Tag: CLIR

Now Available! Recommended Practices for Enabling Access to Manuscript and Archival Collections Containing Health Information about Individuals

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Medical Heritage Library collaborators  the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and the Center for the History of Medicine at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine are pleased to announce the distribution of their jointly authored recommended practices to enable access to manuscript and archival collections containing health information about individuals. These recommendations are intended to alleviate many of the concerns repositories have related to collecting and preserving health services records, especially those repositories that are not affiliated with hospitals or medical schools.

The recommendations are presented in four categories: 1) Determining an Institution’s Status and Policy Needs; 2) Implementing Policy and Fostering Process Transparency; 3) Communicating the Nature of Restrictions; and 4) Describing Records to Best Enable Discovery and Access. Those who care for and provide access to records containing health information about individuals are invited to test the recommendations and provide feedback on their utility; those who use such records in their research are equally invited to comment on their scope.

Researchers who have used or are seeking access to primary sources containing health information about individuals are encouraged to share their experiences and difficulties accessing health services records. Visit the MHL’s researcher access survey site and contribute to our efforts to improve access to these important records.

For more information, please contact the Medical Heritage Library at MedicalHeritage@gmail.com.

This work was made possible through the generous funding of the Mellon Foundation through the Council for Library and Information Resources’ Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program (2012: Private Practices, Public Health: Privacy-Aware Processing to Maximize Access to Health Collections).

Tracing the Footsteps of a Giant

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Barbara Starfield in Venice, Italy for the 23rd Patient Classification Systems/International Conference November 8, 2007. Photo is courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

Barbara Starfield in Venice, Italy for the 23rd Patient Classification Systems/International Conference November 8, 2007. Photo is courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

Staring up at the 76 boxes in Barbara Starfield’s collection occupying an entire wall of shelving—or 91 cubic feet—in the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, I immediately wondered how I would ever be able to piece together the life’s work of a world-renowned researcher and academic.  Continue reading

“Have you Heard about the Hardys?”

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Miriam Pauls Hardy Photo is courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

Miriam Pauls Hardy
Photo is courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

I am entering into my third year of graduate study in history at Johns Hopkins.  As a graduate student in the early stages of dissertation research, my experience working with the William G. and Miriam P. Hardy Collection has been an interesting and instructive one. Continue reading

Update on CLIR Project at Chesney Medical Archives

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Entrance to The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Photograph courtesy of The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives.

Project staff at the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions are well into processing three of the four personal paper collections that were selected to be part of the CLIR project to process hidden special collections. Continue reading

Countway and Hopkins Receive Mellon Foundation Grant

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Psychiatrists Erich Lindemann (center right) and Lydia M. Gibson Hawes (center left) at an unidentified social event. Lydia M. Gibson Dawes papers, 1926-1959 (B MS c96). From the Boston Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.

Psychiatrists Erich Lindemann (center right) and Lydia M. Gibson Dawes (center left) at an unidentified social event. Lydia M. Gibson Dawes papers, 1926-1959 (B MS c96). From the Boston Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.

The Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School has received a $202,900 Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, through a program administered by the Council on Library Resources (CLIR) to increase access to critical resources currently unavailable to historical research.  Continue reading

CLIR 2011 Sponsors’ Symposium Features the Medical Heritage Library

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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 on Libraries and Information Resources Sponsors’ Symposium in Arlington, VA—Collaborative Opportunities Amidst Economic Pressures. Lively discussion of the economic, institutional, and social factors that can facilitate or impede collaborative solutions filled much of the day.

My presentation, Whose Goals are They? Navigating Diverse Institutional Cultures and Shared Responsibility for Creating Digital Resources in the History of Medicine, focused on the history of the MHL project and how a diverse group of partners can support digital scholarship in the medical humanities. This presentation was part of a panel that included two other examples of successful collaborations:

  • “The Making of Hydra: Common Solutions for Common Problems” by Martha Sites, Associate University Librarian for Production and Technology Services, University of Virginia
  • “TextGrid: A Virtual Research Environment for the Humanities” by Heike Neuroth, Scientific Coodinator of TextGrid and Director of Research and Development, University Library of Goettingen.

Together these projects highlight three approaches to finding shared solutions for disciplinary or local issues. In the final session of the day Chuck Henry, CLIR President, divided us into groups and asked the provocative question: What is it about our policies, organizations, traditions, or practices that impedes collaboration? The list of responses ranged from resource and staffing constraints to the perhaps more challenging habits of culture and communication.

PowerPoint slides from each of the presentations are available here. CLIR will also post a summary of the afternoon session on their website with a blog or wiki to encourage wider discussion. Visit often and join in the conversation.

Lori M. Jahnke
S. Gordon Castigliano CLIR Fellow
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia