Securing the legacy of British surgical history: completing the online 19th century catalogue of printed collections at The Royal College of Surgeons of England. (360G-Wellcome-081658_Z_06_Z)

"Securing the legacy of British surgical history" is the overarching theme of our preservation strategy for all the historical collections. The 19th C. collections work together to illuminate the collections of John Hunter (1728-1793) and his successors. The principal objectives of this project are: 1. To improve access to, and increase use of, the nineteenth century printed collections by researchers in the history of medicine and science by cataloguing them online. We will provide c. 8,500+ bibliographic entries in the Library's online catalogue and we will apply to the CURL-RIN Challenge Fund for COPAC enhancement. Plans to share the 26,934 pamphlet records with COPAC are underway. 2. To be better placed to carry out focused parallel conservation measures to save a section of the collections which is especially at risk because of its fragile state. We will institute a targeted programme of rebinding and appropriate conservation using money generated by our Adopt a Book appeal as well as other sources of funding. The project cataloguer will help identify significant items most at risk in order to prioritise their conservation. In turn this will help identify important items for potential future digitisation. 3. To extend existing collaboration across library, archive and museum domains within the College to further our aim of encouraging public engagement with the history of surgery. This project will enable us to carry forward our aim of uniting 'virtually' items scattered across the all the collections and enriching the experience and understanding of our users.