Post on 21-Dec-2015
The College of Physicians of PhiladelphiaHistorical Medical LibraryDigital Library Initiatives
NN/LM MAR Boost Box WebinarFebruary 10, 2015
Presented by Beth Lander, College Librarian
The Historical Medical Library
Mütter Museum
The sister collection to the Historical Medical Library…..
Our first digital content….Brunschwig’s Pestbuch, 1500
Our objectives….
1727 images scannedImage Library
Exhibitions“A Philadelphia Physician Encounters the Great War”
Exhibitions“Under the Influence of the Heavens: Astrology in Medicine in the 15th and 16th Centuries”
COLLECTION STRENGTHS
ANATOMY
MEDICAL BOTANY
PHILADELPHIA GENERAL HOSPITAL
Vesalius on the Verge: the Book and the Body
COLLECTIONHIGHLIGHTS
PARACELSUS PROPHECIES
RUYSCH THESAURUS ANATOMICUS
VESALIUS DE FABRICA
65,742 page views7,210 usersAccess and outreach
Social Media
Click icon to add pictureAlmost 700 followers
6800 “impressions” from 12/14 – 1/15
Graphic images and content attracts the most interaction.
Attracts scholars but also those in a more general audience.
Linking content through Wikipedia
Records in WorldCat via the Digital Collection Gateway
Click icon to add pictureService provided by OCLC
Requires an OAI-PMH compliant repository
We have only been linking content through WorldCat for a month
How to measure impact within what we assume is a more scholarly audience?
Equipment, software, staffing
Spend money on a good scanner….
Opus FreeFlow software
Use open source products!
Use open source products!Omeka, created by the Center for History and New Media
Omeka, back end exhibit builder
Don’t fear the code!
Initial installation of Omeka required:
- Coding to create the layout we wanted
- Creation of links between pages and subpages, and between content and metadata
- Once that coding was complete, Joe could rely on the templates for most exhibit creation
Use open source products!DreamHost, free shared hosting plan for 501 (c)3 organizations
Google Analytics andGoogle Webmaster
Fear not the coding!
Joe Anderson, Digital Projects Librarian, is a self-taught coder.
He uses:
Staffing Requirements
FOR SCANNING:
Attention to detail
Ability to follow specific directions
Patience
Someone who likes to sit in a darkened room
Someone who is receptive to training
A person who asks questions
College students make great, although short-term, interns
The importance of good metadata
Qualified Dublin Core
Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Graphics)
AACR2
MeSH
Who, what, when, where, why? Use fields to explain content to your viewer.
Ensures interoperability, share-ability and find-ability
Medical Heritage Library
What the Future Holds…
Mütter Museum
The sister collection to the Historical Medical Library…..
Stories that have yet to be told…
The story of polio, and the use of the iron lung in treatment….
Stories that have yet to be told…
Scarificators, bloodletting, Benjamin Rush, and the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793.
Stories that have yet to be told…
The eugenics movement in Philadelphia.
The Historical Medical LibraryThe Library is never really this busy……
The Mütter LibraryTransforming the Historical Medical Library into the Mütter Library, an interactive, library-based, discovery space
Shifting from “medical history” to “medical humanities”
Thank You!Beth Landerblander@collegeofphysicians.orgJoe Andersonjanderson@collegeofphysicians.org