A celebration of the first reported exhibition at the National Library of Medicine
In 1878, on a quest to bring together and catalog the world’s medical knowledge, Dr. John Shaw Billings, in charge of the Surgeon General’s library—now the National Library of Medicine (NLM), acquired about 300 pamphlets from the private library of the renowned French physiologist Claude Bernard, who had just died.
These scientific pamphlets illuminate the professional associations and intellectual interests of one of medicine’s pioneer thinkers.
In the fall of that year, Billings displayed this collection in the library’s first reported exhibition.
To celebrate this “pop-up” exhibition, Making the Greatest Medical Library in America recognizes the institution’s long history of collecting, cataloging, and communicating quality medical information to generations of patrons, scholars, students, visitors, and citizens.
First Exhibition
A Showcase from a Growing Collection
Under the leadership of Dr. John Shaw Billings, the Surgeon General’s library, a precursor the NLM, developed into a prominent resource of biomedical literature. Billings acquired tens of thousands of works, including volumes from the private library of renowned French physician Claude Bernard. In 1878, Billings displayed Bernard’s items in the first reported exhibition in the NLM’s history, representing the growing importance of the institution and its holdings.
Pamphlets
Network of Pamphlets
In Europe, after the introduction of printing, people produced and distributed pamphlets about politics, theology, science, and medicine—an early type of idea sharing network. Librarians and bibliographers define “pamphlet” with precision: small format, short (usually less than 50 pages), cheaply bound in paper wrappers, if they were bound at all. In 1880, two years after the first exhibition, Dr. Billings had acquired 60,000 pamphlets.
Conservation
Continuity of Care
The Conservation Program at the NLM maintains books, manuscripts, and prints and photographs to allow access for research and exhibitions and to preserve collections for future users. It provides assessments, stabilization and treatment of collections, and protective housing and storage for rare and fragile materials. To keep the Claude Bernard collection available for patrons, the NLM’s conservation staff repaired the books.
Cataloging
Cataloging for Discovery
Catalogers at the NLM organize information about the collection to make sure materials are findable, accessible, and retrievable in the online catalog. With accurate access points for the title, author, and publication information, as well as subject headings and item-level descriptions, users can quickly discover and access the pamphlets previously owned by Claude Bernard.
Digitization
Digitizing for the Future
Digitization provides a fuller, richer contribution to the possibilities of human inquiry for researchers of both today and tomorrow. It requires a balance between ensuring quality products, meeting high production goals, and keeping machines running smoothly. To achieve this, technicians use large format book scanners that work at relatively high speeds and accommodate a variety of shapes, sizes, and formats; in conjunction with specialized software to crop scanned images, identify text within the document, and generate object-level metadata to aid description and discovery.
View blog posts about conservation in Circulating Now
Explore an illustrated history of the National Library of Medicine
Visit the NLM Digital Collections, the online repository for digitized content
Credits
Making the Greatest Medical Library in America recognizes the National Library of Medicine’s long history of collecting, cataloging, and communicating quality medical information to generations of patrons and citizens. This exhibition was originally curated in 2019, and released in 2023, with the expertise of the individuals listed below.
Exhibition Program
Jiwon Kim
Lead Exhibit Specialist
Erika Mills
Exhibit Specialist
Jane Markowitz
Traveling Exhibition Coordinator
Web Design
Astriata, LLC
Baltimore, MD
Curation
Stephen Greenberg, PhD
Rare Book Librarian
Jessica Hemphill
Librarian
Holly Herro
Senior Conservator
Krista Stracka
Rare Book Cataloger
Special Acknowledgement
History of Medicine Division
Jeffrey Reznick, PhD
Chief
Kenneth Koyle
Deputy Chief
Elizabeth Mullen
Manager, Web Development and Social Media
Allison Cao
Web Programs
Office of Computer and Communications
Wei Ma
Chief, Application Branch
Winston Churchill
Application Branch
Joe Potvin
Application Branch
Ying Sun
Application Branch
Bibliographic Services Division
Carol Washer
Index Section
Public Services Division
Jean (Bob) Edouard
Collection Access Section
Technical Services Division
Elizabeth J. Plantz
Cataloging and Metadata Management Section
Kristina R. Womack
Collection Development & Acquisitions Section