Health Sciences Documentation and Networked Hypermedia: An Integrative Approach

  • Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland

Abstract

The author examines the capabilities and limitations of World Wide Web home pages for disseminating historical materials in the health sciences. She bases her observations on the experiences of the Michigan Digital Historical Initiative (MDHI), a statewide collaborative digital project in the history of the health sciences. She then defines the concept of the "digital library" and examines its potential for integrating and increasing physical and intellectual access to health sciences documentation. She asserts that the concept of digital coherence as applied in networked hypermedia environments such as the World Wide Web and digital libraries can lead either to augmentation or to fragmentation of context for digital content. Whether context is augmented or fragmented depends upon the level of conscious planning that goes into system design, and the extent to which actual archival materials as well as descriptive surrogates are included. The author then develops a vision of the functionality and design necessary for the effective inclusion of historical content in digital libraries.

RÉSUMÉ

L'auteur étudie les possibilités et les limites du réseau Internet pour la diffusion de documents historiques relatifs aux sciences de la santé. Elle fonde ses observations sur les expériences du Michigan Digital Historical Initiative (MDHI), un projet de numéralisation à l'échelle de l'État en histoire des sciences de la santé. Elle définit ensuite le concept de «bibliothèque numérisée» et évalue ses possibilités d'intégration et d'accessibilité croissante, tant physique qu'intellectuelle, à la documentation concernant les sciences de la santé. Elle soutient que le concept de cohérence numérique, tel qu'employé dans les environnements de réseaux hypermedia, tels que le World Wide Web et les bibliothèques numérisées, peut conduire soit à une augmentation ou à une fragmentation du contexte pour le contenu numérique. Que le contexte soit augmenté ou fragmenté dépend du niveau de planification intentionnel au niveau de la conception du système et du degré d'inclusion des documents archivistiques et des descripteurs. L'auteur développe ensuite une vision de la fonctionnalité et de la conception nécessaires à l'inclusion efficace du contenu historique dans les bibliothèques numérisées.

Author Biography

Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland
Nancy McCall is Director of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the ~ o h n s ~ o ~ kMedical Institutions and a research associate in History of Science, ins Medicine, and Technology at the Johns Hopkins University. Her interest in archives began when she was a graduate student in art history at Pius XI1 Institute in Florence, Italy. She subsequently received a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University, a certificate in archival management from American University, and completed an internship in the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine. In 1995 and 1996 the University of Michigan awarded Nancy McCall, Lisa A. Mix, and Anne Gilliland-Swetland Bentley Fellowships for the study of modern records. The topic of their research is digitization of laboratory research data and clinical information for archival reference and research. Currently McCall and Mix are working with colleagues at the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives to enhance reference services for remote users.
Published
1996-04-01
How to Cite
Gilliland-Swetland, Anne J. 1996. “Health Sciences Documentation and Networked Hypermedia: An Integrative Approach”. Archivaria 41 (April), 45-60. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12125.
Issue
Archivaria 41: Archives and Medicine Revisited (Spring 1996)
Section
Articles

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