This document summarizes a presentation about researching human rights and health care at the Library of Congress. The key points are: 1) The researcher's work focuses on the relationship between lack of access to health care and quality of life, and arguing for health care as a human right. 2) At the Library of Congress, the researcher found an enormous array of resources and uninterrupted research time, which allowed doubling the sources used within three months. 3) The research outcomes included papers for conferences and the researcher's thesis, with more sources read than originally anticipated due to the Library's collections.

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)