Greetings! If we haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting, I’m Emily Hurst, dean of the HSHSL and associate vice provost of UMB. Over the course of my career, I have had opportunities to meet and collaborate with faculty librarians and staff from the HSHSL – and I have learned much from those experiences. Library leaders, like retired long-time dean, M.J. Tooey, helped broaden my understanding of how health sciences libraries can better serve their users – both those within their institutions, and those who live and work in the surrounding communities. Now, I am delighted and honored to be embarking on a new role leading the dynamic HSHSL team.

Since my February 1, 2024 start date, I have had the opportunity to discuss the Library with many students, faculty, and staff, and I look forward to more of these engaging sessions in the months ahead. When I look around the Library and think about the rich history of the building, and the people and projects that came before me, I am excited about my future here. The HSHSL is a hub of activity. I have observed the ebb and flow of library users and building staff enjoying the services, spaces, and collections that make this a high-impact library. I look forward to leading the HSHSL team and leveraging our UMB and community partnerships to improve the Library, to build upon our past accomplishments, and to advance our mission by cultivating transformational learning, research, and community engagement.  

The HSHSL needs your support as we make decisions about the services, programs, and resources you use. In the coming months, I plan to launch more formalized advisory committees that will allow me to incorporate your ideas and needs into a vision for the HSHSL in the next century. For now, you are welcome to submit ideas using this feedback form. No idea is too small or too big. I welcome all of your feedback as I chart the path forward.  

I am excited about many issues impacting health sciences libraries today. I want to create inviting and collaborative spaces for all types of users, while ensuring library staff have safe and well-equipped working environments. I am excited to explore open educational resources and their potential to reduce the cost of textbooks – and to expand support for open access publishing. I believe that, as a premier research institution, UMB deserves access to the type of resources needed to conduct high-quality research. I also believe that those of us in higher education settings have an obligation to work collaboratively and respectfully with our communities, seeking partnerships that will enhance our communities and maximize their benefit.

I look forward to working with senior leadership and everyday users to create the library of the future.

The HSHSL, along with the 17 other USMAI library consortium members, will transition to a new library discovery service on May 23, 2024. This system, Alma Primo, will streamline your searches and access to resources in the Library, across the consortium, and on the web. You will be able to manage your loans, requests, and citations – all from the same interface.

We will provide updates as we transition to the new service, particularly on any temporary service changes or suspensions. If you have any further questions, please contact Steven Douglas.

The HSHSL is debuting the first in a new monthly series highlighting recent submissions to the UMB Data Catalog. The UMB Data Catalog facilitates discovery of data by providing a searchable and browsable collection of records describing datasets generated by UMB researchers. Sharing a record of your data in the Catalog is also a great way to demonstrate compliance with data sharing policies!

The latest records showcase datasets focusing on the biodiversity of mosquito bacterial communities, the influence of high-performance media on extracellular vesicles, the role of the dorsal bed nucleus of the striatal terminalis in motivated behaviors, and a rapid, cost-effective protocol for single nucleus isolation. Congrats to our UMB researchers on these publications!

Book It Forward is happening again this year! From April 1 through May 31, book donation containers will be placed throughout campus to collect gently used books for children aged birth through high school. Look for the containers at the HSHSL, the SMC Campus Center, the Biopark, and the Saratoga Building. The books will be donated to the Maryland Book Bank, a Baltimore nonprofit organization committed to cultivating literacy in children from under-resourced neighborhoods.

Last year’s Book it Forward drive collected over 900 books for Baltimore youth!

Questions about the project? Contact bookdrive@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

Since the onset of Covid, we have all grown accustomed to virtual meetings and remote services. But what if you don’t have a cell phone or a computer at home? What if you are experiencing homelessness and need to attend a job interview?

A recent episode of the NNLM Discovery podcast series, “Telehealth Kiosks”, is about bridging the economic and digital divide. In the episode, Faith Steele, NNLM Region 1 outreach and education librarian, shares an exciting project supported by the NNLM where Delaware libraries are installing telehealth services kiosks across the state. These kiosks provide a private space for anyone who needs access to a secure and reliable internet connection.

A short video about the story is available on the NLM YouTube Channel.

The HSHSL’s current Collab Lab Exhibit showcases student artwork from Mother Mary Lange Catholic School in the Library’s Weise Gallery. This is our second partnership with the West Baltimore school, which serves students in grades Pre-K through 8th. For this latest exhibit of vivid and vibrant collaborative paintings, students worked in groups, focusing on cooperation rather than competition.

Using the circle as a central design element, the students aimed for radial symmetry in the finished works, producing a delightful mix of colors, shapes, and splashes. The project required them to work together as equals and pool ideas. The children learned to appreciate their similarities and differences in a supportive environment.

The HSHSL is holding a silent auction for this engaging student art from February 21 through March 21, 2024. If you see a piece you enjoy, write your email and bid on the bid sheet next to the artwork. Winning bidders will be notified at the close of the exhibit. All proceeds will benefit the Mother Mary Lange School.

On February 15, the HSHSL hosted an engaging virtual panel discussion to introduce the UMB community to diverse datasets about Baltimore. The event featured valuable insights into data science, analytics, and visualization. Panelists spoke about their projects and reflected on their experience working with data for social justice, offering suggestions to achieve a fair representation of diverse communities in Baltimore, and discussing tools that aided in resolving these challenges. We hope the discussion encourages university-community partnerships and data initiatives that positively impact the city. View the video.

Panelists:

• Cheryl Knott, assistant director, Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance – Jacob France Institute
• Ryan Little, data editor, The Baltimore Banner
• James Sadler, director of research, Baltimore’s Promise

Thanks to available HSHSL endowment funds, Historical Collections recently purchased items that present new insights into the University of Maryland (UMB) and Baltimore history. The following highlights some of these items. For any questions or to access the materials contact Tara Wink, Historical Collections librarian.

Pattison vs. Chapman Pamphlets

In April 1823, Dr. Granville Sharp Pattison, former dean (1821-1822) of the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), and General Thomas Caldwalader, brother-in-law of Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, dueled in Delaware. The duel was the culmination of years of public and private arguments between doctors Pattison and Chapman.

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Presentations & Publications

Christine Nieman Hislop, MSLIS, presented the lightning talk “NLM Scrubber to De-Identify Clinical Text Data and Facilitate Data Sharing” at the Medical Institutional Repositories in Libraries Symposium.

Hislop was also a co-author of “A Problem Shared Is a Community Created: Recommendations for Cross-Institutional Collaborations,” published in The Journal of eScience Librarianship.