This may be of some considerable interest to many of our list members. Apologies for cross-posting. Cheers Dan >Subject: New Digital Archive of FDA Court Cases >From: "Rees, John (NIH/NLM) [E]" <[log in to unmask]> >Date: Wed, April 1, 2009 1:53 pm > >Apologies for cross postings: >NLM History of Medicine Division Releases Digital Archive of FDA Court Cases > >The Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program ><http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/collections/archives/ammp/index.html> at the >History of Medicine Division <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/>, National >Library of Medicine is pleased to announce the release of a new digital >archive of court case summaries published as the Food and Drugs Act >Notices of Judgment. > >http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/fdanj/ > >The collection is a digital archive of the notices judgment for products >seized under authority of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the 1938 >Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The NJs are resources in themselves, but >also lead users to the over 2,000 linear foot collection of the evidence >files used to prosecute each case. These files include materials such as >correspondence, lab results, photographs, and product samples and >labeling. This collection offers insight into U.S. legal and governmental >history, as well as the evolution of clinical trial science and the social >impact of medicine on health. The legal history of some of our best-known >consumer items of today, such as Coca Cola, and companies like Merck >Pharmaceuticals, can be traced in the collection. > >Users can perform full-text searching and browse the archive by Case >Title, Defendant Name, Adjudicating Court Name, Geographic Seizure >Location, and Case Publication Date. > >To preserve these NJs and make them accessible, we have created a digital >archive of both page images and metadata for each NJ. The archive was >developed as a joint research project between HMD and the Lister Hill >Center's Communications Engineering Branch<http://archive.nlm.nih.gov> >(CEB). CEB's System for Preservation of Electronic Resources ><http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/sper.php> (SPER) is a set of Java-based >applications currently used in conjunction with the DSpace ><http://www.dspace.org/> platform. Among other archiving and preservation >functions, SPER performs automated metadata extraction (AME) from TIFF >page images, quality control review, and batch ingest of objects in an >integrated fashion. SPER leverages the powerful archiving infrastructure >and access mechanisms provided by DSpace for storage and dissemination, >but the operations are modularized so that they can be used as standalone >services or integrated with other repository or digital archive platforms >or web services. > >The current content consists of over 6,800 cases (over 4,300 pages) >covering actions against Drugs and Devices from 1940-1963. As we complete >work on other portions of the collection they will be released on an >ongoing basis. Users are welcome to visit the library to use the hard >copies at any time. > >Future releases: >* Foods and Drugs, 1908-1943 (31,000 cases/21,000 pages) >* Foods, 1940-1966 (30,000 cases/9,800 pages) >* Cosmetics, 1940-1964 (256 cases) > >For more information, please contact John P. Rees, Curator, Archives and >Modern Manuscripts Program, at >[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> > > > >-- >H-SCI-MED-TECH >The H-Net list for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology >Email address for postings: [log in to unmask] >Homepage: http://www.h-net.org/~smt/ >To unsubscribe or change your subscription options, please use the >Web Interface: http://www.h-net.org/lists/manage.cgi Dan Malleck, PhD Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Editor-in-chief, Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Journal http://historyofalcoholanddrugs.typepad.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail, including any attachments, may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by e-mail and immediately delete this message and its contents, and then find someone to blame. Thank you.