Digitization

The origin of the Rudolph Matas Library dates from the founding of the Medical College of Louisiana (now Tulane University School of Medicine) in 1834, with the first mention of the Library in the faculty minutes of the College in 1844. The historic medical collection contains a wealth of early American medical journalism, treatises and pamphlets, many published in Louisiana from the period before the Civil War. These works are not generally available electronically. Users must still use the Library’s card catalog to discover resources at the Matas Library for publications from the nineteenth century and early twentieth century.

The current digitization project supported by a grant from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine through the South Central Region (NN/LM SCR) will digitize the first of what is hoped to become a repository of 19th century medical publications from Louisiana.  The initial project will digitize the Report of the Board of Administrators of the Charity Hospital, to the General Assembly of Louisiana (also known as Charity Hospital Reports
) beginning with those publications published in 1842. These reports were published in Louisiana as state government reports and seem to be unique to the Matas Library collection. The reports contain morbidity and mortality information for New Orleans, including the yellow fever epidemics, venereal disease statistics along with physician information.

The successful digitization of this set of reports will allow the Matas Library to continue the preservation and the sharing of the fragile publications that make the core of its historic medical collection. The documents will also be available in the LOUISiana Digital Library. The Matas Team hopes to continue to digitization to widely share the content of the fragile 19th – early 20th century bound local journals and reports, books of importance to medicine in Louisiana, and topical subjects such as yellow fever and other past epidemics.