique medieval synthesis of them all. By examining significant pages and illuminations from manuscripts and early printed books of the National Library of Medicine, one can see how these cultures contributed to the creation of medical knowledge in Europe.
The exhibition is organized by the following sections: Greek Medicine and Science in the Early Middle Ages; The Arabic Contribution; A Crossroad of Knowledge: Southern Italy; The Spread of Translation; From Translation To Teaching; Diffusion; The Return of Greek; and The Many Uses of Books and Texts.

The collections of the National Library of Medicine include 90 Western manuscripts written before 1601. Many of the Library's manuscripts are recorded in Dorothy M. Schullian and Francis E. Sommer, A Catalogue of Incunabula and Manuscripts in the Army Medical Library (1950), and Seymour De Ricci and W.J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada (1935–1940), with a supplement by C.U. Faye and W.H. Bond in 1962.

Note: The image above depicts an illuminated manuscript initial with two physicians in conversation (Paris, 13th century); it is from the National Library of Medicine's Manuscript E 78, folio 35 recto.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Future of the History of Medicine Conference

The Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine is hosting a three-day international conference on The Future of the History of Medicine from July 15-17, 2010. The scope, breadth, and viability of the field as a whole in the 21st Century will be discussed in Panel Sessions on The Neurological Turn, The Cultures of Food, The Place of Non-Humans in the Project of Medical Humanism, Asian Medicine, and Global Health. The list of speakers as well as the final program are available online.

As reported in several earlier posts, the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine is slated for closure. An online petition to "Save History of Medicine at UCL" recently concluded with over 4,100 supporters. Details on the petition are being collated and a summary of the main points is being prepared for submission to both the Wellcome Trust and University College London.

Call for Papers: Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science

The Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS) invites paper proposals for its thirteenth annual meeting on March 4-5, 2011, at the famous Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, sponsored by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Library.

SAHMS welcomes papers on the history of medicine and science, broadly construed to encompass historical, literary, anthropological, philosophical and sociological approaches to health care and science including race, disabilities and gender studies. Participants may propose individual papers of panels of several papers on a particular theme.

Each presenter is limited to 20 minutes, with additional time for questions and discussion. Please do not submit papers that have already been published, presented or scheduled for presentation at another meeting. All participants are responsible for their own travel expenses and must pay registration costs in advance of the meeting. Student travel awards are available each year; for more information, contact SAHMS President Michael Flannery at flannery@uab.edu.

To submit proposals, please visit the online submission site. The deadline is September 30, 2010. Required elements for the online proposals include Title, Purpose Statement, Rationale and Significance, Methodology, Sources, Findings & Conclusions, and Three Learning Objectives. For questions or problems with the submission site, contact Richard Nollan (rnollan@uthsc.edu) or Lisa Pruitt (lpruitt@mtsu.edu).

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Call for Papers: American Association for the History of Medicine

The American Association for the History of Medicine invites submissions in any area of medical history for its 84th annual meeting, to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 28 through May 1, 2011. The Association welcomes submissions on the history of health and healing; history of medical ideas, practices, and institutions; and histories of illness, disease, and public health. Submissions from all eras and regions of the world are welcome. In addition to single-paper proposals, the Program Committee accepts abstracts for sessions and for luncheon workshops. Please alert the Program Committee Chair if you are planning a session proposal. Individual papers for these submissions will be judged on their own merits.

Presentations are limited to 20 minutes. Individuals wishing to present a paper must attend the meeting. All papers must represent original work not already published or in press. Because the Bulletin of the History of Medicine is the official journal of the AAHM, the Association encourages speakers to make their manuscripts available for consideration by the Bulletin.

The AAHM uses an online abstract submissions system. We encourage all applicants to use this convenient software. A link for submissions will be posted to the AAHM website. Abstracts must be received by September 15, 2010.

If you are unable to submit proposals online, send eight copies of a one-page abstract (350 words maximum) to the Program Committee Chair, Susan E. Lederer (selederer@wisc.edu; tel: 608.262.4195), Dept. of Medical History and Bioethics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 1300 University Ave. Madison, WI 53706.

When proposing a historical argument, state the major claim, summarize the evidence supporting the claim, and state the major conclusion(s). When proposing a narrative, summarize the story, identify the major agents, and specify the conflict. Please provide the following information on the same sheet as the abstract: name, preferred mailing address, work and home telephone numbers, e-mail address, present institutional affiliation, and academic degrees.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Guide to the History of Medicine and the Health Sciences

A guide to selected resources in the history of medicine and the health sciences is available at the Special Collections web site at UNC Health Sciences Library; a PDF version is also available for download. While not a comprehensive compendium, the guide contains links to scores of useful tools and research materials at UNC and at other institutions around the United States and abroad. Organized by section, it covers the following areas of interest:

— Professional & Scholarly Associations
— Libraries
— Online & Print Catalogs
— Classification Schemes & Catalog Searching
— Digital Collections
— Online Exhibitions
— Aggregator Sites
— Listservs & Blogs
— Bookdealers, Antiquarians & Auction Houses
— Dissertations
— Oral Histories
— Museums
— Archives & Manuscripts
— UNC Special Collections
— UNC Online Resources & Guides
— Online Journals
— Selected Books & References
— Digitization
— Preservation & Conservation
— Book Collecting
— Information Management
— Funding & Opportunities

A guide to researching Public Health at UNC is available online as well.

Monday, June 21, 2010

UNC Health Sciences Library Awarded Digitization Grant

Special Collections at UNC Health Sciences Library has recently been awarded $42,675 for year two of a three-year NC ECHO digitization grant project for the creation of the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection. Funded by the State Library of North Carolina through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), the 2010-11 awards were announced June 10, 2010 and totalled $4.9 million for statewide library projects; the complete list of awards, including others at UNC, is available at the LSTA web site.

Work on the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection commenced with a pilot project over two years ago, and through year one of the grant project (FY 09-10), over 130,000 pages of core journals and books in medicine, public health, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing from 1849 to the present have been digitized. The digital collection will eventually grow to over 800 volumes and approximately 300,000 pages. This material thoroughly documents the development of health care and the health professions within North Carolina and is thus a significant part of the state’s cultural heritage and history.

While digitized content is also being made available via the Internet Archive, the project is actively developing an integrated web site that will provide consolidated online access and advanced searching functionalities. The digital collection will moreover provide historical context for the resources in the various health disciplines and K-12 educational materials for selected content. A glimpse of public health images from the digital collection is available via Flickr.

Daniel Smith, Special Collections Librarian at UNC Health Sciences Library, is the principal investigator and project manager, and has directed each phase of the grant. Partners in the project include the Carolina Digital Library and Archive, the UNC Library, and Learn NC.

Note: The image above is from the Health Bulletin (1927), v. 42, n. 2, p. 1, published by the North Carolina State Board of Health.

Five Centuries of North Carolina Maps Now Online

More than 3,200 historic maps of North Carolina are now available online as part of the digital North Carolina Maps project, set to be completed June 30, 2010

Visitors to the North Carolina Maps site can see the results of a three-year collaborative project to identify and scan nearly every original map of the state published from 1584 to 1923. The collection also contains maps of every North Carolina county and maps published by the state through the year 2000.

The North Carolina Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library collaborated to produce the new site with the North Carolina State Archives and the Outer Banks History Center in Manteo. The UNC Library and the State Archives scanned the maps, and the Library hosts and administers the site.

Read more . . . .

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

2010 North Carolina Book Awards

The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association (NCLHA), established in 1900, has issued a call for entries for the 2010 North Carolina Book Awards. Several different competitions are now open, including the Hardee Rives Award for Dramatic Arts, the Ragan Old North State Award for Nonfiction (successor to the Mayflower Cup), the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry, the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, and the American Association of University Women Award for Juvenile Literature.

To be eligible for consideration, a work must meet the following criteria:

-- It must be an original book published during the twelve months ending June 30 of the year for which the award is given;

-- Its author(s) must have maintained legal or physical residence, or a combination of both, in North Carolina for the three years preceding the close of the contest period; and

-- Three (3) copies of each entry must be submitted to the Awards Coordinator for the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.

Additional guidelines are available on the NCLHA web site. The deadline for receipt of nominated books is July 15, 2010.

Other related awards include the Christopher Crittenden Memorial Award, which recognizes significant contributions to the preservation of North Carolina history, and the R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award, which acknowledges literary contributions. At the annual meeting each year the Historical Society of North Carolina presents the R. D. W. Connor Award for the best article to have appeared in the North Carolina Historical Review in the preceding year and the Hugh T. Lefler Award for the best paper by an undergraduate student.

Visit the NCLHA web site for further information about the Association, which is among the oldest of its kind in the nation.

Resources for Oil Spill Disasters and Health

As part of its Disaster Information Management Research Center, the National Library of Medicine provides access to disaster management information resources, projects, and programs. One of its newest additions is a set of disaster preparedness and response resources related to crude oil spills and health. This site features sections for current awareness; occupational hazards; dispersants; food contamination; government agencies; wildlife protection; social media; as well as resources from the National Library of Medicine and in foreign languages.

The Internet Archive Book Drive

The Internet Archive has been scanning books for some years now, and we're always looking for more. In addition to 1,000,000+ eBooks available to anyone available through Open Library, we've announced the release of modern books for the print-disabled community in a special format called DAISY. It's a brand new collection--one of the largest available online. For too long, print-disabled people have been denied access to the full breadth of contemporary books, and we'd like to assist in tipping that balance back to where it should be, universal access for all readers.

Please help us by donating books to be scanned or with financial support for the scanning process. Based on existing foundation funding, we are sponsoring the scanning of the first 10,000 books that are donated in this Book Drive. We're looking for wonderful and important books for this first 10,000 and even more books and money to keep it going. We will make these digital books as available to the world as we can, including the print-disabled, and will preserve the physical book for the long term.

How Does The Book Drive Work?
You can simply send up to 100 books or drop them off in person at our headquarters:

Internet Archive Book Drive
300 Funston Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118

If you'd like to make a donation of more than 100 books, wow! That would be wonderful, but please give us a call on +1 415-561-6767 to arrange shipping and handling.

Read more . . . .

Physicians' Lives in the Shenandoah Valley

The National Library of Medicine's Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program (AMMP) in the History of Medicine Division is pleased to announce the launch of a new digital texts site, Physicians' Lives in the Shenandoah Valley, a collection of 828 letters dating between 1786-1907. It is drawn from the Henkel Family Letters collection covering more than a century of life in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

The Henkel family settled in New Market, Virginia in 1790. Generations of fathers and sons studied medicine. Over the course of their careers, these physicians ministered to their community, tended to their countrymen on the battlefield, and testified in the nation's courts of law. The letters of the Henkel family richly document the daily life of men in medicine in the nineteenth century and reveal the challenges of the profession as well as the rewards and responsibilities. Their writings colorfully represent the range of events in everyday life, from the minute details of local issues to the national crisis of the Civil War. The missives convey the concerns and characters of the authors, vividly illustrating the writers' personalities, and their experiences as physicians.

The site contains the complete collection of transcribed letters alongside images of the originals. Curators normalized the majority of place names, general subject terms, and MeSH terms (Medical Subject Headings) to aid searching and browsing. The original spellings are enhanced by pop-up window links that display the normalized phrase. All spellings and verbiage are those of the original writers; no editorial interventions were made, although some layouts differ to enhance readability.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Edward G. Holley, National Library Leader, Dies at 83

One of the most outstanding leaders in 20th century American librarianship, Dr. Edward G. Holley, died peacefully Thursday, February 18 in Durham, North Carolina. A highly respected dean and professor at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1972 to 1985 and William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor from 1989 until he retired from the School in 1995, Dr. Holley was known as a giant in the library world.

Holley was born in 1927 in Pulaski, Tenn. In 1949 he earned a B.A. in English from David Lipscomb College in Nashville, Tenn. He then received an M.A. in library science in 1951 from George Peabody College for Teachers, also in Nashville. In 1961 Holley completed a Ph.D. in library science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He began his professional
academic career at the University of Houston, and he spent nine years in Texas before coming to Chapel Hill in 1972 to assume the position of dean and professor in UNC at Chapel Hill's SILS.

Holley served as president of the American Library Association (ALA) from 1974-75 and received nearly every major award his profession bestowed, notable among them the ALA Scarecrow Press Award for his published dissertation, Charles Evans, American Bibliographer (1964); the ALA Melvil Dewey Award (1983); the ALA Joseph Lippincott Award (1987); Distinguished Alumnus Awards (Peabody Library School, Vanderbilt University, 1987;
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 1988); the Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Award (Association of College and Research Libraries, 1988); and the Beta Phi Mu Award (1992). In 1994, he was honored with a festschrift, For the Good of the Order: Essays in Honor of Edward G. Holley, the title bearing
witness to his tireless professional devotion.

An eminent historian, Holley produced over 100 books, articles and essays on topics as diverse as library biography, the history of library education, copyright, library administration and the place of personal morality in public life. He served on countless high level committees,
worked for accreditation standards, defended the MLS, testified before Congressional committees and acted as library consultant. As ALA president during turbulent times (1974-1975), he was largely responsible for establishing a federated system for ALA ("every tub on its own bottom").

While dean of SILS, Holley established a doctoral program, hired distinguished faculty and expanded the master's program to two years, providing a core curriculum known famously to students during his years as "The Block." In 1975 he established the internship program at the Environmental Protection Agency Library that still exists today. As professor and advisor, he was an inspiration to his students.

"Ed was not only a distinguished professional, but also a caring and compassionate individual," said Dr. Barbara B. Moran, interim dean of SILS. "He was one of the most unselfish people I ever met and was always concerned with the good of others. He was a wonderful mentor and someone who cared deeply about the students, the faculty and the School. Using his own term, he always put the "good of the order" before his individual needs. He was truly a remarkable person and one who will be missed deeply by those who had the opportunity to know him."

Dr. Holley was preceded in death by his wife, Bobbie Lee Holley. He is survived by four children, Gailon Holley, Jens Holley, Amy Holley and Beth Holley; and three grandchildren, Melody Holley, Faith Holley and Julia Ruth.

A memorial service for Dr. Holley, will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 12, 2010 at Gerrard Hall on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus.

A reception in the historic Queen Anne Faculty Lounge at the UNC Campus YMCA (next to Gerrard Hall) will immediately follow the memorial service. All who would like to join the family are invited to attend.

Gifts in memory of Dr. Holley may be directed to the "Edward G. Holley Student Research Fund" at SILS. For more information on how to make donations in Dr. Holley's name, please contact the SILS office at 919-843-8337 or send e-mail to wmonroe@unc.edu.

Note: Portions of this news story have been reprinted from "Interview with Edward G. Holley" by Tommy Nixon, which was published in North Carolina Libraries, 56(2), Summer 1998, p.65-70.)