Ever-evolving: introducing the Medical Heritage Library, Inc.

Authors

  • Emily R. Novak Gustainis Vice-President, Medical Heritage Library, Inc., and Deputy Director, Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.651

Keywords:

Library Materials, Digitization, Cooperative Collection Development, Libraries, Digital Libraries, Collection Development

Abstract

The Medical Heritage Library, Inc. (MHL), is a collaborative digitization and discovery organization committed to providing open access to history of medicine and health resources. Since its founding in 2010, it has aspired to be a visible, research-driven history of medicine and health community that serves a broad, interdisciplinary constituency. The MHL’s goal is to make important historical medical content, derived from leading medical libraries, available online free of charge and to simplify and centralize the discovery of these resources. To do so, it has evolved from a digitization collaborative of like-minded history of medicine libraries, special collections, and archives to an incorporated entity seeking not just to provide online access to digital surrogates, but also to embrace the challenges of open access, the retention and use of records containing health information about individuals, and service to the digital humanities. This organizational expansion was further spurred by the MHL’s recently completed National Endowment for the Humanities grant, “Medicine at Ground Level: State Medical Societies, State Medical Journals, and the Development of American Medicine” (PW-228226-15), which received additional financial support from Harvard University Medical School and the Arcadia Fund through the Harvard University Library.

Author Biography

Emily R. Novak Gustainis, Vice-President, Medical Heritage Library, Inc., and Deputy Director, Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Emily R. Novak Gustainis is the Deputy Director for the Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University.

Novak Gustainis joined the Center in 2009, serving as Collections Services Archivist and Head, Collections Services, before being appointed Deputy Director in 2016. In her role, Gustainis provides leadership and strategic oversight for all of the Center’s programmatic areas, including acquisitions, collections services, archives and records management, reference, and the Warren Anatomical Museum. Partnering with staff, Gustainis seeks to innovate the Center's special collections and museum operations, advocate for a transparent and diverse historical record, and develop new research, teaching, and learning opportunities.

Novak Gustainis holds both an MLS and a BA in English Literature and Teacher Education from the State University of New York at Albany. She is currently serving as Vice President of the Medical Heritage Library, Inc., which creates opportunities for researchers to engage with digitized history of medicine content.

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Published

2019-04-15

Issue

Vol. 107 No. 2 (2019): April 2019

Section

History Matters