Interview with Chianta Dorsey, University Archivist

University Archivist Chianta Dorsey

In honor of American Archives Month, we are interviewing UT Southwestern’s University Archivist, Chianta Dorsey.

What are your principal duties as Archivist, and in which of these duties do you invest the majority of your energy?

My main mission is to collect, preserve, and provide access to the institutional history of UT Southwestern Medical Center. Most of my duties are devoted to physically preserving these materials but also to making them available to the UTSW community and external researchers. Accessibility is so important because, for all the work we put in to preserve materials, we want people to use them for education, instruction, and research.

What do you enjoy most about being an Archivist?

I enjoy the many people that I get to meet and the stories that they tell. There is this misconception that archivists only spend time with the materials, but I spend a lot of time engaging with people across UTSW’s campus and outside of it.

What are some unique or interesting items that you have in the UTSW Archives?

There are many, but I’ve found Edward Cary’s patient book, from his residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York during the 1890s, to be pretty interesting. Cary meticulously described his patient’s habits and symptoms and even drew charts and data that must have taken a lot of time to write. We have a book related to biomedical research performed during the Voskhod space flight that was led by the Soviet Union from 1964-1965. We have the only known copy since the others were ordered to be destroyed. Lastly, we have essays written by Donald Seldin during his time studying at New York University. It’s very interesting to see his interpretation on some classic works of literature.

What are some projects that the Archives is working on now?

We’re working to roll out our first archives management system. This will be an online portal where people will be able to search, find, and request our materials more easily. I’m also working to organize the Dean of the Medical School records, which provides a nuanced look into the first 40 years of UTSW’s history. While the records detail our immense growth in the fields of medicine and science, it also provides insight into how broader social issues penetrated the campus.

Are there any new directions in which you would like the Archives to go?

I hope to work more with instructors who teach medical humanities electives on campus. I’ve partnered with two medical humanities classes to present materials from the Archives related to the history of medicine, so I would like our role to expand in that area.

We’ve also been working to build our digital preservation program. Much of the materials being generated is born-digital so we want to ensure that we are able to preserve records and documents being created in various digital formats. Our COVID-19 collection, which documents the institution’s response to the pandemic, is our first complete born-digital collection. As of today, none of it consists of physical documents or materials.

How can materials in the Archives be accessed?

If someone would like to view materials in the Archives, they can make an appointment to access them. You can contact us through our email at archives@utsouthwestern.edu to set up an appointment or inquire about any of our materials.

New historical databases available through Accessible Archives

The UT Southwestern Library now provides access to two historical databases from Accessible Archives:

These resources were purchased using Academic Libraries Collection Enhancement Program (ALCEP) funds, which are made possible by the UT System Board of Regents for one-time collection acquisitions. Perpetual access to both resources is now available for all UT System schools.

In addition, Accessible Archives is providing one-year of trial access to ALL of their databases.  This trial access ends April 28, 2022.

Both historical resources can be accessed from the individual links above or in Databases on the Library’s website.

A Year in Review: UT Southwestern Library’s Response to COVID-19

As we welcome our UT Southwestern community back to the Health Sciences Digital Library & Learning Center space in May 2021, we’d like to reflect on what we have done to make it safer for you to come back over the last year. The Library Staff of 16 spent a combined total of over 2,250 hours on COVID-19 related projects in the past year. Our list of contributions is as follows:

  • Created the comprehensive COVID-19 Library Guide.
  • Conducted COVID-19 mediated searches with related clinical, research, and administrative purposes.
  • Created, maintained, and performed daily searches to maintain the Campus’s COVID-19 Funding Opportunities directory.
  • Selected and created the Library Reservation System for safe studying and contact tracing.
  • Instructed CME class related to searching for COVID-19 topics.
  • Processed Interlibrary Loan requests with safety precautions.
  • Planned and implemented the closing of the physical North and South Libraries and then the opening of South Campus Library, including publishing the UT Southwestern Library Re-Opening Guide.
  • Planned and made necessary changes to workflows and staff remote set-ups to allow full continuation of research and instructional services.
  • Had multiple discussions and made decisions for additional resources related to COVID-19 for inclusion the Library Guide.
  • Learned and networked about handling COVID-19 in medical libraries via professional organizations, webinars, and conferences.

Bitty Babu, the Library’s Database Analyst, complied our COVID-19 service hours and provided the following visualizations for our efforts.

Preserving digital records during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has uprooted much of life as we knew it over the past months, and this period of time will surely be of interest to researchers in the future. That’s why we at the UT Southwestern Special Collections and Archives have been actively collecting materials related to UT Southwestern’s response to the pandemic. Though the first things that might come to mind when you think of archives are record boxes and printed photographs, much of today’s historical records live solely in digital form. The material documenting the COVID-19 outbreak is no exception, and it is vital that we actively collect this material to preserve it for the future.

Born-digital materials are considered a higher preservation risk because they are subject to corruption (called “bit rot”) and obsolescence (being unable to open files due to unsupported software or file formats). They are also at risk of simply being forgotten about when a staff member retires or files are buried on a computer. Actively collecting born-digital material as they are created is one of the most important steps in preserving these digital records over time.

We have begun collecting a number of different records relating to COVID-19 over the past few months. One of the more valuable digital records currently for the campus is Dr. Podolsky’s weekly and now bi-weekly podcast series, where he discusses the current state of the campus and answers community questions. Though these podcasts and the transcripts are currently available on the UT Southwestern website, there may be a time years from now that the COVID-19 resources page no longer exists. We have been collecting both the audio files and the transcripts to ensure they are preserved in the University Archives.

Lots of today’s information is disseminated through emails, which is why we have also been collecting the daily Emergency Operations Center COVID-19 Update emails. We save the update emails each week in PDF format, and each month we export the emails as a Microsoft Outlook email file (called PST). This allows us flexibility in how we can provide access to the emails in the future, and also ensures that they are in stable file formats that will probably be accessible over time.

During a public emergency such as a pandemic, information is changed and updated frequently so that the most up-to-date information is available. We are working to capture each bit of information as it comes to show the changes over time. One way to do this is to capture websites at a fixed interval so that changes made to the website can be seen. The UT Southwestern Special Collections and Archives became Archive-It members at the beginning of the pandemic to streamline the capture and preservation of websites. If you aren’t familiar with Archive-It, you may be familiar with the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, which is a similar tool that allows for the capture and playback of websites. We are crawling many UT Southwestern COVID-19 related websites and social media posts on a weekly to monthly basis. We are also downloading the COVID-19 Forecasting Models as they are updated. These materials collectively can help tell the story of the spread of COVID-19 in Dallas and how UT Southwestern responded.

The first Archive-It capture of the UTSW COVID-19 update site from March 20, 2020

Once the material is in the University Archives, we work to ensure its longevity in a number of ways. First, we ensure that we have multiple copies saved in different locations, so that no copy is dependent on another, and we can recover information if it is lost or corrupted. We also try to stabilize file formats into formats that are better for preservation. Finally, just like any other analog collection, we arrange and describe the collection so that researchers can find information that is of interest to them.

Collecting digital records relating to COVID-19 as they are created ensures that they can be preserved and made accessible to researchers in the future. If you or your department has any digital material relating to COVID-19 that might be of interest to us in the archives, please reach out to Kaitlyn Sisk, Digital Archivist, or Chianta Dorsey, University Archivist, at archives@utsouthwestern.edu.

American Archives Month at UT Southwestern

UTSW students at a chili cookoff, 1987.
UTSW students at a chili cookoff, 1987.

The UT Southwestern Archives and Special Collections is celebrating American Archives Month throughout the month of October.

Beginning October 5, 2020, on Instagram and Twitter, Archives staff will share an image everyday showcasing the history of student life at UT Southwestern and the genesis of the Archives and Special Collections.

Other scheduled events include:

  • October 7Join us on Twitter for #AskAnArchivist Day. Archives staff will be available to answer questions about how we collect and preserve UT Southwestern’s history. Use the hashtag #AskAnArchivist when posing your questions.
  • October 15 – Chianta Dorsey, University Archivist, will present on the various History of Medicine resources available in the Archives & Special Collections. Register here for the presentation.
  • October 21 – Kaitlyn Sisk, Digital Archivist, will detail how she’s been preserving UT Southwestern’s response during the pandemic in her blog post “Preserving Digital Records During COVID-19.”

Join us to learn more about the historical resources available to the UT Southwestern community.

Publish and preserve research in UT Southwestern Institutional Repository

Have you published a journal article or submitted one for publication? Are you required to make any supplemental material (e.g., tables, charts, data) available in a public repository? Have you recently presented a poster or paper at a conference? Would you like to make a copy of the article, related supplemental material, or presentation materials available to the public? 

If you answered “yes” to one or more of the above questions, then consider submitting your content to the UT Southwestern Institutional Repository, which collects, preserves, and distributes digital material pertaining to the clinical, educational, and research missions of UT Southwestern. 

The Library has created the UT Southwestern Institutional Repository Submission Form to better facilitate adding materials to the repository. Users should provide as much information as possible about the submission, and Library staff will be in touch with more information and additional instructions. 

All submitted items will be publicly available via Internet access, but copyright of submitted materials remains with the copyright holder. 

Learn more about the Institutional Repository – including reviewing the Frequently Asked Questions – by visiting the Institutional Repository Basics collection. You may also contact the Library’s Special Collections and Archives group by email at archives@utsouthwestern.edu

Donate your COVID-19 stories to UT Southwestern Archives

Soldiers and nurses outside of St. Paul Sanitarium on Bryan Street with tents for military patients during the 1918 influenza pandemic. From the St. Paul Collection, UT Southwestern Archives and Special Collections.

The UT Southwestern Archives and Special Collections invites donations from UT Southwestern faculty, staff, and students regarding their experiences during COVID-19. We are currently archiving the University’s official response to this historical event, but we also welcome personal stories from the UTSW community, and we encourage you to participate, if possible. By recording your experiences and contributing to the Archives, you can leave a record for future generations of how COVID-19 impacted UT Southwestern and how our participation impacted the greater Dallas community’s response to it. Any questions regarding the project can be sent to Chianta Dorsey, University Archivist, or Kaitlyn Sisk, Digital Archivist, at archives@utsouthwestern.edu.

How to Participate

You are free to decide how you want to record your thoughts during this time. Try to share your experience in a way that’s most comfortable for you. Please adhere to state or local stay-at-home orders when self-documenting!

Some examples of materials that you can submit include the following:

  • Written or online journals and diaries
  • Blog posts
  • Photographs
  • Video and audio recordings
  • Essays or short stories
  • Poetry
  • Podcasts

Suggested Topics of Discussion

Think about what aspects of your life have changed since the outbreak of COVID-19. Some suggested topics of discussion are:

  • An introduction with your name, area of study, workplace department, and where your are from.
  • What has been your experience with online learning or the switch to an online environment for student activities such as Match Day or commencement exercises?
  • What has been your experience working remotely or as essential personnel if you must continue to work on campus or in the hospitals?
  • Has COVID-19 impacted your research activities? If so, in what way?
  • What are your experiences with living under shelter in place orders? How has it affected the closure of businesses and other institutions in your local community?
  • What types of information are you consuming to stay informed regarding the status of COVID-19 on campus, locally, or nationwide?
  • How were you notified about not returning to campus? What were your initial thoughts?
  • What discussions have you had with your family, friends, colleagues, students, or professors?
  • What challenges have you overcome or faced during COVID-19?
  • Have you volunteered time or donated money to specific organizations that are fighting the outbreak of COVID-19 or addressing underlying social issues stemming from the pandemic?
  • Has your personal health been affected since the outbreak of COVID-19?

Topics to be Avoided or Discussed with Caution

UT Southwestern Archives plans to make these submissions accessible online to the UT Southwestern community and external researchers. The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis, and your submissions may include your personal health information (PHI). If any of your donated materials includes discussion of your health information, this information is legally protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and you will have to sign off on the PHI agreement in our submission form.

It’s important that you also agree not to include the PHI or the personal identifiable information (PII) of other individuals (or information that could allow a third party to identify other people) in your donated materials. This includes members of your family, friends, neighbors, etc. If individuals appear with you in video or audio recordings and they discuss their health information, they will also need to complete a submission form and sign off on the PHI agreement within the form. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Submission Process and Rules

The University Archivist reserves the right to deny or accept a submission based on its content. Please adhere to the submission process and rules detailed below.

  • Please complete the COVID-19 Archiving Project Submission Form allowing the University Archives to preserve your submission. Upload any materials you wish to donate in the form and submit it. You will need a UT Southwestern email account to access the form.
  • If other people are present during your documentation and they share their COVID-19 experiences, they are considered a co-creator, and we will need their permission to preserve and share the recordings. Please have any friends, family members, or community members fill out the form if you wish to record with them. If we do not receive submission forms from all participants, we cannot preserve the materials. One person can submit the materials, but each co-creator will need to complete the form along with a description of the materials they appear in.
  • Do not submit any video or audio recordings where individuals under the age of 18 are present.
  • Do not submit intellectual property that is not yours.
  • If your items are larger than the size (1GB) allowed to be uploaded by our form, please contact us at archives@utsouthwestern.edu, and we can arrange to receive your items in another manner.
  • If you are a UT Southwestern alumni who would like to submit materials but you don’t have a UT Southwestern email account, please contact us, and we can arrange to receive your items.

General information about the UT Southwestern Archives & Special Collections can be found here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What form of documentation do you prefer?
We don’t have a preference. Your submissions can be in physical or digital format. Unfortunately, we cannot accept large physical artworks or artifacts at this time.

Can my submission include multiple formats?
Yes. If you decide to submit an audio recording, you can also submit photos or videos to accompany them.

I’m not affiliated with UT Southwestern Medical Center. Can I still participate?
Unfortunately, we are only accepting submissions from the UT Southwestern community at this time.

Can my submission be restricted from use for a period of time?
Yes, you can restrict public access to your submission for 5, 10, or 15 years.

How do I submit?
Please see the submission process and rules above for more information on how to submit your materials.

When should I send my submission?
This project is ongoing, and we are open to receiving submissions now or in the future.

Will my materials be placed online?
There is no guarantee that your submission will be placed online in a digital exhibit or digital collection curated by the Archives. Unless your content is restricted for a certain length of time, it can ultimately be placed online in the future.

New acquisitions at UT Southwestern Archives

October is American Archives Month. This year at the UT Southwestern Archives, we have been busy acquiring new collections related to the institution’s history. We continue to actively collect and preserve materials that highlight the contributions of faculty, staff, students, administrators, and organizations to the social and academic life of the university. New collections always reveal unknown or obscure facts about the campus’ history, its people, and its culture. Some of our new collections include:

The Donald W. Seldin Papers:

The Donald Seldin papers document the life and career of UT Southwestern professor and physician Dr. Donald W. Seldin. The collection consists of 18 linear feet of correspondence, photographs, collected writings, speeches, and scholarly works produced by Seldin during his lifetime. His papers provide insight into the evolution of the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, his impact in the field of nephrology, his interest in medical ethics, and his professional relationships with colleagues nationally and internationally. Dr. Seldin’s career at UT Southwestern started in 1951 when he was recruited from Yale University, where he graduated from medical school in 1943. In 1952, he became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine. He led the department for 36 years where he recruited distinguished physicians and researchers and guided the development of his students into Southwestern Medical School faculty.

The Jo Ann Carson Papers:

The Jo Ann Carson papers document the career of UT Southwestern professor and dietitian Dr. Jo Ann Carson. The collection consists of 4 linear feet of correspondence, photographs, writings, notes, reports, ephemera, minutes, and research created and collected by Carson as an educator of Clinical Nutrition in the School of Health Professions for 45 years. Carson’s papers display the growth of the Department of Clinical Nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, her scholarship on nutrition, her studies on cardiovascular risk and obesity, and her work with organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Carson began her career at UT Southwestern in 1974 as an Instructor in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics (now named the Department of Clinical Nutrition) and served as its Chairman from 1985-1986. She received her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin.  

The Dean of UT Southwestern Medical School Records:

The Archives is currently embarking on processing the presidential records of UT Southwestern’s first president Charles S. Sprague (1972-1986). When the project began, it was assumed that the records were only related to the administration of Sprague. However, records created during the administration of previous Deans of UT Southwestern were found hidden within the Sprague records. Records from the tenures of Tinsley R. Harrison (1944-1946) and Atticus J. Gill (1954-1967), both Deans of the Medical School before the Office of the President was created, were discovered. A few of the highlights that have been uncovered so far include documents related to the university’s early relationship with the military; UT Southwestern’s relationship with the Dallas medical community and Southwestern Medical Foundation; and the growth and development of the medical school.

The Faculty Women’s Club Records:

The records of the Faculty Women’s Club (formerly the Faculty Wives Club) document the history of the organization and its affiliation with UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The organization was founded in 1943 by wives of full-time faculty at UT Southwestern. The purpose of the group was to welcome newcomers to UT Southwestern and to promote fellowship among the campus community through events and programs. The collection largely consists of 5 linear feet of scrapbooks, photographs, newspaper clippings, newsletters, meeting minutes, and directories created by the organization during its 76 years of existence. The records display the activities of the Faculty Women’s Club which included providing scholarship money for UT Southwestern students, hosting events for patients at Parkland Hospital, and planning social gatherings for the UT Southwestern’s faculty and students.

The UT Southwestern Archives is open to the UT Southwestern community and external researchers. We are available, by appointment only, Monday – Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. Please email archives@utsouthwestern.edu for questions or to make an appointment to view any of our collections.

Visit the UT Southwestern Archives for more information.  

Library hosts new NLM exhibit on history of nursing told through postcards

The UT Southwestern Library will host Pictures of Nursing: The Zwerdling Postcard Collection, a traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine, from November 19, 2018, through January 5, 2019.

The exhibition explores a unique archive of 2,588 postcards and more than 100 years of images of nurses and the nursing profession from around the world, investigating the hold these images exert on the public imagination then and now.

The postcard is a fleeting and widespread art form influenced by popular ideas about social and cultural life in addition to fashions in visual style. Nurses and nursing have been the frequent subjects of postcards for over 100 years. In fact, no other art form has illustrated the nursing profession so profusely using such a variety of artistic styles and images.

These images of nurses and nursing are informed by cultural values; ideas about women, men, and work; and attitudes toward class, race, and national differences. By documenting the relationship of nursing to significant forces in 20th-century life, such as war and disease, these postcards reveal how nursing was seen during those times.

The six-banner traveling exhibition highlights only a small selection from the 2,588 postcards of The Zwerdling Postcard Collection. Visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine website to view over 500 more postcards in the exhibition’s online digital gallery at Pictures of Nursing: The Zwerdling Postcard Collection.

Medical School’s early years on display at Dallas Public Library

Selected materials from the early years of the medical school are now on display until August 31 at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in Downtown Dallas. The “UT Southwestern at 75 Years: Early Highlights of Southwestern Medical College” exhibit was curated by staff at Special Collections and Archives (part of the UT Southwestern Health Sciences Digital Library and Learning Center).

This exhibit explores military connections, changes in medical education, and selected departmental highlights and institutional developments during the first two decades of the medical school. Some of the materials on display include:

  • A patient logbook from the 19th century
  • The first yearbook from the medical school
  • A kymograph
  • Lantern slides

Edward H. Cary, M.D. (1872-1953), more than any other single person, was responsible for the founding of what is today UT Southwestern. He was the originator and first president of Southwestern Medical Foundation, originally founded to strengthen Baylor Medical College. When Baylor Medical College moved to Houston in 1943, Dr. Cary and the Foundation started Southwestern Medical College, now UT Southwestern. As president of the Foundation, Dr. Cary helped negotiate the medical school’s entry into the University of Texas system in 1949. This exhibit includes his log book from his training at Bellevue Hospital Medical College.

Southwestern Medical College faculty and students, most in military uniforms, circa 1944

Southwestern Medical College faculty and students, most in military uniforms, circa 1944

Both the Army Specialized Training Unit and the Navy V-12 Unit were part of the earliest years of Southwestern Medical College. These two programs, created during World War II, were intended to boost both the number of technically trained personnel and officers. The commemorative plaque given to the school in recognition of the Navy V-12 Unit is featured in this exhibit, along with early images and the first medical school yearbook.

Seal of Southwestern Medical College

Seal of Southwestern Medical College

One of the departments of instruction when Southwestern Medical College opened in 1943 was Medical Art and Visual Education. Southwestern Medical College was the first educational institution to offer the Master of Medical Arts degree. An original drawing by Lewis Waters, a 1950s illustrated scholarly work on polio, the seal of Southwestern Medical College, and early lantern slides help reveal how the use of images in medical education has changed over time.

The exhibit is available for viewing on the 5th floor (Business & Technology) of the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in downtown Dallas until August 31, 2018.

Questions or comments about the exhibit? Contact archives@utsouthwestern.edu.