“In addition to its research and clinical efforts for the coronavirus pandemic, the National Institutes of Health is archiving material for historical and future research purposes.”
“Shortly after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” on January 30, 2020, NIH’s National Library of Medicine launched a process to collect web and social media documents on the virus. This was before WHO declared it a pandemic on March 11, 2020.”
“‘Our scope is broadly focused: [the National Library of Medicine] is interested in preserving content documenting the many social and cultural dimensions, efforts to control and prevent the spread, health disparities, the impact on vulnerable populations, vaccine development, health worker and patient experiences, misinformation, and more,’ Christie Moffatt, chair of the library’s web collecting and archiving initiative, told Government Executive. ‘We also select content documenting the many stories of innovation, creativity, and hope in the face of this crisis.’ The purpose is to save the material ‘for future research, and the future historical record.’”
“The National Library of Medicine is also working with the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Food and Drug Administration History Office, the David J. Sencer Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Museum and Veterans Affairs Department as well as ‘engaging with many agencies using the Internet Archive’s Archive-It service to collect web content,’ Moffatt said. The service, a nonprofit established in 1996, is a leading web archive for government, academic, cultural and other libraries.”
“The National Library of Medicine is also collecting research publications and data related to the pandemic through PubMed Central, its digital repository. In the past year the library, with help from its partners, has collected over 6,000 resources, which equals over one terabyte of data…” Read the full article here.
Source: NIH is Documenting COVID-19 as Well as Responding to It – By Courtney Bublé, March 19, 2021. Government Executive.
