The blog
this week comes from Stephen, our Archive (Projects) Intern:
Hi, I am Stephen Bournadet, a 26
year old intern with LHSA. I will be working for 10 weeks on various ongoing projects,
involving cataloguing, conservation, outreach and fundraising. First a bit
about myself: born between Bordeaux and Cognac in France, I graduated 3 years
ago with a Master’s degree in Archives / Records Management from Aix-en-Provence.
Then, after spending one year working in various places, I felt that I needed
to travel while young and I came to Edinburgh where I secured a job as a
language assistant. Falling in love with the city and my girlfriend (ah
l’amour!) I want to stay here so I’ve started a MSc in Records Management and Digital
Preservation at the University of Dundee (which I will complete by the end of
2015). Since arriving I have also been volunteering in various places, such as
the National Library of Scotland and the
Records Management Section (RMS) of the University of Edinburgh. The RMS is
mainly involved in providing the university staff with guidance on record
keeping and on handling Freedom of Information requests. From an archive point of view the RMS manages and
prepares the records prior to their transfer to the University archives when
they are no longer of business value. From a personal point of view,
whilst I’ve really enjoyed my work there I must acknowledge that LHSA’s large
windows on the 5th floor of the Main Library with views of the
Pentland Hills are leading in the best office match!
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| Stephen hard at work with the Dott case notes |
So far after two weeks working on
the Norman Dott case note cataloguing project, I have to say that I haven’t
been bored for a second. Luckily I haven’t been affected by some very detailed
descriptions of patient’s conditions and I quite enjoyed trawling through
poetic Latin and Greek medical terms (such as ataxia, hemiparesis or diplopia).
Before working with LHSA I already had several forays into medical archives.
Three years ago I classified and catalogued archives of a French local health
board during WWII, discovering how life under German occupation was harsh (when
Jewish doctors were banned from practice, even if hundreds of thousands of
refugees had arrived). Last year, while on an internship at the University of
Dundee archives, I worked with the Tayside asylums’ archives, carrying out research
for relatives from as far away as Australia.
My current work with LHSA is part
of a wider project funded by the Wellcome Trust and involves cataloguing around
26,500 patient case files from collections relating to Norman Dott (1897-1973).
Dott was a pioneering Edinburgh neurosurgeon and his records, spanning 40 years
(1920-1960), are an invaluable source for history of medicine and genealogic
research. The LHSA team and I (modestly) are gathering information on each case
(for example patient age, profession and medical conditions) to create an
online publically accessible catalogue. We
work with EAD-XML (Encoded Archive Description), an informatics language
standard. EAD is widely used by the archive community and allows
standardization of digital catalogues.
What has most struck me in this
work is how developed surgery was in the 1950s and how efficient. In the case
notes we find numerous examples of people who are severely incapacitated by conditions
such as back pain or brain tumours. Patient care and surgical treatment could
bring a huge relief and allow them to return to a normal life.
Overall a very good experience so
far, see you in three weeks for an update on my job here!
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