DCDC14

1. Collecting genomics: working
collaboratively to document modern
science
Jenny Shaw
RLUK - 30 October 2014

2. Human Genome Project
• Development of sequencing
techniques during 1970s
• Discussion started during
1980s
• Mapping and sequencing
through 1990s
• Announcement of draft on 26
June 2000
• Publication of ‘gold standard’
human genome in 2004

3. Human Genome Archive Project
Why?
• Significance of the HGP
• General under-
representation of scientific
work in archive collections
• Vulnerability of digital
material By Afrank99 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons

4. Aims of the HGAP
• Develop an effective survey methodology
• Survey key holdings already preserved in recognised
archives
• Undertake detailed surveying of individual or
organisational records not currently held in recognised
archives
• Put suitable measures in place to ensure that material in
any format is secured so that it can eventually be made
available to researchers

5. Collecting Genomics
• Build on success of the HGAP
• Address some of the concerns raised during the HGAP
• Process collections acquired by the Wellcome Library as
part of the HGAP
• Engage new and existing audiences for the collections

6. DOCUMENTING MODERN
COLLABORATIVE SCIENCE

7. Traditional approach to collecting
• Often reactive
• Acquisition generally after the death of the creator
• Focus on outstanding individuals
• Focus on individuals rather than organisations
• No overarching strategy for collecting

8. Documentation strategy-based
approach to collecting
“Documentation strategies also help archivists manage modern
records by acknowledging that they handle only part of the total
documentary record. Archival and manuscript sources are not the only,
or often the best, source of information.”
Helen Samuels (1986), Who Controls the Past, American Archivist, 49:2

9. Archives
Extracts from Fred Sanger’s lab notebooks, SA/BIO/P, held by the Wellcome Library

10. Grey literature
Worm Breeder’s Gazette, from the John Sulston collection, PP/SUL/A/8, held by the Wellcome Library

11. Artefacts
By RE73 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

12. Oral history and testimony
http://www.yourgenome.org/people/

13. DISSEMINATING INFORMATION
ABOUT COLLECTIONS

14. Aggregator catalogues
http://www.nahste.ac.uk/ http://archiveshub.ac.uk/

15. Linked Open Data
http://data.archiveshub.ac.uk/linkinglives/?

16. INTERPRETING HIGHLY
TECHNICAL COLLECTIONS

17. Simulation to capture tacit knowledge
Roger Kneebone, Professor of Surgical Education

18. Contact
Jenny Shaw
Project Manager – Collecting Genomics
Wellcome Library
Je.shaw@wellcome.ac.uk