Presentation on Library of Congress by Peter West-Oram given at IPS event 2012

1. Researching Human
Rights and Health Care at
the Library of Congress
AHRC IPS Presentation:
Peter West-Oram November 2012

2. My Research: Global Justice, Health
Care and Human Rights
 Focuses on the human need for basic health
care
 Examines relationship between lack of
access to health care and reduced quality of
life
 Attempting to establish an argument for this
right, and the requirements of it
 Some empirical examples, but a
philosophical claim

3. My Research: Important points for
the Library of Congress
 Philosophy PhD
 Applied Ethics and Moral Philosophy
 Importantly, not historical or archival
research
 Also, not political science(though I will talk
about this in a moment)
 Not quite ‘armchair philosophy’, but almost

4. Why the Library of Congress?
 Enormous array of resources
 Opportunity for uninterrupted research time
Opportunity to visit other research institutes in
the city (Think tanks and Universities)
 Proximity to other archives in Washington
D.C.
 Washington D.C. Seemed like an interesting
place to live
Opportunities for networking

5. My Original Goal
 Original focus was on international health
care policy development
Particular focus at time of application on how
policy is made.
 Intended to focus on very specific sections of
the Library collection (the Public Aspects of
Medicine Collection)
 Aimed to visit other research institutes in
Washington and the Eastern USA

6. Some facts about the Library and the
Kluge Center
 LOC has over one million items
 All of them are available to Kluge
Fellows
 MOST of them will be delivered to you
at your cubicle in the Kluge Center
 Those you cannot get delivered you
can visit or collect yourself

8. What I Actually Did
 Intention to visit other research institutes in the USA
disappeared – too many books, not enough time
 I did attend several events at the Brookings Institute
 Did try to meet with academics at Georgetown and the
Kennedy Institute for Ethics – unfortunately it never
happened
 Doubled the amount of sources I had in the first three
months of my fellowship
 Did research in a much wider range than originally
anticipated (mostly medicine and health care though)
 Focused more generally on health impacts, though
through health policy

9. Research Outcomes
 Research for three conference papers
 Worked on two papers whilst at the LOC
 Research for another two derived from the research I
did (a third submitted at the moment)
 More than doubled the amount of research
documents read
 Research used for two (and probably more) chapters
of my thesis
 Paper given on my research whilst at the LOC
(everyone does this)

10. About the Kluge Center
 The Kluge Center is an interdisciplinary
research cluster (almost all social sciences
and the Humanities)
 Scholars from all over the world
 Post-docs, senior research fellows, staff
fellows, government researchers and AHRC
fellows
Regular presentations from all scholars
 Unbelievably helpful and friendly staff
 You do not have enough time

11. Things to think about
 Talk to your Librarian Area specialist
 Try to arrive near the beginning of the academic
year
 Have a specific plan (which will probably change)
 Take advantage of the expertise of staff
 Contact people in nearby Universities/relevant
institutions before you go
 The congressional research team is apparently very
good at helping you find policy related stuff
 Time away from University? Don’t worry
 There is not enough time at the Library

12. Things to think about 2
 Some parts of Washington are nicer than
others
 Try and live near a metro station (the metro
is often rubbish at weekends)
 Arrange accommodation before you go
 Talk to current resident scholars to get
recommendations for where to live
Living in Virginia or Maryland is do-able if you
are near the metro (though you will have a
longer commute)