This collection consists of numerous subject files that document the activities of the Jacobi and Levy Libraries prior to the 1983 appointment of Lynn Kasner Morgan as Library Director. (Levy Library records from 1983 onwards are located in the Records of the Library Director’s Office. Some series, particularly material related to Library seminars, overlap both collections. In these cases they have been filed with the post-1983 records.)

The pre-1974 Jacobi Library and Basic Sciences branch library are documented by various files of internal records and ephemera, including usage statistics, newsletters, bookplates, and lists of recent acquisitions. Of particular note is a 1946 inventory of the Library’s collections. The creation of the modern Levy Library is represented by several files that document the planning of the Annenberg Building facility and the hiring of Alfred Brandon as consultant and eventual director. The collection also includes material on Gustave Levy’s charitable contributions to the new library and the 1974 dedication ceremony in which the Annenberg Building facility was named in his and his wife’s honor.

Several files document exhibits that were displayed in the Levy Library’s exhibition space. These include a 1976 file on the acquisition and display of memorabilia from the Lascoff family pharmacy and a file on the Philip Reichert, MD Collection of vintage diagnostic medical instruments, both of which are no longer at the Levy Library.

This is a recording of an oral history of Lynn Kasner Morgan conducted by Albert S. Lyons and Florence Daniels. She discusses how she came to work for Mount Sinai and what jobs she held prior; the condition of the library was in 1983 and what she had implemented during her first fourteen years at Mount Sinai. Some of other significant topics in this oral history include: the function of the library collections and the community the library serves; the space capacities, budget, and staff size of the library and its departments; changes in tools used to access information such as the internet, databases, electronically published items, and email; the benefits and constrictions of electronic publishing; the number of computer workstations available to the Mount Sinai community; predictions on the future of print, libraries, and future problems libraries will face; her technological training programs she developed at Mount Sinai for the Alumni Association, staff, and medical students. She ends the oral history commenting on the library’s name change from “Jacobi Library” to “Levy Library,” the medical school merger committee, as well as discussions on the library merger.

Nancy Mary Panella, served as the medical librarian at St. Luke’s Hospital Center from 1970 to 2010, when she moved into the position of Archivist for the historical collections (2010-2016). In this interview she discusses her background and fields of study leading to a Doctorate in Library Services, her coming to work at St Luke's Hospital and her feelings about the Hospital. She relays several stories about interacting with staff, and mentions the development of the library, and particularly the historical collections, and being honored with being the first non-MD to be welcomed in to the Alumni Society of St. Luke's Hospital, and having the periodical room named in her honor.

• https://libguides.mssm.edu/
• Topical guides about library resources for students, faculty, and staff created by the Levy Library.

• https://www.levylibrarypress.org/
• The Levy Library press aims to facilitate and support the foundation of Open Access peer-reviewed, academic journals for departments at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The press supports the growing need to share and publish and make public Icahn School of Medicine innovations, materials and data which will advance science and medicine and creates Increase opportunities for publication for authors by offering no-cost open access publishing.

This collection consists of correspondence to and from Seymour J. Phillips relating to his service as a member of the Beth Israel Medical Center Board of Trustees. It begins in the late 1930s with correspondence documenting the initial recruitment of Phillips to the Board of Trustees and concludes in 1987 with correspondence between Beth Israel staff and the Phillips family regarding his passing.

While all decades from this time period are represented to some extent, there is a noticeable increase in the volume and frequency of correspondence beginning in the late 1950s, with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1960s. This likely reflects Mr. Phillips’ increased attention to Board activity following his retirement from private business.

The correspondence in this collection deals primarily with Mr. Phillips’ activities as a Trustee and his role in the financing and administration of the Beth Israel Medical Center. Correspondents include fellow Trustees, including Board President Charles H. Silver, and various Beth Israel administrators, notably Cecil Sheps, MD, who served as General Director of the Medical Center from 1965 to 1968. Beginning in 1980, the correspondence also includes regular updates on library activities from the director of Mr. Phillips’ namesake medical library.