Report - NN/LM SCR Historical Collections Task Force
Charge:
The SCR Historical Collections Task Force was formed to identify the Region’s historical and unique collections held by member libraries, medical societies, related associations, and other entities. The responsibility of identifying historic and unique materials was included in the National Library of Medicine’s 2006 – 2011 Regional Medical Library statement of work. These materials were to be added to the Directory of History of Medicine Collections (http://wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/hmddirectory/index.cfm).
Formation:
The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region (NN/LM SCR) began forming the Historical Collections Task Force in August 2009. Most members of the task force volunteered through a call for participation on the NN/LM SCR listserv (NNLMSCR-L) by KK Jiang, the task force facilitator. To ensure that each state in the Region was represented, Ms. Jiang contacted Resource Libraries in states without volunteers to request participation. By the end of November 2009, several archival librarians from member libraries had agreed to serve on the task force (the list of members is at the end of this report). During this time period, Ms. Jiang resigned from the NN/LM SCR and Re Mishra became the facilitator.
A web page for the Historical Collections Task Force (http://nnlm.gov/scr/rsdd/historical.html), and a listserv, SCR-HIST-L, was created in January 2010. The committee first met via Adobe Connect on March 4, 2010 to discuss the charge and timeline for completion of activities. Further discussions on the project took place via the listserv. A second Adobe Connect meeting was held on April 14, 2010. It was decided the project would formally end June 30, 2010 at which time final reports would be due from task force members. The minutes of the Adobe Connect meetings are attached.
Methodology:
The Region was divided closely along the Resource Libraries subregions http://nnlm.gov/scr/outreach/res-sub.html.
Representatives:
Arkansas
- Amanda Saar (responsible for the entire state)
Louisiana
- Dee Jones (north Louisiana)
- Jennifer Lloyd (south Louisiana)
New Mexico
- Laura Hall (responsible for the entire state)
Oklahoma
- Junie Janzen (north Oklahoma)
- Joy Summers-Ables (south Oklahoma)
Texas
- Penelope Borchers (San Antonio, Austin and College Station areas)
- Craig Elam (Fort Worth and central Texas)
- Javier Garza (Dallas and east Texas)
- Bobby Martin (Galveston and Corpus Christi)
- Greysi Reyna (Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley)
- Beth White (Houston and Huntsville). Note: Beth White retired on April 30, 2010 and was replaced by MJ Figard
- Richard Wood (west Texas)
It was decided that, in most cases, it would be easier to contact institutions via email to ask them to include their information in the Directory of History of Medicine Collections. Task force members shared draft letters and emails with others. Each task force member modified these documents to meet their own needs. In addition, the institutions were asked to enter their own information into the Directory.
Results:
In total, 371 institutions were contacted. As of December 17, 2010, 15 institutions were added. In addition, those institutions that were previously in the Directory reviewed and revised their entries.
The new institutions are:
Louisiana
Baton Rouge
- National Hansen's Disease Programs Museum
New Orleans
- Amistad Research Center at Tulane University
- Louisiana Research Collection
- Louisiana State Museum Historical Center
- Touro Infirmary Archives
Oklahoma
Norman
- History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
Texas
Austin
- Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
- Texas Medical Association, Knowledge Center, History of Medicine Collection
Dallas
- History of Medicine Library, University of Texas Southwestern , Medical Center at Dallas
- Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System
Denton
- University of North Texas Archives
Dripping Springs
- Friends of the Pound House Foundation
Fort Worth
- Fort Worth Library
Memphis
- Memphis Public Library
Refugio
- The Refugio County Museum, The Refugio County Historical Society
San Antonio
- Archives of the Sisters of Divine Providence of San Antonio
Report by Task Force Members:
Arkansas
- Amanda Sarr
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Library
4301 W. Markham St. #586
Little Rock, AR 72205
Phone: 501-686-6733
Email: SaarAmandaE@uams.edu
No report submitted.
Louisiana
- Dee Jones
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport
Medical Library
1501 Kings Highway
Shreveport, LA 71103
Phone: 318-675-5458
Email: DJone4@lsuhsc.edu
Contacted approximately 40 institutions in north Louisiana via email. Spent approximately 20 hours on the project.
- Jennifer Lloyd
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Library - New Orleans
433 Bolivar Street Box B3-1
New Orleans, LA 70112
Phone: 504-568-5550
Email: jlloyd@lsuhsc.edu
Contacted approximately 50 institutions in south Louisiana via email. Ten institutions were considered priority and were contacted multiple times. Five institutions were added to the Directory.
New Mexico
- Laura Hall
The University of New Mexico
Health Sciences Library & Informatics Center
MSC09 5100
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Phone: 505-272-6518
Email: ljhall@salud.unm.edu
No report submitted.
Oklahoma
- Junie Janzen
University of Oklahoma College of Medicine
Tulsa Library
4502 East 41st St.
Tulsa, OK 74135
Phone: 918-660-3224
Email: Junie-Janzen@ouhsc.edu
No report submitted.
- Joy Summers-Ables
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library
PO Box 26901 (zip 73126)
1000 Stanton L. Young Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73190
Phone: 405-271-2285, opt. 5
Email: Joy-Summers@ouhsc.edu
No report submitted. One institution was added to the Directory.
Texas
- Penelope Borchers
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Library
7703 Floyd Curl Dr.
San Antonio, TX 78229-3900
Phone: 210-567-2469
Email: borchers@uthscsa.edu
Contacted 37 institutions in the Austin, College Station, and San Antonio area. Three institutions were added to the Directory.
- Craig Elam
University of North Texas Health Science Center
Gibson D. Lewis Health Science Library
3500 Camp Bowie Blvd.
Fort Worth, TX 76107
Phone: 817-735-2469
Email: craig.elam@unthsc.edu
Contacted 8 institutions in the North Central Texas area. Six institutions were added to the Directory.
- Javier Garza
M.D. Anderson Research Medical Library
Pickens Academic Tower, 21st Floor
1400 Pressler St.
Houston, TX 77030
Phone: 713-792-2285
Email: jjgarza@mdanderson.org
Contacted 30 institutions via email the East Texas area. Followed up with 13 of these via phone.
- Bobby Marlin
University of Texas Medical Branch
Moody Medical Library
301 University Blvd.
Galveston, TX 77555
Phone: 409-772-8717
Email: romarlin@utmb.edu
Contacted 46 institutions in the Galveston/Corpus Christi area.
- Greysi Reyna
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Regional Academic Health Center
2102 Treasure Hills Blvd.
Harlingen, TX 78550
Phone: 956-365-8850
Email: reynag@uthscsa.edu
No report submitted.
- MJ Figard
Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library
1133 John Freeman Blvd.
Houston, TX 77030
Phone: 713-799-7141
Email: mj.figard@exch.library.tmc.edu
Note: Elizabeth White originally served on the task force until her retirement. MJ joined on May 1, 2010.
Contacted 3 institutions and 2 historical organizations.
- Richard Wood
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Libraries of the Health Sciences
3601 4th Street, STOP 7781
Lubbock, TX 79430-7781
Phone: 806-743-2203
Email: richard.wood@ttuhsc.edu
Contacted 155 institutions via mail in the West Texas area.
Meeting Minutes
March 4, 2010
Members in attendance:
Re Mishra, SCR coordinator
Penelope Borchers, Javier Garza, Junie Janzen, Dee Jones, Jennifer Lloyd, Bobby Martin, Greysi Reyna, Joy Summers-Ables, Elizabeth White, and Richard Wood
Re stated that the purpose of the Task force was to identify History of Medicine collections in our region; and to submit these self-identified collections to the History of Medicine Division (HMD) of NLM for inclusion in their directories (http://wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/hmddirectory/index.cfm). We plan on using a modified version of the form from HMD. Re will add a checkbox for local and state collection to the form. The keywords on the checklist are to assist agencies in identifying pertinent holdings. Re will be emailing a revised version of this word document; then she asks that the Task Force members identify locations within their designated geographical area and submit the form to these libraries or archives for possible inclusion. Forms will be submitted to Re who will compile the data for NLM.
The region was divided up on geographic lines based on the subregions for each Resource Library (http://nnlm.gov/scr/outreach/res-sub.html):
- Arkansas - Amanda Saar will be responsible for the entire state
- New Mexico - Laura Hall will be responsible for the entire state
- Louisiana - Dee Jones will be responsible for the northern part of the state; Jennifer Lloyd will be responsible for the southern part of the state
- Oklahoma - Junie Janzen will be responsible for the northern part of the state; Joy Summers-Ables will be responsible for the southern part of the state
- Texas - Penelope Borchers will be responsible for the San Antonio, Austin and College Station areas; Greysi Reyna will be responsible for the Valley; Richard Wood will be responsible for west Texas; Craig Elam will be responsible for Fort Worth and central Texas; Javier Garza will be responsible for Dallas and east Texas; Bobby Martin will be responsible for the Galveston and Corpus Christi areas; Beth White will be responsible for the Houston and Huntsville areas
Be certain to think outside of normal sources of collections. In the 19th century many quasi-medical establishments existed and collections of their materials may exist in unexpected locations. Also what is historical is locally determined. Do not limit yourself to pre-20th century. Recent collections are of historical importance as well.
The forms should be submitted to Re by June 30th; she will then aggregate and submit the final product to NLM HMD by July 31st. A follow-up meeting will take place in early April. Additionally the meeting was recorded by Re in case anyone needs to go back and listen.
April 14, 2010
Members in attendance:
Re Mishra, SCR Coordinator
Michelle Malizia, Associate Director
Penelope Borchers, Craig Elam, Laura Hall, Dee Jones, Jennifer Lloyd, Richard Wood
Re called the meeting to order and said that the purpose of the meeting was to see what the task force members might need from the SCR office and to give progress reports from each member.
Arkansas –no report
Louisiana
South (below Alexandria) – Jennifer stated that she had identified about 50 different potential collections to contact, including several of religious groups who were involved in nursing in New Orleans. She has not contacted any of the collections as of yet.
North (Alexandria & above) – Dee said that she indentified about 40 collections that may be of interest. She has created a letter with links that she plans to email to the various responsible parties. Re asked Dee to share her letter with the group. Dee said she would email it to the group email (SCR-HIST@lib40.library.tmc.edu).
New Mexico
Laura asked if there was a threshold of holdings that needed to be met. Re responded that task force members should use their best judgment. The Society of Southwest Archivists will be meeting in Santa Fe at the end of the month, Laura plans on promoting the project to them at that time.
Oklahoma – no report
Texas
West Texas – Richard has been working to obtain a collection in El Paso with over 2000 images. He has created a list of people to contact including identifying who might have the archives for the tuberculosis sanatoriums. Re asked that he go ahead and add Texas Tech to the Directory; their entry may be modified after the El Paso materials are acquired.
Ft. Worth & Central Texas – Craig said he has identified hospitals, the Dallas Public Library and the University of Texas at Arlington who has some PhD related materials. Richard said don’t forget to look at the old Polk directories to find the old medical schools and try to figure out who has their records. Craig said that he knows the old Ft. Worth Medical School moved to Oklahoma and may contact them even though it is not his geographical area. He also said that he received a phone call from Bill Maina at UTSW. Crystal Smith from NLM had contacted him about updating his entry. Re said that it wasn’t necessary for us to contact the people who were already listed in the directory. Richard asked if anyone had thought of the hospitals created by the railroads all across Texas or the spas in Mineral Wells. Craig added that he would create an institutional record for his library.
San Antonio, Austin, College Station – Penelope said that she had the same question as Laura as to what was the threshold level. She has identified some local collections and has created a letter. Re asked that she send her letter to the group as well. Penelope plans to appeal to the organizations/groups that she contacts for advice for on who else may have collections of interest. She plans to reach out to a local archivists society.
Re thanked everyone for their efforts and thanked Dee & Penelope for creating letters and allowing the group to see them. She asked if there was any other service that the SCR office could supply. Penelope asked to be reminded of the deadlines. Re said that since we were asking the contributors to enter their own data, that July 31st was the deadline. Email updates with numbers and progress to Re for her report to NLM. The update does not have to be a formal report from the task force members and could be just forwarded emails from the individuals that were contacted. Re also reminded everyone to be sure to let your Outreach Contact know about the project progress so that they include the information in their report. Richard asked if a link to the Directory and the press release could be added to the task force homepage. Re said absolutely and she would ask for that to happen immediately. Craig said that if anyone finds a good general source for identifying collections to please email it to the group.
