FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Archives Catalog?

The Archives Catalog describes all of the collection material at the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr., MD Archives. It provides centralized browsing and searching, regardless of format and digitization status. All of our publicly available material has a record.

How do I search?

Keyword searching of archival records is available on the Archival Description page, as well as from the search bar at the top of each page. Advanced searching is also available from the Archival Description page, and search results can be faceted by Creators, Names, Places, Subjects, Genres, by clicking the appropriate search terms on the left-hand side of the page.

It's also possible to search for all materials by or about certain people or corporate bodies by using the Authority records page. Search for a name (faceting by the person, corporate body, or family if necessary), and select the appropriate result. This will bring you to a page that links out to all records created by or about that name, and will sometimes include a history or biography.

You can also browse by Collection-Level Descriptions, Subjects, or Genres as needed.

I'm looking for recent medical records from the Mount Sinai Health System. Where can I find those?

Contact Medical Records. The Aufses Archives contain historical material. While some medical records and casebooks are available in the collection, these are historical records that largely date to the 19th and early-20th century.

How do I get back to the home page?

Click on the Icahn School logo in the top left corner. You can also use the Quick Links tab ("i" icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen) and click "Home."

The record for the material I want to see says that it's (partially) restricted. What does that mean?

Collection material in the Archives is subject to protections by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), meaning that certain medical and education records are subject to privacy protections by law. Additionally, some administrative material is restricted for a minimum of 25 years. If you have questions about access to restricted records, contact us.

Where are the digitized and born-digital materials in your collection?

Right here in our catalog! Our assets are stored, monitored, and preserved through the labor of our full-time Digital Archivist, who establishes, maintains, and innovates our digital preservation program that includes multiple systems and the software Archivematica. The digital materials in our Archives are secured in our digital preservation environment for posterity and access is provided through this catalog, which is powered by the software AtoM. The websites, online publications, Youtube channels, social media, podcasts, and other online content produced by Mount Sinai are captured, archived, and made available through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Our web archiving initiatives began in 2015 and aims to capture the web presence of the Mount Sinai Health System. Browse our Collection of Mount Sinai related websites.

I'm looking at a record for an object — why isn't it digitized?

An archival record is like a record for a book in a library catalog – you might not always be able to download the whole book from the catalog, but you can see that the library has it, with more information on how to access it. If you would like a digitized copy of any of our material, you can contact the Archives for more information.

I hold copyright to material represented in the Archives catalog, and I do not want the material to be available online. What should I do?

The digitized material in the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. MD Archives Image Database are provided for private study, scholarship, and research uses only, in accordance with copyright law. These materials, gathered from many donors, have been digitized for preservation purposes and are being made available online in support of those uses. The Mount Sinai Health System does not claim ownership of the intellectual property rights for materials not created by the current or historical Mount Sinai institutions. If you are a copyright holder of any part of the content and believe that that content should not be made publicly available, please contact the Archives.

How can the Archives support genealogical research?

For those inquiries on employees, medical or nursing students, helpful resources may include: annual reports, newsletters, nursing and medical school yearbooks, biographical files of employees, lists of nursing school alumni, class photos, and student transcripts.

For inquiries related to patient information, there are a limited number of pre-1950s casebooks for several hospitals that represent a small sample of the total number of patients treated. Contemporary information requests should be directed to Medical Records.

The Archives primarily documents institutional history, so research on individuals can be challenging.

Access to student and medical records is subject to pertinent privacy laws, namely FERPA and HIPAA, and may be closed to research.

I need help using the catalog — and I have feedback!

Contact us! We can help find materials relevant to your research.