Abstract
BackgroundCedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit community hospital based in Los Angeles. Its history spans over 100 years, and its growth and development from the merging of 2 Jewish hospitals, Mount Sinai and Cedars of Lebanon, is also part of the history of Los Angeles. The medical library collects and maintains the hospital’s photographic archive, to which retiring physicians, nurses, and an active Community Relations Department have donated photographs over the years. The collection was growing rapidly, it was impossible to display all the materials, and much of the collection was inaccessible to patrons.Case PresentationThe authors decided to make the photographic collection more accessible to medical staff and researchers by purchasing a web-based digital archival package, Omeka. We decided what material should be digitized by analyzing archival reference requests and considering the institution’s plan to create a Timeline Wall documenting and celebrating the history of Cedars-Sinai.ConclusionWithin 8 months, we digitized and indexed over 500 photographs. The digital archive now allows patrons and researchers to access the history of the hospital and enables the library to process archival references more efficiently.
Highlights
As information rapidly accumulates and multiplies, many libraries become depositories, storing large quantities of papers, photographs, and other items in boxes on shelves
In the fall of 2013, we looked into ways of displaying our large archival photograph collection and making it more accessible to patrons and researchers outside the hospital
Will digitization enhance the value of the source material by making it discoverable, and maintaining or enhancing the resolution quality so that a researcher does not need to touch or examine the original photograph?
Summary
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit community hospital based in Los Angeles. Its history spans over 100 years, and its growth and development from the merging of 2 Jewish hospitals, Mount Sinai and Cedars of Lebanon, is part of the history of Los Angeles. The medical library collects and maintains the hospital’s photographic archive, to which retiring physicians, nurses, and an active Community Relations Department have donated photographs over the years. Case Presentation: The authors decided to make the photographic collection more accessible to medical staff and researchers by purchasing a web-based digital archival package, Omeka. We decided what material should be digitized by analyzing archival reference requests and considering the institution’s plan to create a Timeline Wall documenting and celebrating the history of Cedars-Sinai
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