Newsletter of the Science, Technology, and Health Care Roundtable of the Society of American Archivists Summer 2000

 

Contents:

Message from the Co-Chairs Around and About Archives Conferences, Meetings, and Workshops SAA 2000 Annual Meeting—Denver  STHC Roundtable Steering Committee Members STHC Listserv Information  Websites of Interest Article: Colorado feature: Diane Rabson, National Center for Atmospheric Research "The Invisible Ally" Article:  Lisa Mix, "Johns Hopkins Unveils New Web Sites" Minutes of 1999 SAA Roundtable

All folks attending SAA (Society of American Archivists) in Denver are invited to the Science, Technology, and Healthcare (STHC) Roundtable meeting on Saturday, 2 September 2000, 8:00-9:30 a.m..

The Science, Technology, and Healthcare (STHC) Roundtable meeting for the Society of American Archivists annual meeting in Denver is scheduled for Saturday, 2 September 2000, 8:00-9:30 a.m. in room Governor's Square 12 at the Adam's Mark Hotel -- bring your breakfast! The STHC roundtable provides a forum for archivists with similar interests or holdings in the natural, physical and social sciences, technology, and health care (including medicine), and provides an opportunity to exchange information, solve problems and share successes.  We especially welcome STHC archivists from Colorado, as well as archivists who do not have a primary focus in these fields but may have questions to ask or collection news to share.

Agenda

1. Welcome and introductions
2. Program

"Celebrating 40 Years of Discovery and Partnerships: the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)" -- Diane Rabson, UCAR/NCAR Archivist, Boulder, Colorado.

"The Three-Dimensional Web: the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre (Austehc) at Work" -- Gavan McCarthy, Austehc Director, University of Melbourne, Australia.

3. Business

-- Review agenda
-- Approval of minutes from 1999 meeting
-- Report on 1999-2000 activities
-- Archival Elements newsletter (Liz Andrews and Tanya Zanish-Belcher)
-- STHC-L listserv  (Russell Johnson)
-- STHC Website development  (Steering Committee)
-- Maintaining roundtable's archive
-- Program:  2000 sessions and 2001 proposal
-- Local outreach: suggestions and requests for repositories/venues to contact before next  year's meeting, to encourage tours, receptions, and participation
- Other new business

4. Roundtable Roundrobin / STHC Slam

--8 to 10 attendees will each get 3 minutes (max, including questions; overheads, brochures, and flyers/handouts are welcomed) to pitch their repository/organization/project/ product/problem/idea:

news from individual repositories: new collections, projects, exhibitions, publications, or other news from their repositories
brief reports on recent conferences and meetings
individual member issues and queries

sign up during the STHC "office hour" on Thursday (3:00-4:00) or before the roundtable meeting or by sending an email to one of the co-chairs; if there are more than 8 or 10 volunteers, we'll make a slip for each person and draw at random

5. Adjournment

Our chief concern is to ensure that the STHC Roundtable reflects the interests of its participants.  We welcome all suggestions relating to the above topics or concerning any other issues members might like to see addressed at our meetings.  Please don't hesitate to get in touch with either of us:

Russell Johnson
Neuroscience History Archives
Brain Research Institute, UCLA
Los Angeles CA  90095-1761
T:  (310) 825-6940 or (310) 825-3191
F:  (310) 206-5855
E:   rjohnson@library.ucla.edu
W:  http://www.medsch.ucla.edu/som/bri/archives/nhahome.htm

Suzanna K.  Long
Continuing Studies
117-B Whitesitt Hall
Pittsburg State University
301 E. Lindburg
Pittsburg KS 66762-7526
T:  (316) 235-4181
E:  slong@pittstate.edu

Around and About Archives

--Joan Echtenkamp Klein
The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library of the University of Virginia Health System awarded prestigious IMLS grant

Thanks to a $250,041 grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library of the University of Virginia Health System will digitize, arrange,describe, preserve, and provide access via the World Wide Web toapproximately 30,000 pages of manuscript material and 1,000 photographs from the extensive Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection. The project will provide a model for the integration of state-of-the-art, standards-compliant information technology and scholarly resources to make unique library resources more widely available. The Claude Moore HealthSciences Library was selected as one of 50 institutions (and the only health sciences library) receiving awards totaling $10,405,993 from among the 187 grant proposals received by IMLS.

National Leadership Grants provide opportunities for libraries to address pressing needs in education, research and preservation, and for libraries and museums to work together to address community needs, expand audiencesand implement the use of the most efficient and appropriate technologies.National Leadership Grant projects provide creative solutions to issues ofnational importance and provide leadership for other organizations to emulate.

The work of the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission of 1900-1901 is the core of the Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection.  TheCommission, headed by Major Walter Reed (1851-1902), an 1869 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, made a dramatic discoveryand achieved a breakthrough in medicine for which Reed was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.  At experimental stations just outside Havana, Major Walter Reed and the other members of the Yellow Fever Commission proved that the Aedes aegypti mosquito was the vector for theyellow fever virus.

The Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection provides a uniqueresource of primary materials to support research in many areas ofhistorical inquiry.  Some avenues for exploration using the collection include the history of medicine and science, social history, military history, biographical information on the principal players in anastonishingly successful public health investigation and campaign, thehistory of family and interpersonal relationships in the nineteenthcentury, tropical medicine, and biomedical ethics. The Claude Moore HealthSciences Library will increase awareness and use of the Philip S. HenchWalter Reed Yellow Fever Collection by employing a multi-stage process ofdigitizing the manuscripts and photographs and building a searchable WorldWide Web-accessible database that incorporates the digital images and data.

Examples of materials from the Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection Please can be viewed in an online exhibit, The United StatesArmy Yellow Fever Commission and the Spanish-American War: Science and Politics in Latin America, 1898-1904
http://www.med.virgina.edu/hs-library/historical/yelfev/tabcon.html

--Phil Maples
The Baker-Cederberg Museum and Archives web site has been installed on the viaHealth home page. It can be viewed at: http://www.viahealth.org/archives.  The site includes pages on the History of Rochester City/General Hospital, Biographies, timeline, The Baker-Cederberg Museum and Archives, a listing of B-C.M.A.'s collections, the HeritageSociety, A select bibliography, Books and items for purchase, links to other sites of similar interest. A chronology is in preparation and will be up and running in the near future. The biography page will have additional life stories of prominent Rochester City/General Hospital personages added in the coming months. The site is profusely illustrated with historic photographs from B-C.M.A.'s collections

--Ewa Basinska
The MIT Insitute Archives and Special Collections is pleased to announce the opening of a collection of papers of Robert Payne Bigelow (1863-1955).  Bigelow, a graduate of Harvard (S.B. 1887) and John Hopkins University (Ph.D. 1892), joined the MIT faculty in 1893 and remained at the Institute's Department of Biology for forty years until his retirement in 1933.  In addition to his teaching and research work in the field of zoology and parasitology, he held the positions of the Institute's librarian (1895-1925) and the librarian of Marine Biological Laboratories at Woods Hole.  The collection contains notes and memoranda, correspondence, illustrations , and background reading notes related to Bigelow's work on the revised edition of A short history of science   Sedgwick, W.T., Tyler, H.W., and Bigelow, R.P., New York:Macmillan, 1939).  The first edition was published in 1917 by two MIT professors, William Thompson (1855-1921) and Harry W. Tyler (1863-1938), based on an elective course they taught together since 1907. The course, introduced by Sedgwick in 1889, aimed at providing undergraduate students and general readers with a concise account of the history of scientific knowledge and methods.  The collection presents an interesting example of a collaborative work on a revision of a popular textbook on the history of science.  It also provides a valuable overview of the selected literature on the subject, available in English in the 1930's.  1931-1941.  1 cubic foot.

--Megan Sniffin-Marinoff
Ewa Basinska and Nora Murphy began positions at the MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections this spring joining fellow archivists Jeffrey Mifflin, Liz Andrews, and Megan Sniffin-Marinoff.

-- John Zwicky
American Academy of Pediatrics
141 Northwest Point Blvd.
Elk Grove Village, Illinois, 60009

Contact:    John Zwicky, PhD, Phone:  847-981-7093, FAX:   847-228-5097, e-mail:  jzwicky@aap.org
Type of Business: Medical Society
Regular hours: Archivist M-W-F, 7 AM-3:30 PM;Library, M-F, 8 AM-4:30 PM (please make an appointment)
Access policy: Open to all doing research on the history of pediatrics

Holdings: Mostly Academy materials: publications, Board minutes and other records, photos, video and audio tapes, some artifacts. Non-Academy collections include a growing collection of pediatric textbooks and other books dealing with specific aspects of pediatrics, oral histories of prominent pediatricians, the Gauchet and Sarff collections of infant feeders and other pediatric antiquities.  The Pediatric History Center will also serve as the repository for the records of the American Pediatric Society and the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

American Society of Clinical Pathologists
2100 West Harrison Street
Chicago, Illinois, 60612-3798

Contact: John Zwicky, PhD, Phone:  (312) 738-1336, extension 1145, FAX:  (312) 738-1619, e-mail:  johnz@ascp.org
Type of Business: Medical Society
Regular Hours: Tuesday, Thursday, 7 AM-3PM
Access policy: Open to staff and members.  Research requests from outsiders will be answered as time permits.

Holdings:  Mostly ASCP materials: publications (including those with slides and audiovisual materials), ASCP board minutes and other records, an extensive collection of photos, audio tapes and videotapes, some artifacts.  Some records of ASCP presidents are also in the collection.  Non-ASCP materials include a growing collection of textbooks on pathology and other aspects of laboratory medicine, some journals, some films, and a growing collection of laboratory instruments such as microscopes, hemometers, hemoglobinometers, colorimeters, flame photometers, and other laboratory instruments and equipment.

-- Russell Johnson
Hosprec, the joint Wellcome/Public Record Office Hospital Records Database, which has over 2800 entries for hospitals in the UK, is now available for online searching by name and town, at http://hospitalrecords.pro.gov.uk/ and via the Wellcome Library website, http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/library. The information in the database, which deals mainly with  records in local authority or other record offices or administered by health authority archivists, includes what administrative and clinical records survive, for what date-span, where they are held, and what finding aids are in existence, and historical and administrative details. The database is constantly being updated. Researchers interested in more complex searching should contact the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre at the Wellcome Library, phone 020-7611-8483/6,  fax 020 7611-8703,  e-mail cmac@wellcome.ac.uk, or by post at 183 Euston Road London NW1 2BE, England UK.

Bring your breakfast to the yearly gathering of the Science, Technology, and Healthcare Roundtable which is meeting on Saturday morning September 2 at 8 a.m. We especially welcome Sci-Tech-Health Care archivists from Colorado -and archivists who do not have a primary focus on our subject area but have related collections and information to share in our roundtable round robin.

SAA Sessions sponsored by the Roundtable or related sci/tech topics are:

Session 32. Friday 10:30 to 12 A Gendered Perspective on the 20th Century: Using Oral History

Pamela C. Whitenack, chair
Hershey Community Archives

Bonnie Gurewitsch
Museum of Jewish Heritage
"Women in the Holocaust"

Jeffrey Suchanek
University of Kentucky
"Kentucky's Other World War II Veterans: Women's Role in the Military"

Tanya Zanish-Belcher
Iowa State University
"Documenting Women Scientists through Oral History"

Much of our knowledge of the past has been shaped by traditional sources written by and about men. Women's contributions were often ignored until recently, creating what has been recognized as a serious gap in the historical record. Oral history is particularly successful in capturing women's experiences. Presenters will examine how oral history sheds new light on women's experiences in the Holocaust, as World War II veterans, and as scientists, and how archivists can provide better access to these key sources.

Session  39. Friday 1:30 to 3 Everything But Encoding: Costs and Benefits of EAD Consortia

Caroline Moseley, chair
Bowdoin College Library

Katherine Hayes
American Institute of Physics
"Nine-Tenths Planning, One-Tenth Tagging: The AIP Online History Archives"

Megan Sniffin-Marinoff
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"What's In It for Me?: The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Joining a Consortium"

Clay Redding
American Institute of Physics
"How Much does it Cost?: A Comparative Cost Analysis"

Many repositories have begun participating in consortia to convert legacy finding aids to EAD. As in all collaborations, both benefits and costs result from participation. This session uses the AIP Center for History of Physics' nine-repository consortium as a case study for weighing the organizational reasons for and challenges of implementing an EAD collaboration, including a cost analysis, and discussion of other ramifications of participation.

Session 45. Saturday 11 to 12:30 Archives Oversight Committees

John Zwicky, chair
American Academy of Pediatrics

Russell Johnson
Biomedical Library at University of California at Los Angeles

Jean Deken
Stanford University Library

James E. Strain
American Academy of Pediatrics Archives Committee

The panelists, two archivists and an archives committee member, will address the pros and cons of forming archives oversight committees. Topics will include types of supervisory and advisory oversight committees, how and why they are formed, who is appointed to them, ways in which they can be effective, and circumstances in which they may become a liability rather than an asset.

Session 54. Saturday 11 to 12:30 When the Written Word is Not Enough: Oral Histories of Science Professionals
co-sponsored by the Oral History Section

Suzanna Long, moderator
Pittsburgh State University

Diane Rabson
National Center for Atmospheric Research

Deborah Day
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Kevin D. Corbitt
American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Archives

This session will explore the complex and exciting challenges involved in creating oral histories of science professionals, scientists, healthcare professionals, and engineers. Many science professionals feel that published results are the only documentation that matters, but the panelists will describe the immense additional value of scientific oral histories. The questions asked and guidance presented are intended to cover the wide spectrum of challenges faced in documenting science professionals and their work.

Session 59 Saturday 4 to 5:30 Records of Patients and Human Subjects: Access to Sensitive Materials
— submitted by Privacy and Confidentiality Roundtable STHC co-sponsor

Stuart Campbell, chair
Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center Archives

Nancy McCall
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
"Applying for Access to Records of Patients and Human Subjects: The Internal Review Board (IRB) as a Model for Adjudication"

Aimee M. Felker
CIGNA
"Privacy and Confidentiality Issues in Medical Records: An Insurer's Perspective"

Stephen E. Novak
Columbia University Health Sciences Division
"Designing a Camel: Creating a Patient Records Access Policy with an Advisory Committee"

The changing medical industry and new technological capabilities may alter the balance between research and privacy/confidentiality issues. Speakers in this session will explore different institutional perspectives on access to medical records and analyze the effectiveness of the Internal Review Board's model for adjudication as a method to balance these competing priorities.

PURPOSE: STHC-L provides a forum for archivists working at institutions in the natural, physical, and social sciences, technology, and the health sciences. It includes announcements, inquiries, and discussion on access to historical sources and their use and interpretation.

AUDIENCE: Membership is open to archivists and users of archives in the history of science, technology, and health care. The listserv is maintained for the benefit of the Science, Technology and Health Care Roundtable (STHC) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA), but it is open to all (anyone with an e-mail account can subscribe without restriction).

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: To join the list (even though the term "subscribe" is used, there is not and will not be a fee), send a message to LISTPROC@library.ucla.edu with the following in the message area:

SUBSCRIBE STHC-L [yourfirstname yourlastname, institution]

example: SUBSCRIBE STHC-L Russell Johnson, UCLA

TO POST MESSAGES: Once your are subscribed, send messages to:

STHC-L@library.ucla.edu

Russell A. Johnson
Archivist, Neuroscience History Archives
Brain Research Institute, UCLA
Box 951761
Los Angeles CA 90095-1761
rjohnson@library.ucla.edu

Notes: past messages are available on the web, indexed annually at:
http://www.medsch.ucla.edu/som/bri/archives/sthc/msgsthc.htm

Websites of Interest

American Institute of Physics: Center for History of Physics Newsletters

Archives of American Psychology at the University of Akron

Baker-Cederberg Museum and Archives, Rochester, New York

Book News: latest Books in Science, Technology and Medicine

Commission on Professionals in Science & Technology

Does Philosophy Drive Science?

Health Care, Science & Technology oral histories  Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley

Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- object of the month exhibits

Medical History on the Internet

NAHSTE (Navigational Aids for the History of Science, Technology & the Environment)

NASA Library

National Science Foundation--National Science and Technology Week

Philosophy and Science

U.S. National Library of Medicine--Images from the History of Medicine

Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection

Wellcome Library

Articles

The Invisible Ally
Diane Rabson, National Center for Atmospheric Research

Reprinted from the October 1998 issue of Staff Notes Monthly, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

"The Invisible Ally" (this article recounts the events surrounding World War II that brought hundreds of Americans into meteorological crash courses)

(Fanfare)
"The Meteorological Institutes of five great American Universities, in collaboration with the United States Army Air Forces, present 'The Invisible Allies,' a thrilling chapter from the notebooks of science--and war!"

So began a dramatic appeal to young, draft-age U.S. men who were considering their options in the winter of 1942-43. Produced by the University of Chicago and disseminated over the Mutual Radio Network, the half-hour program aimed to attract students to military meteorological training, demonstrating how in a "global war . . . airplanes and ships cannot be fully effective weapons unless they are aided by the invisible ally, the weather." Using historical examples ranging from the destruction of the Spanish Armada in a massive storm to Napoleon's defeat, "written in the mud and fog of Waterloo," the production concluded with an imagined dialogue featuring a Hawaii-based meteorologist whose accurate forecast of partly cloudy skies afforded a U.S. pilot the conditions he needed to bomb an enemy-held island in the Pacific. ("These clouds are just what we ordered.")

The first official academic "war courses" for aviation cadets in meteorology started in late 1940, a full year before Pearl Harbor officially plunged the country into war. The University of California, Los Angeles, initiated its own program not long after Joe Kaplan, head of the physics department, reminded his students of President Roosevelt's warning in April 1940 that the United States would have to build a force of 50,000 military aircraft, a fleet requiring an exceptional level of meteorological support. Training programs were also launched at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Chicago, New York University (NYU), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). To oversee, coordinate, and standardize these burgeoning academic programs, Carl-Gustaf Rossby, the tireless dean of the Institute of Meteorology at Chicago, organized and chaired the influential University Meteorological Committee (UMC) two years later. A sixth program under the auspices of the U.S. Army Air Forces Technical Training Command was established at Grand Rapids, Michigan, also in 1942, to train thousands of observers, forecasters, and weather officers en masse. (This program was later moved to Chanute Field, Illinois.)

The initial courses ("A" courses) were rigorous programs intended for college graduates and qualified upperclassmen with the requisite math and physics background. But the need for highly trained meteorological personnel grew almost exponentially as the war progressed. (There were an estimated 4,000 weather officers in 1942, but at the time it was estimated that 10,000 officers would be needed by January 1945.) Rossby's UMC created 20 additional premeteorology programs ("B" and "C" courses) at universities and colleges across the country to ensure that a steady supply of competent high school seniors and college freshmen would flow into the ever-dwindling pool of advanced-level students in the "A" courses. The response to recruitment activities (even before the radio broadcast) was overwhelming: in January 1943, the University of Chicago received an average of 2,000 inquiries per day about the program.

As transcriber and editor since 1990 of the American Meteorological Society's Tape Recorded Interview Project (TRIP), housed here at NCAR, I've long been aware of the "war courses." Of more than 50 male U.S. meteorologists who have been interviewed thus far, the majority came of age during wartime and entered meteorology through one of the "A" schools. Students typically spent nine months studying the fundamentals of weather analysis and forecasting, initially relying only on historical data since current weather data were considered secure information and therefore unavailable. The UMC was later able to modify this policy and establish model weather stations at the "A" sites, which greatly enhanced training. Upon graduation, these aviation cadets were generally awarded commissions in the Army Air Corps. Depending on the progress of the war, newly commissioned officers could expect to be sent to Africa, Europe, the Pacific, the CBI (China-Burma-India theater), or other places around the globe. Or they might remain in the States to teach new cadets, enlisted observers, or pilots.

Joe Smagorinsky, a student in the winter 1942-43 class at MIT, remembered that the "standards of excellence were set high [for the students] because [they] would have to spin up rapidly to the highest level." His interviewer, John Young, was surprised at the relatively large amount of theoretical training despite the nuts-and-bolts military need for "well-rounded weather officers who could run a weather station and turn out a good practical operating forecast under almost any condition." Lester Machta, who taught forecasting at Chanute Field, speculated that the government, fearing a "brain drain," may have trained an excessive number of meteorologists to keep "some very high-I.Q. people" out of harm's way.

In fact, the Army was not always pleased with the universities' practice of retaining their brightest graduates as instructors: this kept the best forecasters away from field areas where they were most needed. At the same time, the demand for capable instructors was great, even critical at times. In 1944, NCAR's own Phil Thompson stayed on as an instructor for the duration at the University of Chicago, after studying with Rossby and George Platzman, among others.

For those meteorologists in our small sample who landed overseas, none experienced direct combat. However, the stakes were extremely high, since the lives of American servicemen often depended directly on the accuracy of weather forecasts.

Bob Bundgaard, a graduate of the UCLA war course, was assigned to the Normandy D-Day forecast team after a stint in the Pentagon Weather Central. The Normandy forecasters were split into three teams, two British and one American. Bundgaard headed the Upper Air Section for the American group, Widewing, based at Bushey Park in London. (Now retired and living in Colorado Springs, Bundgaard continued as an Air Force weather officer after the war.) Bundgaard recalls that all the teams began working on practice forecasts several weeks before the actual invasion on 6 June 1944. The procedure involved initial agreement via telephone conferences on current weather conditions as well as consensus on a five- to seven-day forecast of English weather, an astounding task compounded by conflicting personalities as well as differing forecast techniques. In addition, as Frederik Nebeker notes in his book Calculating the Weather, each type of military support--naval, air, infantry--had its own requirements regarding cloud cover, wind speed, fog, visibility, surf height, and even the correct phase of the moon. Additionally, as Bundgaard noted, a balmy day in the English Channel could alert German forecasters to a potential invasion and negate the critical element of surprise.

There were many other amphibious invasions, also called D-Days, in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and, of course, the Pacific. Miscalculation of wave height on landing beaches often had disastrous consequences for lives as well as landing craft. Walter Munk and Harald Sverdrup (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) solved the problem of wave-height prediction and provided a valuable tool to weather officers who struggled to produce optimal information.

At the end of the war, in August 1945, MIT graduate Ken Spengler was hired as executive director of the AMS. One of his first tasks was to assist the recently demobilized meteorologists. While only a small percentage stayed in the field, the war had a huge impact on the growth and visibility of meteorology. Among the "A"-course graduates were future NCAR scientists Wil Kellogg, Vin Lally, and Chester Newton. And the wartime partnership between government and universities paved the way for the creation of UCAR and NCAR at the end of the next decade.

Johns Hopkins Unveils New Web Sites
Lisa Mix, Johns Hopkins Medical Archives

The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions recently made several significant additions to the Archives' Web presence: a catalog of the Personal Papers Collections, a guide to the Adolf Meyer Collection, a site commemorating the 150th anniversary of William Osler's birth, and a site commemorating William Henry Welch which includes a guide to the Welch Collection.

Personal Papers Catalog

The Medical Archives holds over 200 collections of manuscripts and accompanying material.  These collections include the papers of individuals who have been associated with The Johns Hopkins Health System, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the health divisions of The Johns Hopkins University (School of Health Services, School of Hygiene and Public Health, School of Medicine, and School of Nursing). Individuals represented include alumni and former faculty and administrative staff. The personal paper collections provide insight into the professional and personal lives of these individuals, and are a resource for the study of late nineteenth?century and twentieth?century medicine, nursing, and public health. Materials in the collections include correspondence, manuscripts, financial records, research data, clinical documentation, student records, diaries, family memorabilia, scrapbooks, and photographs. Several of the collections contain artifacts.

The catalog developed from a need to provide a standard minimum level of information about each of the Archives' personal paper collections. (At this time not every collection is included, though that is the ultimate goal.) Each entry includes basic information about the individual: birth and death dates, dates of affiliation with Johns Hopkins, a biographical sketch, and a portrait; along with information about the collection: date range, volume, and a scope and content note.  The intention is to add folder inventories as they become available and web-ready.  Entries are presented in both HTML and SGML/EAD.

Guide to the Adolf Meyer Collection

The first of the Archives' inventories to go online, the Guide is based on Ruth Leys' The Adolf Meyer Archive: A Guide to the Collection, published in 1980. It includes biographical information about Adolf Meyer, a detailed inventory of the collection, and indices of personal and corporate names.  The Web version builds upon the published volume, with enhancements that can only be added online. Users can browse through the series, or use either of  the indices to jump directly to the material they need.

Adolf Meyer (1866-1950) was an eminent figure in twentieth-century psychiatry.  A pioneer in the field of psychobiology, Meyer encouraged study of the biological basis of mental illness.  He trained two generations of psychiatrists, elevated modes of diagnosis and treatment, and conducted extensive research in neuroanatomy, neuropathology, and psychiatry. His major contributions include standardizing case histories, reforming care in state asylums, and co?founding the mental hygiene movement.

The Adolf Meyer Collection is a vast resource (417 linear feet) for the study of twentieth-century psychiatry and related fields.  The materials document the rise of psychiatry in Europe and the United States, and at Johns Hopkins in particular.  The collection includes extensive professional materials from throughout Meyer's career, such as correspondence, and records of patient care, teaching, and research.  There is significant correspondence with major figures in psychiatry and other professions, and with those involved in key movements such as mental hygiene, birth control, and social work.  Personal correspondence and diaries are also included. The guide is available in both HTML and SGML/EAD.

Celebrating the Contributions of William Osler

This site was prepared in celebration of William Osler's 150th birthday, and presents a wide array of information about Osler's personal life and career. A Biography presents an overview of Osler's life, and an accompanying Chronology gives dates of key events.  A Bibliography lists works about Osler and anthologies of Osler's work.  Selection of Writings presents excerpts from notable correspondence, and provides searchable text of some of Osler's key (and most quotable) essays. Currently online are An Alabama Student and Other Biographical Essays, øThe Old Humanities and the New ScienceÓ, and four essays from Aequanimitas, And Other Addresses (øAequanimitasÓ, øDoctor and NurseÓ, øThe Leaven of ScienceÓ, and øBooks and MenÓ).

An Image Gallery is divided into five sections: Osler Portraits, Osler at Work, Osler with Colleagues and Friends, Osler with Family, and Osleriana (which also contains some images of Osler artifacts in the Archives' collection). Scanned examples of Osler's correspondence appear in several sections, most prominently in Selection of Writings and Principles and Practice of Medicine.

The Guide to the William H. Welch Collection

The guide provides a documentary overview of Welch's life (1850-1934) from childhood through career and post-retirement years. It contains an inventory of materials in the collection and an index to the materials listed.  Because Welch was a major figure in early twentieth-century medicine and public health, this collection is an especially rich resource for study. There is correspondence with leading European and American scientists and extensive materials pertaining to Welch's enterprising career at Johns Hopkins. For the Hospital, he developed the first pathological laboratory and served as first pathologist-in-chief. For the University, he served as the first professor of pathology, first dean of the medical faculty, founder and first director of the School of Hygiene and Public Health, founder and first director of the Institute of the History of Medicine, and planner of the library that bears his name.  Other materials of significance include family correspondence, diaries,  lecture and research notes, drafts of articles and addresses, and  photographic and other visual holdings. The guide is available in both HTML and SGML/EAD.

William H. Welch, A Tribute Exhibition

This exhibition celebrates the 150th anniversary of Welch's birth, and commemorates his many contributions to twentieth-century medicine and public health.  The exhibit includes a biography of Welch and a chronology of major events in his life. On display are letters, photographs, excerpts from diaries, and a 1932 audio recording of Welch discussing the fiftieth anniversary of the tubercle bacillus. Of particular interest is a 1932  motion picture of Welch reminiscing about the early days of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and major developments in the modern medical sciences.

Minutes

Science, Technology, and Healthcare Roundtable (August 28, 1999)
SAA Annual Meeting, chaired by Suzanna Long

Attendance

Suzie welcomed everyone, and sent Robin's regrets.

She then introduced Peter Hirtle; the Program Committee liaison.  The deadline for session proposals is October 8, 1999.  There is no formal theme to the 2000 meeting.  Peter suggested that the proposals be very complete, and that sponsorships indicates interest.  The Roundtable should prioritize the session list.

Dennis Harrison is the new Council liaison for the Roundtable.  If anyone has questions or issues, please do not hesitate to contact him throughout the year.

Suzie then introduced the Steering Committee.  Robin will be stepping down as Co-Chair,  and Russell Johnson will come on as Co-Chair.

The panel for the program was then introduced:  Joe Anderson (American Institute of Physics); Pamela Henson (Smithsonian Institute Archives); and Kevin Corbett (Nurse Anesthesists).  The title, øWhen the Written Word is not Enough: Documenting through Oral History.Ó

Suzie posed a number of questions to the panel:

1) When should a scientific professional be interviewed?  At the beginning, middle, or end of their career?

Kevin: end of the career is usual, but he is expanding to include rural nurse anes and middle career professionals.

Pam: has done a variety of interviews‹it depends on what you want; the end product.  Are you covering a specific topic or subject?  Do you want a range of people for an event?  She uses audiotape for life histories; videotape for groups to capture the dynamics of interaction.  People can die young, so it is a good idea to do some at the beginning and middle; then do updates and capture a perspective. The Hubble Space Telescope provides a good example‹a failure that became a success

Joe: The AIP has traditionally concentrated on formal, career-long interviews with different people, as well as project interviews.  AIP would like to do people
in mid-career.  Career-long interviews can be biased. For a research project, AIP has a spectrum of interviews.  The content can be limited.

Diane (National Atmospheric): their interviews originally focused on World War II. The interviewees often had forgotten details and had lost interest.  They
are now interviewing women and people of color.  She mentioned an example of international interviewing, where there was resistance to interviewing German meteorologists.

They also do topical interviews; project oriented.  They use video for group interviews; for completing topics such as weather modification and hail
suppression in the 1970s.

Adele Lerner asked: how much prior research do all of you do?

The panel agreed: lots!

Joe: AIP collects personal and scientific info.

Deborah: noted that in interviewing oceanographers, the interviews are often time-based, and reflect the Cold War and the 70s.

Pamela: long-career interviews can be good in providing perspective.  She described an interview with someone in their 90s who had considered himself a failure, although he had accomplished a great deal.  She was able to capture the øangstÓ in the interview.

Donna Weber: asked about transcripts‹is context provided?  Also, is the panel marking up interviews and making them available on the web?

Kevin: no, it would involve a loss of revenue for them.

Pamela: The web provides a certain level of exposure that should be reflected in the deed of gift, as interviewees don't consider the web.  Maybe use excerpts and obtain permission.  Be thoughtful.  She used the Women in Journalism Oral History Project as an example.  Interviews were placed on the web without the interviewees' permission.  Certain right-wing groups then used quotes out of context to discredit them.

Tanya: a portion of an interview related to the history of concrete incited the wrath of a competitor scientist, who had issues with what the interviewee was saying.  I tried to explain that an oral history interview is perspective and opinion, but this person sent several nasty e-mails.  I finally removed the interview from the web, although it is still listed in our catalog and is available.

Pamela: a complete listing is necessary as it reached the audience.  We must focus on controlling use and copyright.

How do we build interest in doing oral history?  (For example, Sandia Labs removed the word oral history from their project description)

Kevin: rely on citations in published histories and WWW catalogs

Pamela: work with national organizatins to inspire interest.  The American Physical Anthropologists recently focused on an individual who they have a medal named for‹they had interviews with him to illustrate who he was.  Sessions at professional meetings; public programming for the scientific community.

Joe: Thomas Kuhn did early interviews.  The AIP offers interview help‹small grants in aid with a copy going to the AIP.

Liz Andrews: celebrations and anniversaries related to fundraising can also be utilized, but it is important that the archives retain quality control.

Who is Best to Conduct the Interview?  Archivist; Historian; Scientist?

Kevin: team approach is best

Pamela: team approach is best; it is good to have a scientist with you, especially in subject matter‹in order to understand the issues.  There are no hard rules.  Sometimes questioning and interpersonal skills are just as important.

Joe: It depends on the type of interview.  For a life-long career, review of papers is important.  For more topical interviews, AIP has 3 different question sets.  It is important that there be engagement between the interviewer and interviewee.

Lynn Stewart (National Ag. Library): have any of you ever used a journalist?

Deborah:  Yes, special circumstance‹request from development office.  Made long list of what she wanted, and took control of the preparation.

Suzie thanked all the participants for an interesting discussion and program.

Business meeting:

Liz and Tanya: if anyone would like to contribute reports; articles; or news, please send them along.  For the next issue, Liz hopes to add some spotlights on STHC individuals and repositories.

Russell: is interested in creating a history for the Roundtable.  Once completed, it will be added to the website.

Suzie: proposed resolution regarding the Kansas State Board of Education removing evolution from the curriculum.  There was a brief discussion of the various issues, and the motion was then carried.

There was then a brief discussion concerning session proposals for 2000:

1. Oral history session (Suzie will repropose)
2. Use of archival oversite committees (Russell)
3. Ethics of using medical records from controversial projects (Joan)
4. Social aspects of EAD‹consortial project (Joe)

The meeting was adjourned at 10:15 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Tanya Zanish-Belcher