Presenter Information

Alice Sherwood, The TMC Library

Presentation Type

Presentation

Date

2023-11-16

Description

How can you engage users with the history of your medical library? The TMC Library has a rich history that started in 1915, while Texas Medical Center started in the early 1940s. The TMC Library, which also has a historical center that regularly showcases archival materials using exhibits at library public spaces, started exploring additional options reaching out to a wider audience to view these exhibit materials since November 2022. With the TMC Library started using Digital Commons in 2005 with close to 1.85 million total downloads to this date, using other features of Digital Commons becomes logical choice. From using Digital Commons Exhibits, to using Digital Commons scrolling exhibits as a beta tester, 8 exhibits and a scrolling exhibit have been created, to tell the story and history of the library and the Teas Medical Center from its humble beginnings to present. Using galleries and descriptive texts to describe the different aspects of the exhibits, engages with the Houston community and beyond with another feature the TMC Library has in its institutional repository.

Keywords

Institutional repositories; history of medicine; digital exhibits

Open Access

1

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Nov 16th, 2:35 PM Nov 16th, 2:50 PM

How to Showcase and Preserve the History of a Medical Library using The TMC Library's Digital Commons Exhibits

How can you engage users with the history of your medical library? The TMC Library has a rich history that started in 1915, while Texas Medical Center started in the early 1940s. The TMC Library, which also has a historical center that regularly showcases archival materials using exhibits at library public spaces, started exploring additional options reaching out to a wider audience to view these exhibit materials since November 2022. With the TMC Library started using Digital Commons in 2005 with close to 1.85 million total downloads to this date, using other features of Digital Commons becomes logical choice. From using Digital Commons Exhibits, to using Digital Commons scrolling exhibits as a beta tester, 8 exhibits and a scrolling exhibit have been created, to tell the story and history of the library and the Teas Medical Center from its humble beginnings to present. Using galleries and descriptive texts to describe the different aspects of the exhibits, engages with the Houston community and beyond with another feature the TMC Library has in its institutional repository.