CLIR 2011 Sponsors’ Symposium Features the Medical Heritage Library

  By

The world of higher education at large continues to grapple with the changing needs of researchers brought about by emerging technologies. Although many of the technological solutions for building a more robust research infrastructure are within our grasp, the human side of this equation is unresolved. That is, we are still learning the productive ways in which to work together across professional and institutional boundaries. This was a focus of discussion at the 2011 Council… Continue reading

Institutional Digitization Survey Results

  By

In November and December, 2010, the MHL asked repositories holding medical heritage materials to respond to a survey regarding their past experiences and future digitization plans. Summary analysis of survey results can be found here: MHL Institutional Digitization Survey. The MHL will be pursuing additional information regarding digitization plans and practices. If your repository has not completed the survey and would like to participate, please contact: medicalheritage@gmail.com. Continue reading

How Digital Resources Can Support Your Scholarship or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Digital World

  By

Going to Philadelphia in April for AAHM? If you’re attending the American Association for the History of Medicine annual meeting, join curators and reference librarians from leading academic medical libraries for lunch on Saturday. These subject specialists will discuss the digital resources, websites and databases, they consult when responding to research questions.  Among the sources under discussion will be the Medical Heritage Library. This will also be an opportunity to learn about digital scholarship in the history of medicine itself and discuss… Continue reading

Open Knowledge Commons Founder Maura Marx Honored by Simmons GSLIS

  By

The MHL partners are pleased to announce that Maura Marx, CEO of the Open Knowledge Commons (OKC), has been honored with the GSLIS Alumni Achievement Award, presented annually by the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Award winners have “demonstrated excellence in a way that exceeds the boundaries of their current positions by achieving influence as an outstanding role model for library and information science professionals.” Ms. Marx initiated the Boston Public… Continue reading

From the Stacks: A Survivor of the Harvard Fire of 1764

  By

The Center for the History of Medicine staff members report that as they review and examine the rare books in the Center’s holdings for inclusion in the Medical Heritage Library digitization project, surprising things continue to come to light: Our copy of the 1708 second edition of A mechanical account of poisons in several essays, Richard Mead’s tract on vipers, tarantulas, and mad dogs, will soon be appearing in the MHL, but in looking through one of… Continue reading

Digital Highlights: The Shape of the Skull

  By

Phrenology was a popular scientific subfield during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; phrenology promised to reveal the inner secrets of the character and the mind through recognition of the particular shape of an individual’s skull. Specific portions of the brain, often referred to as “organs,” were believed to connect to certain tendencies in character — acquisitiveness, jealousy, hysteria, sexual desire, and so forth — and to bring a particular shape and proportion to the… Continue reading

The Incredible, Embeddable Book

  By

At the end of 2010, the team at the Internet Archive premiered a new BookReader. The new Reader has several nice new features, including a ReadAloud option, improved shareability, and a wider range of navigation options. The new BookReader can also be used to embed books in websites like this one! The embeddable BookReader allows for full use of scanned texts on other webpages: you can flip back and forth between pages and move between… Continue reading

Digital Highlights: a peculiar approach to healing, and an important early work on surgery

  By

The Center for the History of Medicine has digitized nearly 400 works on the subjects of surgery and the treatment of wounds and injuries as part of our ongoing contributions to the Medical Heritage Library. Two titles of note, both from the Boston Medical Library collection,  recently passed through the scanning lab: Addinell Hewson’s 1872 work, Earth as a topical application in surgery, and Thomas Gale’s Certaine workes of chirurgerie (1563). Hewson, a once noted Philadelphia surgeon, describes… Continue reading

Digital Highlights: Revelatory Writing

  By

G. Mackenzie Bacon, M.D., acted as Medical Superintendent of the County Asylum in Cambridgeshire, England. In 1870, he wrote a short treatise called On the Writing of the Insane. Bacon wrote a short introduction to his volume, but even with that, it isn’t entirely clear who he felt he was writing for. Nor is it entirely clear what point Bacon intends to make. He presents many documents that have come to his attention in his… Continue reading

Digital Highlights: Health and Safety, 1915

  By

In 1915, The Health Series of Physiology and Hygiene published the latest in its series, Making the Most of Life, written by M.V. O’Shea and J.H. Kellogg. O’Shea was a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin; Kellogg was the superintendant of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan. Making the Most of Life was designed as a student text on health, complete with follow-up questions for each chapter, project suggestions, and a glossary at the… Continue reading