Why was this site created?
history-of-obgyn.com was launched in November 2014, primarily as occupational therapy for a recently-retired Canadian/American OBGYN with an interest in the history of his profession.
I have collected antiquarian books and instruments for over 35 years. During the last two decades, I spent many evenings in libraries photocopying journal articles. When EBAY came along, I bought dozens of discarded bound journals to tear up, and expanded my collection of plastic-protected articles catalogued in over 200 three-ring binders. As evermore books and instruments accumulated on the shelves in my man-cave, my wife asked: “What are you going to do with all this s***?”
That particular pack-rat activity stopped around 2007, when GOOGLE began digitizing entire university libraries. Since I had always been more interested in the content of old books than in their value as artifacts, it seemed more convenient to go the digital route. I used slow on-call time to download literally thousands of books and journals from GOOGLE and other Internet sites.
Anticipating retirement and house-downsizing, I gradually scanned most of my articles and got rid of the binders. My database currently takes up about 700GB on a portable USB drive. Most of the books and instruments are in storage --awaiting a later stage of retirement when I hope to sell them to those who prefer tangibles to bytes, and have the space for them.
I have collected antiquarian books and instruments for over 35 years. During the last two decades, I spent many evenings in libraries photocopying journal articles. When EBAY came along, I bought dozens of discarded bound journals to tear up, and expanded my collection of plastic-protected articles catalogued in over 200 three-ring binders. As evermore books and instruments accumulated on the shelves in my man-cave, my wife asked: “What are you going to do with all this s***?”
That particular pack-rat activity stopped around 2007, when GOOGLE began digitizing entire university libraries. Since I had always been more interested in the content of old books than in their value as artifacts, it seemed more convenient to go the digital route. I used slow on-call time to download literally thousands of books and journals from GOOGLE and other Internet sites.
Anticipating retirement and house-downsizing, I gradually scanned most of my articles and got rid of the binders. My database currently takes up about 700GB on a portable USB drive. Most of the books and instruments are in storage --awaiting a later stage of retirement when I hope to sell them to those who prefer tangibles to bytes, and have the space for them.