An April 16, 2016 commentary by Shona Kirtley in The Lancet entitled "Increasing value and reducing waste in biomedical research: Librarians are listening and are part of the answer," posits that librarians should be considered as part of the value/waste solution in biomedical research. Although Kirtley examines the issue through a British lens, many of the ideas espoused in her commentary have already been embraced and even expanded by health sciences in the U.S. and here within the HS/HSL at UMB.

Embedding librarians in context (the informationist concept), participating in systematic reviews to provide rigor to research design and support for grant applications, and providing input regarding the quality of scholarly output are areas mentioned within Kirtley’s commentary. HS/HSL faculty librarians do all these things and more. They have been involved in assessing publication impact, serving on the IRBs, reviewing consent forms, and more. Soon they will begin assisting with data management planning and metadata assignment.

As resource dollars continue to shrink, the HS/HSL leadership has chosen to focus on growing expertise and building capacity in areas that add value to our community. As experts in these critical areas, clearly we can reduce waste as well. The addition of knowledge professionals with special skill sets to research and project teams, as experts and partners, is an idea whose time has more than come.

This April the HS/HSL Innovation Space launched the first issue of its monthly newsletter. Each issue will tell a story about how library patrons are using the Innovation Space, and link to noteworthy news items at the nexus of emerging technology and the health sciences. The first newsletter highlighted a radiologist who 3D printed CAT scans of a human body as an inventive approach to medical education. To subscribe to the Innovation Space newsletter click here. To read the first newsletter click here.

The Innovation Space is designed for experimentation and collaborative hands-on learning experiences. It offers 3D printers, 3D scanners, over 3,500 video tutorials from Lynda.com (available on-site only), a large DNA model, two molecule kits, and a button maker. For more information, visit our webpage.

We are pleased to announce that, for the 8th time, the Health Sciences and Human Services Library has been chosen to serve as the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Southeastern/Atlantic (SE/A) Regional Medical Library. The mission of the program is to ensure access to appropriate high quality health information for health care professionals and laypersons.

The project, spanning five years and $7,125,000, is different this period in that, instead of a contract, the award is a cooperative agreement, a kind of grant. Additionally, SE/A has been given a sub-award for the NN/LM DOCLINE Coordination Office (NDCO) which functions on a national rather than regional level.

The SE/A region encompasses 10 southeastern states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, almost 25% of the US population. Through the cooperative agreement, SE/A achieves its mission by providing funding, exhibits, and training for health information outreach, not only to librarians and health care professionals, but to community-based organizations, emergency responders, faith-based groups, and others. Additionally, SE/A and NDCO support a regional and national resource-sharing network. SE/A is one of eight regional medical libraries across the US. The others are as follows:

• New England Region: Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School
• Middle Atlantic Region: Health Sciences Library System, University of Pittsburgh
• Greater Midwest Region: Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, University of Iowa
• MidContinental Region: Spencer E. Eccles Library, University of Utah
• South Central Region: Gibson D. Lewis Health Science Library, University of North Texas Health Science Center
• Pacific Northwest Region: Health Sciences Library, University of Washington
• Pacific Southwest Region: Louise M. Darling Library, UCLA

Early Summer Library Hours

May 21 – May 30

Memorial Day Weekend Saturday, May 28 – Monday, May 30 CLOSED

Regular Summer Hours

May 31 – August 14

Independence Day Holiday Saturday, July 2 – Monday, July 4 CLOSED

"A Blossoming Perspective from the University of Maryland School of Social Work"
The flower images in this exhibit were created by nine artists from UMB’s School of Social Work to celebrate the beauty of life. According to Julie Gilliam, Senior Instructional Technology Specialist at the School of Social Work, "There is a misperception that social workers do not embrace technology. This is simply untrue, social workers adopt technology when it is accessible, efficient, empowering and portable." The artists in this exhibit used technology to demonstrate their idea of blossoming. The artworks were predominately created with smartphones with some using visual textures produced by a mobile application. The exhibit will be displayed in the HS/HSL Weise Gallery from May 16 through June 17, 2016.

"A Century of Study: 1916 – 2016"
The Library’s exhibit, "A Century of Study: 1916-2016," was created in partnership with the School of Medicine Office of Development and the family of a 1916 School of Medicine graduate. It tells the story of University of Maryland medical students separated by 100 years of history and scholarship. After graduating in the Class of 1916, Dr. Frank C. Marino and other members of his class donned Army uniforms to go overseas during World War I. His "Soldier’s Diary" portrays a nascent medical career brimming with the promise he would fulfill as a surgeon who was known among colleagues for his "golden hands." Moving forward 100 years to 2016 in the exhibit, we see electronic devices instead of clipboards for rounds, and video lectures supplanting full days in the classroom. Dr. Marino’s daughter, Mrs. Marguerite VillaSanta, generously made his personal collection available for this exhibit.

The exhibit is located on 2nd Floor near the main staircase through May 20, 2016.

Nickolai Walko, "Tape: A Visual Dissection"
Nickolai Walko was born in Perm, Russia in 1991. He was adopted from a Siberian orphanage two years later by an American couple and moved to the United States. He received his BFA in sculpture from the Virginia Commonwealth University in 2014. Nickolai started to use masking tape not for its usual purpose, to mask off certain areas for paint to cover, but instead to produce high contrast, intricate, and stylized works of art. He was introduced to the medium in high school and it "stuck to him" through college though his major was sculpture in which he produced street sign body armor and other metal creations. The Renaissance and Pop Art movements have served as core inspirations, as well as the medical field. He strives to capture the human form as well as animalistic forms through the non-traditional medium of masking tape. In a way, the tape acts as a skin, and the X-Acto knife is a scalpel. Producing these works, he feels like a surgeon and removing the skin (tape) provides access for the public to view the anatomy beneath in his stylized diagrams and scenes. The exhibit will be displayed in the Library’s Weise Gallery from June 24 through September 1, 2016.

The HS/HSL recently acquired a few interesting manuscript items dating from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. There are two volumes of class lecture notes transcribed by Dr. William D. Cawley, a 1902 graduate of our School of Medicine. The first volume comprises notes derived from lectures on Surgery, and the second is his collected transcriptions relating to various topics in Dermatology, including eczema, liver spots, psoriasis, scabies, shingles, and others. These notes afford a fascinating illustration of the scope of these branches of medicine as they were known and taught in our institution at that time in history.

Accompanying those two pieces are a manuscript volume of professor’s notes dated 1898, pertinent to the study of the female generative organs, and of embryology. These originated from Dr. Jose L. Hirsh, who taught Histology, Embryology, Pathology, and Bacteriology in our School of Medicine. His Preface states that Professor Hirsh compiled these study guide notes from various learned sources and reproduced them in mass quantity for the benefit of his students. As with the other two volumes, this item also was the property of William Cawley.

These valuable pieces are welcome additions to our Historical Collections. They represent a unique glimpse into the nature of medical teaching concepts and methods in an era well before digital files in Blackboard content modules.

Colette Beaulieu, Office Manager, National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Southeast/Atlantic Region (SE/A), and President, UMB Staff Senate, testified at the Maryland House of Delegates Appropriations Committee Hearings regarding the UMB-UMCP Strategic Partnership Act of 2016. Beaulieu recently celebrated 30 years working with the NN/LM and UMB.

Michele Nance, MS, Library Associate, will graduate from Towson University’s Masters in Professional Writing program in May 2016.

Posters and Presentations

Bohyun Kim, MA, MSLIS, Associate Director, Library Applications and Knowledge Systems, gave an invited talk, “Strategically UX-Oriented with Personas" at the University System of Maryland & Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) Unconference at Baltimore, MD, on March 25, 2016 and an e-learning workshop “Improving Your Library’s Mobile Services" for the American Library Association on April 27, 2016.

Mary Ann Williams, MSLS, Research, Education and Outreach Librarian, had a poster, "Open Wide: An Inside Look Into Oral Health Books for Children by an Interprofessional Team" presented at Public Health Research@Maryland 2016 at the University of Maryland, College Park, by her co-producer, Kathy Battani, RDH, MS of the Maryland Dental Action Coalition.