Tag Archives: blog

Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!

Hello! If you are reading this, you have found the Wellcome Unit Library blog’s new home. Congratulations! From now on, all of our blog entries will be posted here; all of our old posts have been imported here wholesale. Please update your bookmarks, or consider subscribing to the new blog, either via email using the text box on the right of the screen, or using your preferred RSS reader. (If you are already an email subscriber, you will be moved over in the course of the day.)

The old blog will be deleted on March 3rd. We hope you will stay with us on our new platform! You might also like to visit the Bodleian Blog Aggregator, where blogs for other Bodleian libraries can also be found.

A very big thank you to Kate, Dan and Isabel for making this happen and helping me out as I’ve sussed out the new platform!

Glücklich zu sehen, je suis enchanté, Happy to see you – Bleibe, Reste, Stay!

Christmas Closure and Online Resources at the Wellcome Unit Library

Wellcome Unit in the snow by Bethan Jenkins

Wellcome Unit in the snow by Bethan Jenkins

The Welcome Unit Library will be open this week:

  • Tuesday 18 Dec (today) 2.15-5.00
  • Wednesday 19 Dec 2.15-5.00
  • Thursday 20 Dec 2.15-5.00
  • Friday 21 Dec 2.15-3.00 – closing early

The library will be closed from 3.00pm on Friday 21 Dec to 2.15 on Wednesday 2 Jan 2013.

Welcome Unit opening hours in start of January 2013

  • Wednesday 2 Jan 2.15-4.30
  • Thursday 3 Jan 2.15-4.30
  • Friday 4 Jan – Monday 7 Jan closed
  • Tuesday 8 – Friday 11 Jan 2.15-5.00

If you would like to visit the Wellcome Unit Library please contact us in advance to arrange an appointment by emailing wellcomeunit.library@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

While the Library is closed there are lots of interesting online resources available for history of medicine scholars to access 24/7. We have a variety of websites bookmarked on our HSMTOxford Delicious page.

Free online books
Many out of copyright medical texts are available to read in full online via the Internet Archive and Google Books.  The Internet Archive’s Medical Heritage Library continues to be added to and currently has nearly 45000 items, including texts and videos, from various institutions, including the National Library of Medicine and New York Public Library. For French and Latin speakers, the Bibliotheque numerique Medic@ provides a wealth of original sources and also biographical information about key medical figures.

Contagions blog

Contagions blog

Blogs and Project websites
Find out what your fellow historians are researching on one of the many fascinating history of medicine blogs and project websites online.  Our favourites include:

If this has whetted your appetite, the Contagions blog is hosting this month’s On Giants’ Shoulders history of science carnival and has a great selection of links to current articles and blog posts across the web.

Related Links Wellcome Unit Library contact details | HSMTOxford Delicious page

Online history of medicine resources

Sick City podcasts

During the summer we do have slightly more limited opening hours to cover staff leave and training.  However, there are lots of online history of medicine resources that can still be accessed, even when you are not in the library.  Here are some of our favourites.

Online resources – for University members

There are a wealth of online resources that can be accessed on and off campus.  University members can access Oxford’s journal and database subscriptions via OxLIP+ and can search for ebooks on the SOLO library catalogue (limit search results to online resources only).

Starr’s Brain Surgery (1893) from Medical Heritage Library

Online resources – free access for all

There are also a wealth of free online resources that University members and non-members alike can access.  Search for primary sources in the Medical Heritage Library, which includes over 10000 digitised rare books.  Example titles include an 1880 printing of Culpeper’s Complete Herbal and Hunter’s Lectures on the Principles of Surgery.

The Bibliotheque Numerique Medica is another fascinating digital library.  It includes profiles and digitised works by figures such as Ambroise Pare and Felix Vicq-d’Azyr and themed sections on medical specialities such as dermatology and veterinary medicine as well as many more.

(c) Dr Alun Withey

This week there have also been a number of interesting new blogs and podcasts. Here are our top 3:

1) Dr Alun Withey on the history of spectacles.  He also links out to another blog post of the use of puppies in medicine.

2) The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice on wandering wombs

3) Sick City’s latest podcast – their seventh guided walk around London

You can find out about more of our favourite online free resources via our Oxford HSMT Delicious page and see our latest new book purchases on LibraryThing.

Related Links: Oxford HSMT Delicious | Wellcome Unit LibraryThing new books catalogue | SOLO | OxLIP+