Then & Now: The Past and Future of Medical Libraries

As part of NYAM’s 175th anniversary and our “Then & Now” series, this event explores the past and future of medical libraries. NYAM’s Library was founded with the Academy itself in 1847 and grew to be one of the largest medical collections in the country, a major force in developing and supporting the careers of health professionals throughout the city and beyond. As it continued to collect the best medical and health literature from around the world, it also gathered the classic medical works of the past. In the 21st century, digitization dramatically shifted how medical information is accessed and used. What can we learn from the past, as we look to the future of medical libraries?

For this event, Library Director Paul Theerman, PhD, partnered with NYAM’s Fellows Section on the History of Medicine and Public Health and its chair, Robert J. Ruben, MD, to welcome three presenters on libraries and medicine. Arlene Shaner, MS, MLS, the Library’s Historical Collections Librarian, will share the story of NYAM’s own library collections. Bert Hansen, PhD, will consider the historical role of libraries in the progress of medicine and public health. Melissa Grafe, PhD, will look to the future of medical libraries and their digital and physical collections. A discussion among the panelists and the audience will follow the presentations.

NYAM gratefully acknowledges the Lilianna Sauter Lecture Fund and Robert J. Ruben, MD, for support of this program.

Melissa Grafe, PhD, is the Head of the Medical Historical Library at Yale School of Medicine. She joined Yale University in 2011 as the John R. Bumstead Librarian for Medical History at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library. She received her PhD in the History of Medicine from Johns Hopkins University in 2009 and was a Council of Library and Information Resources (CLIR) postdoctoral fellow at Lehigh University Library. Melissa leads the Medical Historical Library team and manages the library's collections, including over 100,000 medical and scientific volumes from the 12th through 21st centuries, as well as a growing digital archive. She also works with students and faculty on research and classes; develops grants and publications; oversees major digitization projects; curates and stages exhibitions; and manages donations, among other duties. Her most recent publication is “Treating the Digital Disease: The Role of Digital and Physical Primary Sources in Undergraduate Teaching,” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage (2021).

Bert Hansen, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of History at Baruch College of the City University of New York. Since completing degrees in science and then in history at Columbia and Princeton, Hansen has taught the history of science and medicine at Binghamton University, the University of Toronto, New York University, and Baruch. His early research on medieval science appeared as Nicole Oresme and the Marvels of Nature (1985). Later work appeared in numerous articles on medicine in popular culture and the book, Picturing Medical Progress from Pasteur to Polio: A History of Mass Media Images and Popular Attitudes in America (2009). Most recently, he has published several articles about art in the life and work of Louis Pasteur. He has an interest in the built environment of medicine and has given tours of the medical sites of New York for the NYAM Library.

Robert J. Ruben, MD, is Distinguished University Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Ruben has carried out basic research in communications disorders, with special focus on the inner ear. His initial work used genetic models to understand the physiology and pathological anatomy of inner ear hearing loss. His work at NIH focused on the developmental cell biology of the inner ear, both normal and pathological. Dr. Ruben also established new institutions and disciplines around hearing loss and communication disorders. As he came to realize that otorhinological problems in children require a special focus, he and others founded a new specialty, pediatric otolaryngology, and was the founding president of the Society for Ear, Nose, and Throat Advances in Children, founder of the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology, and of the Section of Otorhinolaryngology and Broncoesphogology of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 1978, he founded the International Journal of Pediatric Otolaryngology, the first such scientific journal in this field, of which he served as Editor-in-Chief. In 1987 he organized a special conference in Denmark to address the need for research opportunities in communications disorders, which became the basis of a new institute at NIH, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders (NIDCD).

Dr. Ruben has been a student and active scholar in the history of medicine since his first year in medical school. His work in the history of medicine focuses on otolaryngology, voice, speech, language, and deafness, and he co-founded the International Society for the History of Otorhinolaryngology. As a member of the Grolier Club, he has been the curator of three exhibitions: “Hear, Hear! Six Centuries of Otology” (2002); “Beyond the Text: Artist Books in the Collection of Robert J. Ruben” (2010); and most recently “Extraordinary Women in Sciences and Medicine: Four Centuries of Achievement” (2013). He is presently the Chair of the NYAM Section on the History of Medicine and Public Health and is former President of the Center for Book Arts in New York City.

Arlene Shaner, MA, MLS, is the Historical Collections Librarian in the Drs. Barry and Bobbi Coller Rare Book Room of the New York Academy of Medicine Library, where she has been on the staff since January of 2001. She is especially interested in promoting the use of the Library’s collections through collaborations with individual researchers and by hosting classes and groups who are interested in exploring the connections between the humanities and the history of medicine and health. She also manages the Library’s residential fellowship program. She is active in a variety of professional organizations, including the Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences, from which she received the Lisabeth M. Holloway Award for Distinguished Service in the spring of 2016.

Paul Theerman, PhD, serves as Director of the NYAM Library and Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health, a role he took up in 2018. In this capacity he oversees library operations, including cataloging and description, digitization, collection development, preservation and conservation, user services, with a special emphasis on public engagement. Over a 40+ year career in museums, archives, libraries, and academia he has focused his efforts on connecting the interested and knowledgeable public with contemporary issues in science, technology, and medicine. He regularly teaches the history of public health in the Graduate Program in Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Your financial support at any level helps us to provide the exciting programs and events you expect from The New York Academy of Medicine, and to sustain the Library’s books, journals, digital ventures and services. You will have an opportunity to make a donation when you register for the event.

To view past programs and other events, visit our YouTube channel.