Historical librarian appointed

Melissa J. Grafe, Ph.D., was named the John R. Bumstead Librarian for Medical History at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library last year. Grafe replaces Toby A. Appel, Ph.D., M.L.S., who retired in 2010. Grafe, whose doctorate is in the history of medicine, comes to Yale from Lehigh University, where she was the humanities librarian. For her doctoral research at Johns Hopkins she specialized in 18th-century American medical practice, but she also worked with rare books and special collections at the Historical Collection for the Institute of the History of Medicine.

Among her current projects is Yale’s participation in the Medical Heritage Library, an effort by leading medical libraries to make rare books accessible online. Collections from Yale, Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the National Library of Medicine, the New York Public Library, and other institutions are being digitized and posted online.

“I see my job as working with researchers, students, faculty, and anyone who is interested in the history of medicine and our collections, and helping to bring forth new knowledge,” said Grafe, who oversees a staff of four full-time employees, one part-time employee, and three part-time student hires. “We’re here to preserve the collection for future generations. We’re here to make it accessible either through digital resources or blogs or the exhibitions and classes that we do. We’re here to help our patrons.”