Unlocking the MD: widening access to the University of Edinburgh MD Theses, 1726-1930. (360G-Wellcome-081623_Z_06_Z)

The aim of Unlocking the MD is to widen access to a significant resource for the history of medicine: the complete collection of University of Edinburgh MD theses dating from 1726 to 1930 held by Edinburgh University Library. During most of this period, Edinburgh was regarded as the leading medical centre in Europe. The primary objectives of the project are: I) to fully catalogue the collection to modern international standards and make these catalogue records fully searchable online. (At present, the only available catalogue is an inadequate and unverified sheaf-binder slip catalogue that must be consulted on site); 2) create preservation master microfilms for a selection of c.625 of the most important and representative theses; 3) make full e-texts of these selected theses available online through the University of Edinburgh's Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA); and 4) build an online database of biographical data drawn from Edinburgh University Archives student records for all authors of theses that are selected for microfilming. Online links will be established between the catalogue records, the full texts in the ERA and the biographical data. The outputs of this project will allow access to a particularly important body of information for the first time. The resource will be of great importance to researchers in many areas of the history of medicine, science and education, and the full text archive will be a significant resource for teaching and learning within those disciplines.