Category Archives: News

Disability History Hackathon Friday 2 December 2022, 14:00-18:15 – please join us

Snippet from Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264, 74v, showing a group of blind men following each other

Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 74v, Bodleian Library, CC BY-NC. Click to view in Digital.Bodleian.


Calling all staff and students of Oxford University
: are you interested in disability history? Do you like locating quality research materials on the internet? Please join us and a group of volunteers at the Disability History Hackathon on Friday 2 December to find resources for a guide to Disability History resources.Cartoon image of an owl wearing headphones and working on a laptop.

After brief training on advanced Google searches, you will work individually or in small groups on identifying research resources (databases, archives, websites, etc.) on an aspect of disability history of your choice. You will create brief descriptions for each resource.

We expect to spend up to 2 hours on the Hackathon with a tea / coffee break in between and a reception at the end.

You will be able to join in person in the History Faculty, George St, or remotely. All rooms are accessible. This is event is organised for staff and students of Oxford University. Spaces are limited so early booking is recommended. Register here.

What will you get out of it?

  • Discover research materials for disability history
  • Learn advanced Google search from a professional librarian
  • Network with other researchers
  • Join a community-led project to create an online guide for disability history

What do you need?

Photo of a paralysed child strapped in a walking frame and wearing splints. From R.W. Lovett, Treatment of Infantile

Robert Williamson Lovett, Treatment of Infantile Paralysis (1916) – Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom – CC BY

An interest in, knowledge of or enthusiasm in disability resources and/or disability history.

Technical requirements:

  • Remote: computer with Teams or Zoom, camera and microphone
  • Onsite: a laptop; ideally Eduroam wifi account (wifi access can be provided)
  • Recommended: headphones or earphones

More information about the day, handouts, slides, etc. will be shared with participants in advance.

Contact library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes!

We are excited to announce that as of today, 1st October 2019, the Wellcome Unit Library will officially be known as the History of Medicine Library!

We ask that you bear with us in the process of changing our name in our various online spaces – this blog and our webpages – however, our Twitter handle and our LibraryThing pages have already been updated! Do follow us at @HistMedLibOx in both places Twitter LibraryThing

Our new email address is historyofmedicine@bodleian.ox.ac.uk  which is already live!

We would also like to welcome our new Library Assistant, George Kiddy, to the History of Medicine Library! Once George has settled in, and the usual flurry of the beginning of Michaelmas Term in Oxford is over, George will be staffing the library 2.15-5pm Monday-Friday (4.30pm on Wednesdays). Do keep an eye on the blog here for weekly updates on our opening hours for the rest of term.

A Medical Student at his desk

Vacation Opening Hours: July & August 2019

During the Long Vacation, the Wellcome Unit Library will be staffed at the following times:

Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday: 2.15pm-5pm
Wednesday: CLOSED
Thursday: 2.15pm-4.30pm
Friday: CLOSED

We will be closed from the 5th-16th August inclusive for our summer break. Any further updates to our opening hours will be advertised on the blog and Twitter. As always, if you would like to visit please contact us to arrange your appointment.

During our closed days, please note that collections for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology can also be found at:
The Radcliffe Science Library http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/science
Bodleian Library Upper Reading Room http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/finding-resources/rooms/urr
The History Faculty Library http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history

We wish you a wonderful summer!

 

 

 

 

Vacation Opening Hours: July and August 2018

During the Long Vacation, the Wellcome Unit Library will be staffed at the following times:

Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday: 2.15pm-5pm
Wednesday: CLOSED
Thursday: 2.15pm-4.30pm
Friday: CLOSED

We will be closed from the 6th-20th August inclusive for our summer break. Stay tuned to our blog and Twitter for further updates to opening hours.

During our closed days, please note that collections for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology can also be found at:
The Radcliffe Science Library http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/science
Bodleian Library Upper Reading Room http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/finding-resources/rooms/urr
The History Faculty Library http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history

As always, if you would like to use the library please contact us to arrange an appointment.

We wish you a wonderful summer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History of Science, Medicine, and Technology Postgraduate Conference 2018: 7th-8th June

The Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology presents:

The 2018 HSMT Postgraduate Conference
Sex, Drugs and Death: New Perspectives on Science, Medicine and Technology
Thursday 7th & Friday 8th June
History Faculty Lecture Theatre, George Street, Oxford
hsmt conference 2018 event image

With panels on:

  • Early modern natural philosophy
  • Modern science
  • Psychology
  • Public health and colonialism
  • Reproduction and eugenics

See the full programme here.

The History of Science, Medicine, and Technology is an ever-expanding discipline. This two-day conference allows Oxford postgraduate students in the field to present their research, covering a broad chronological, geographic, and thematic scope. Panel topics range from early modern ideas to public health, with individual papers covering subjects as diverse as reproductive technology, honeybee diseases and twentieth-century scepticism about science – truly offering new perspectives, as questions fundamental to the history of science and medicine are explored and examined.

All welcome.  Admission and lunch are free, but registration is essential. To register please contact belinda.clark@wuhmo.ox.ac.uk by 30 May.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Closure: 26th March-3rd April

Due to staff holiday over the Easter period, the Library will be closed from Monday 26th March to Tuesday 3rd April inclusive. We will reopen at 2pm on Wednesday 4th April.

Check back on our Twitter page for further details of opening hours.

Any email enquiries will be answered on our return. Many thanks for your patience!

Medicinal Chocolate! ‘Trade-card ‘Sir Hans Sloane’s Milk Chocolate” . Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

Summer Closure

The Library is now Closed for the summer! We will re-open on Tuesday 21st August, 2.15-5pm, and will be back to more regular hours from that point on.

Over the summer, other History of Medicine resources can be found at:

The Radcliffe Science Library

The Bodleian Upper Reading Room

The History Faculty Library in the Radcliffe Camera

Please check local admissions policies before arriving at these libraries, however! Bodleian Admissions can be found here.

Of course, our online resources remain available – see the HSMT Libguide for further details!

We wish all our readers a pleasant and relaxing summer, and look forward to seeing you again in the Autumn!

Summer Shadows

Summer holiday

Vale Grace!

To all things there is a season, and to Library Assistants too! Today we say farewell to Grace, who has been Library Assistant at the Unit for two years, and who has been responsible for all the fun social media output here for the last year or so. Grace is leaving to take up the post of Senior Library Assistant for Reader Services at the Sackler Library, and we wish her all the best!

Belinda, of course, decorated the library for her last day…

Stay tuned for further details of our Summer Closures (and our opening hours.)

Call for Papers – Patient Voices

Patient Voices: Historical and Ethical Engagement with Patient Experiences of Healthcare, 1850–1948

An interdisciplinary, policy-focused symposium at New College, University of Oxford

18–19 September 2017

In 1948, diverse health provisions in Britain were consolidated into a single, state-directed service. After almost seventy years of the NHS—the bedrock of modern welfare—there is great concern about any return to a mixed economy of healthcare. The proposed privatisation of health services is controversial because it threatens to destabilise the complex relationships of patients with medical professionals and the state. It calls into question the structure and accessibility of healthcare, as well as the rights of patients, both as medical consumers and sources of medical data. Yet these are questions that equally shaped the development of the NHS prior to its foundation. Historical perspectives on pre-NHS healthcare—perspectives that are increasingly informed by the experiences of patients—are fundamental to understanding not just the past but also the choices before us.

Social historians of medicine have responded in various ways to Roy Porter’s 1985 call for histories incorporating the patient view. But despite work across diverse fields, patient voices before 1948 are yet to be fully integrated into historical scholarship. This symposium brings together historians, medical ethicists and archivists with interdisciplinary expertise to explore questions relating to the accessibility and ethics of the study of patient voices and data in the specific context of pre-NHS provisions. Through research presentations, roundtable discussions and interactive sessions, participants will explore the collection and qualitative use of historical medical records. The symposium will focus on methodological issues by investigating a range of available archives and piloting new strategies for retrieving as-yet-unheard historical patient voices. It will also address ethical issues arising from these pilot strategies, including questions of data protection, informed consent and the implications of new technologies in storing and analysing information.

Following the symposium, participants will be invited to submit articles for a special issue.

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers that address one or more of the following questions:

–  How should historians access and interpret the experiences of patients, particularly those with stigmatising conditions?

–  How can historians negotiate archival ‘silences’ when locating patient voices?

–  What can patient experiences tell historians about past, present and future interactions between healthcare consumers and providers?

–  How can the study of historical patient experiences inform the social, political and clinical dimensions of healthcare in the future?

–  What ethical considerations should inform the collection, maintenance and use of sensitive medical archives, including digitisation, data analytics and discourse analysis?

–  How can attention to these ethical considerations shape the study of healthcare and facilitate high-quality medical-humanities research?

Proposals should not exceed 300 words and should be accompanied by a short biography. Please submit them to Anne Hanley (University of Oxford) and Jessica Meyer (University of Leeds) at patientvoicesproject@gmail.com by 1 April 2017.