| GENERAL
INFORMATION FOR STETTEN FELLOWS
V.
DAY-TO-DAY RESOURCES
1.
Office of NIH History
Stetten
Fellowship headquarters is the Office of NIH History,
part of the Office
of Intramural Research . In addition to administering
the Fellowships, the Office houses extensive resources
for historical research, maintains a vast collection
of historical artifacts and photographs, and presents
periodic historical exhibits.
Historical
Databases : The documents, photographs,
and artifacts collected by the Office are now
catalogued in online databases for easy searching.
This is an incredible resource for exploring the
history of NIH.
 Fellow
Tip : "Be sure and ask the Institutes
you work with if they have any materials they
would like to donate to the Office of History
collections. Don't let them throw out their history!"
History
Office : The bookshelves in the Office
of NIH History hold many resources as well, such
as old NIH telephone directories, back issues
of the NIH Almanac , Scientific Directory
, Annual Bibliography , intramural
Annual Reports , and more. Contact the
Archivist for details (currently Brooke
Fox ).
Guidelines
: The Office of NIH History has prepared
detailed guidelines for gathering historical information
in the course of your research. Following these
guides helps ensure that you make the most complete
record possible, and that your materials conform
to Office of History policies.
2.
Libraries
You have
access to several library collections, each with
its own rules and resources.
- NIH Library
in Building 10 . The most important library
for Fellows, the main NIH Library offers many
services in addition to collection access. Among
other things, you can:
- Order copies of academic papers online and
have them delivered via e-mail as PDF attachments.
- Sign up for automatic delivery of journals
and research results.
- Order free photocopies of materials for pick-up
or delivery.
- Arrange for interlibrary loans through the
Loansome Doc program.
- Search catalog, journals, and databases online.
- Request in-depth literature searches.
- Get translation services.
The Building
10 Library also houses some unique resources for
NIH history research, such as archived intramural
Annual Reports
- Old PHS publications, at classification
RA11
- Bulletin of the Hygienic Laboratory (which
becomes the Bulletin of the National Institute
of Health in 1930), which is actually a journal
but serves the same purpose, from 1900-1951,
at RA421.U5
- The NIH collected reprints from 1947-1964
at R108.U46
- Collected reprints for the National Cancer
Institute (always different from the rest),
1947-1952 at RC261.U515
- The annual Scientific Directories and Annual
Bibliographies 1956-1994, at Z6673.U542
(most also on the reference shelves
in the Office of NIH History)
- Online
searchable database of intramural reports,
beginning in 1998
The Public
Health Reports before 1952 are also the journal
of record for PHS/Hygienic Laboratory publications
in infectious diseases and epidemiology.
 Fellow
Tip : "Direct delivery for journal articles
is a great feature. Set it up right away."
 Fellow
Tip : "If you use interlibrary loan,
get to know the woman who runs the service in
the little room near the information desk."
 Fellow
Tip : "If you are going to be using your
Institute annual reports, start tracking them
early. Some may be missing from the library."
 Fellow
Tip : "Renewals can be done online. Find
out how to do this and many other things at the
Library
FAQ, or just call them up. They are very
helpful."
- National
Library of Medicine . Located in its own
building on campus, the NLM has extensive stacks
but does not offer direct access or checkout.
Materials must be studied on site, or ordered
through the Loansome Doc interlibrary
loan process via the Building 10 Library. The
NLM also contains a History
of Medicine Division (HMD) offering online
searches of historical collections. You will
need to get a separate NLM library card.
 Fellow
Tip : "Talk to all the people in the
History of Medicine Division about your research.
They may know of materials you haven't thought
of that could be useful, and some recent collections
have not yet been fully catalogued or indexed."
 Fellow
Tip : "If you're getting materials from
the Main Reading Room, get there early and be
prepared to wait!"
- Institute Collections. An individual Institute
may have historical records containing many
useful items, but they are not always simple
to locate or organized for ease of research.
Check in the IC Director's files and the files
of the Office of Communications. Don't forget,
the IC can donate collections to the Office
of NIH History for more permanent storage!
 Fellow
Tip : "If you use Institute Collections,
be considerate, and use the file markers whenever
you remove an item, file, or book from the shelves."
3.
Area resources
Being in
the Washington, DC area, you have access to some
unusual resources for research.
- Library of Congress
. The LOC requires its own Reader Identification
Card, and materials must be studied on site.
You can also search
the catalog online . The LOC does not house
a specific NIH collection but does have a great
deal of information, such as old posters about
disease control, area photographs and maps,
manuscripts, etc.
- National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
The Archives house many records from the past.
- General NIH documents are kept in the Archives
II facility in College Park, MD. For access,
contact the special archivists; see the Office
of History FAQ page for details.
- Records still controlled by a particular Institute
at NIH are stored in the Suitland National Records
Center. For access, contact the records manager
for that Institute. See the list
of Records Management Officers .
 Fellow
Tip : "It's best to contact NARA ahead
of time, if you can, to get things pulled for
you. Talk to an archivist before you go, to get
an orientation on their collection."
 Fellow
Tip : "The best way to get to the Archives
II is by car. They have free parking, but it fills
quickly, so get there early. You can also get
there with a combination of Metro and bus, or
on the free shuttle from the main Archives in
Washington, DC."
 Fellow
Tip : "NARA lets you copy documents at
various public copy machines, but lines can develop.
So if you realize that you will have to copy quite
a bit of material, go to NARA first thing Monday
morning."
4.
Other contacts
- There is a community of NIH Fellows.known
as FELCOM ,
the NIH Fellows Committee. Among other things,
FELCOM runs a listserv
(electronic mailing list) that Fellows
can use to contact each other and find common
interests.
- Scientific
Interest Groups at NIH cover a wide variety
of topics, each with its own website, meetings,
and listserv activity.
- In addition to the Office of NIH History,
there are Historians at other HHS agencies who
may prove to be valuable contacts for research
and sharing of resources:
- Food
& Drug Administration History Office
- Office
of the Public Health Service Historian
- Through the Graduate
Partnership Program , you can take graduate-level
courses while performing research at NIH. This
is useful both for learning and for meeting
fellow researchers.
- The Office of NIH History has worked closely
with the private company History
Associates , which employs many researchers.
It may be worthwhile to find out if work is
being done on your particular topic.
 Fellow
Tip : "Take advantage of all the people
who are on campus every day. Make appointments
to have lunch with them. Find out what they are
doing. Being able to say 'I'm a Fellow here at
NIH' opens more doors than you can imagine."
ON
TO LONG TERM
BACK
TO GENERAL
INFORMATION FOR STETTEN FELLOWS |
home | about us | donate historical items | media inquiries
