Digitising Nightingale: an international symposium (360G-Wellcome-103918_Z_14_Z)

£9,235

The symposium Digitising Nightingale will form a significant contribution to the ongoing global network of people committed to increasing access to the correspondence of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910.) Nightingale's contribution to the history of medicine and healthcare is unquestionable. Her work in caring for the soldiers in the Crimean war led to a lifetime of campaigning for health reform for both the army and the public, and due to her own poor health, much of her communication was through letters. Nightingale's correspondence therefore gives us a unique record into the issues that preoccupied her, including the formation of the first Nursing Training School at St Thomas' Hospital, her influence on hospital design and the professionalization of nursing and midwifery, sanitation in India and her ground-breaking work in statistics. In the past, access to Nightingale's letters has been severely limited, partly due to the international nature of her influence and work, with collections of her letters being kept at archives and libraries all over the world. Although versions of her letters have been published by the University of Guelph in sixteen volumes, these works are edited and not easily available (currently selling at $150 Canadian dollars per volume.) This situation has changed quite dramatically over the last two years, with several key holders of Nightingale's letters taking the lead in digitising their own material, including the Florence Nightingale Museum (FNM). In 2011, Research Resources at the Wellcome Trust funded a project to digitise the museum's own collection of 1000 Nightingale letters and make them freely accessible through the museum's website. This work has now been completed, and forms a key part of the FNM's engagement programme. Amongst other activities, the digitised letters are currently being used as part of a series of reminiscence workshops with a local care home for the elderly, with a group selected for their past work in medicine overseas. In addition to its value for engagement, this resource has a clear use for academic research. Not only has this project at the FNM been very well-received and appreciated by a wide number of users ranging from schoolchildren to senior academics, it has also provided an exciting catalyst to increasing digital access to Nightingale's work. The FNM entered into partnership with the Royal College of Nursing, who have generously added their own collection of Nightingale's letters to the FNM's digitisation project. The success of this led the FNM to approach the Howard Gotlieb Center for Archival Research at Boston University, which holds the largest collection of Nightingale letters in the US. The Howard Gotlieb Center received a pledge of funding in July 2013, and is now currently working on a two-year project not only to digitise their own collection of Nightingale's material, but also to create a shared portal through which all digitised collections of Nightingale's letters can be accessed. As part of the US funding, we have committed to reaching other holders of Nightingales letters, especially those already who have just digitised their own Nightingale material, notably the Universities of Kansas and Illinois. The objective of this symposium is to bring together holders of Nightingale material, people committed to finding creative solutions to improving digital access and scholars of Nightingale together with staff of the Florence Nightingale Museum and the Howard Gotlieb Center. The primary aim for the symposium is to create a shared vision for an international digitisation project of Nightingale's entire correspondence. It is to take place within the Wellcome Trust, hosted by the Wellcome Library who have generously agreed to hire the auditorium and provide a sandwich lunch for the delegates. The symposium will consist of 50 invited delegates (please see attached list for invitees), chosen for the contribution they will make to the symposium. The programme will consist of ten papers covering themes such as Nightingales relevance to current bio-medical research, feedback on the digitisation work currently being launched at the Wellcome Library, challenges to digitisation including copyright and licensing, and public engagement around digitisation projects. Abstracts will be circulated before the meeting, and papers and discussions will be recorded and shared via the FNM website. This symposium is organised by a small committee, made up the team at the Florence Nightingale Museum and our partners at the Howard Gotlieb Center. The day will be formed of three sessions, including a general discussion time after each session. Each session will be chaired by the three main contributing institutions: " Richard Aspin, Head of Research at the Wellcome Library " Natasha McEnroe, Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum " Vita Paladino, Director of the Howard Gotlieb Center of Archival Research The date of the meeting is a significant one to admirers of Nightingale May 12th 2014 will be Florence Nightingales 194th birthday.

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Grant Details

Amount Awarded 9235
Applicant Surname McEnroe
Approval Committee Research Resources Committee
Award Date 2014-02-10T00:00:00+00:00
Financial Year 2013/14
Grant Programme: Title Research Resources Scoping Award
Internal ID 103918/Z/14/Z
Lead Applicant Mrs Natasha McEnroe
Partnership Value 9235
Planned Dates: End Date 2014-04-30T00:00:00+00:00
Planned Dates: Start Date 2014-02-01T00:00:00+00:00
Recipient Org: Country United Kingdom
Region Greater London