I use this same column header every fall. It’s not for lack of creativity. It just captures the way I feel at the start of the academic year. It’s exciting to see new faculty, staff, and students. It is equally exciting to see old friends. This year is especially meaningful because we haven’t seen each other in such a long time.

Even though the building was closed from March until September 2020, when we reopened with limited hours and services, the HSHSL hummed along. The HSHSL is much greater than its building. We quickly moved to online services, remote learning, distance consultations, and we continued to build our infrastructure, growing the UMB Digital Archive and the UMB Data Catalog. We introduced new services, such as contactless pickup, a website refresh, and a building headcount system. We applied for and were awarded Region 1 of the Network of the National Library of Medicine, and also the Network Web Services Office. The regional office is a distinction we have held for over 35 years. (See the Regional Medical Library article below for more information.) Our Historical Collections were used by researchers far and wide … digitally. We launched our Center for Data and Bioinformation Services (CDABS) – a hub for data and bioinformation learning, services, resources, and communication. In April, we launched Citizen Science: Gearing Up for Discovery, a MOOC aimed at building a citizen science community. And who can forget our outstanding April Fool’s edition of Connective Issues?

And now we are getting ready to develop our strategic plan for 2021-2026. We will be working with library staff, library users, our constituents, and many others to construct a plan that aligns with UMB Themes to promote the success of our communities. Stay tuned for announcements of a series of town halls for faculty, staff, and students.

An incredible year is behind us, and a busy one ahead! We look forward to engaging with everyone, wherever we find you – onsite, online, in the classroom or the lab … wherever. We want to be where you are. Welcome and welcome back!

September 7 – November 30, 2021
Library services and access to classrooms begin at 8:00 a.m. From 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., Monday through Friday, enter the HSHSL through the SMC Campus Center.

Regular Semester Hours

Monday – Thursday	6:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Friday	6:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday	8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Sunday	8:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Exceptions to Regular Hours

Thanksgiving Holiday

November 25 – 26

Closed

Policies
The Library is open to UMB students, faculty, staff with UMB One Cards; faculty, staff, and students with current University System of Maryland campus IDs; and hospital staff with UMMC IDs. All visitors must have a photo ID and follow UMB COVID guidelines. Visitors may not enter after 8:00 p.m.

After three successful years, the flu shot clinic is returning to the HSHSL Tuesday, October 19, 9am to 5pm. Once again, the HSHSL is partnering with the School of Pharmacy and Walgreens to offer flu shots to members of the campus community.

Details on appointment times and sign-ups are forthcoming, so keep an eye out for announcements in The Elm, and on the HSHSL Updates blog and social media.

The HSHSL is here for you!  Do not hesitate to ask for help at the Information Services desk; you are not interrupting us, we are here to provide assistance.  You can also reach us by phone at 410-706-7996, or by email or chat.

Here is a list of common questions with links to guide you to the answer or service.

1. How do I print?
   Follow these instructions.
2. How do I order a book or article the library does not own?
   Use our interlibrary loan service. It is free for students.
3. How do I meet with a librarian about my assignment or research?
   Request a consultation.
4. How do I reserve a study room?
   Follow the instructions on the reservations page.
5. How do I get help with citation managers?
   You can request a consultation, attend a workshop or review the citation manager subject guide.
6. How do I request a poster to be printed?
   Fill out this form.
7. How do I correctly size my poster?
   Instructions are here.
8. How do I search the Library’s books and journals?
   You can use the OneSearch box located on our homepage, or check the Library’s catalog.
9. How do I log in to the Library from off campus?
   Look for the blue “Off-Campus Access” button in the upper-right corner of our homepage and use your UMID and password to log in.

Do you have a question that has not been addressed here? Contact us directly or check the Ask Us! database of questions – your answer may already be there!

Each school has a dedicated librarian who collaborates with students, faculty, and staff and provides expert services in locating evidence for class assignments and patient care, literature searching, publication planning, and research impact.

What your librarian can do for you

• Consult with you to assist with literature searching and research
• Collaborate on comprehensive literature searches for systematic reviews
• Gather data to measure your individual, group, or departmental research impact
• Teach citation management using EndNote, Zotero, and other systems
• …and much more! Visit Help With Your Research on our website to see all the ways librarians can support your research, teaching, and class projects.

To contact the librarian for your school, visit our Professional Expertise page.

What is the Collection?

Dr. William J. Kinnard, Jr., a former professor, dean of the School of Pharmacy, and acting president of the University, believed faculty, staff, and students needed a way to relax their brains. This led him to establish the Kinnard Leisure Reading Collection in 2003. Thanks to the generous ongoing donation of Dr. and Mrs. Kinnard, the HSHSL provides a variety of popular magazines and a small selection of circulating fiction and non-fiction books. The collection is located on the first floor of the Library, in the bookcases under the staircase.

Why a Refresh?

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the collection has been unavailable and stagnant. It needs you to help bring it back to life. 

How You Can Help!

Is there a recent popular book you’ve read or a magazine you think the UMB community would enjoy? Is there a title you’ve heard about and would like to read? If so, please let us know and we will try to obtain it for the Kinnard collection.

Please note: The Kinnard collection consists of books leased from a service. Not all titles may be available.

In FY21, the HSHSL was able to secure funding to support a pilot project to reimburse early-career researchers for half of the cost of article publishing fees in open access journals. The pilot was successful, with seventeen awards being made to representatives from all of the schools the HSHSL supports.

The Library has secured funds to continue the pilot into FY22. Please remember that funding is limited and will be awarded to every applicant who meets the criteria until it is all expended.

For more information and to apply, please visit the HSHSL’s APC page.

If you currently use an NCBI account to access MyNCBI, SciENCV, or My Bibliography, you will need to update your credentials next time you log in. Instead of using your NCBI user name and password, you will instead link your account to a third-party login. NCBI has provided instructions for logging in with your NCBI account and linking a new login.

These new logins can include an eRA Commons account, a Google account, or your UMB email address. To use your umaryland.edu email address, choose “more login options” and type “University of Maryland”. You’ll then use your UMID and password.

If you need assistance with this process, you can read NCBI’s FAQ page or contact the HSHSL at hshsl@umaryland.edu.

In our May Issue, we shared the news of the HSHSL’s selection as the 2021-2026 Regional Medical Library (RML) for Region 1 of the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM). This accomplishment marks over 35 years of service to the region’s health information community, an achievement made even more monumental by a Network reorganization that put the HSHSL into competition with two impressive institutions.

While the reorganization brought change and challenge, this 2021 realignment is just the latest for the NNLM – a program that, in its more than 50 years of operation, has constantly shifted to reflect changes in the information landscape. Today’s Network has its roots in the 1965 Medical Library Assistance Act (MLAA). After World War II, as funding for medical school libraries failed to keep pace with funding for medical research and education, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) took interest in awarding grants to improve the provision of biomedical information. The NLM’s Board of Regents contracted Harold Bloomquist, assistant librarian of Harvard University School of Medicine and Public Health, to conduct a study on the state of US medical school libraries. The study revealed the inadequacy of the libraries and proposed a regional resource library model to fill the gaps. The regional resource library would “[bear] the responsibility for collecting materials in depth” and “make its resources and services available to a broad geographic area. “

With funding from the MLAA, eleven original regions were born out of existing relationships and collaborations between medical libraries.

…

Free and subsidized interlibrary loans were initially the Regional Medical Libraries’ most popular and best-used service. The RMLs also coordinated Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS) searches, provided back-up reference services, and offered training and consulting to hospital administrators. When MEDLARS went online in 1971 (as MEDLINE), training and outreach efforts accelerated, and between 1964 and 1983, the number of locations from which health professionals could request computerized literature searches grew from three to over 4,000.

In 1982, the regions reconfigured, shifting from eleven to seven, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, began its tenure as the Regional Medical Library of the Southeastern Atlantic Region. In the late 1980s, the Network began to prioritize outreach to health professionals in underserved areas, and in 1990, a new name, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine signified a new, unified approach. In the late 1990s, the Network focused on supporting internet usage among member libraries. In 1998 the NLM launched MedlinePlus, its flagship consumer health information site. And, as connectivity increased in the early 2000s, the Network’s mission expanded to include a focus on public access to high-quality health information. When Hurricane Katrina and the September 11 terrorist attacks heightened concerns about information provision during emergencies and natural disasters, the RMLs responded by adding disaster information planning to their training and outreach priorities. In the last five years, the Network has increased efforts to prepare librarians for the data-driven research landscape.

In 2020, the program’s name changed to the Network of the National Library of Medicine. The subtle change acknowledges the important work of community organizations in improving health literacy and disseminating culturally relevant health information. Now, with a renewed focus on health equity, community collaboration, and social justice, we are proud of UMB’s contributions to this program and excited for all of the opportunities to come.

Continue Reading

 

This summer, the Historical Collections Department hosted high-school student Yasmeen Yarborough as a virtual intern. Yasmeen is a junior at the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, MD. The internship was facilitated by Dr. Roger J. Ward, interim provost, executive vice president, dean of the Graduate School –and Yasmeen’s basketball coach. Dr. Ward reached out to the Library in the hopes of finding a project that would allow Yasmeen to gain valuable professional experience.

Given a list of projects to choose from, Yasmeen decided to work with the newly digitized Civil War letters of Dr. Eugene F. Cordell (UMSOM Class of 1868) and his family. The letters, dating from 1860 to 1865, address life as a Confederate Army soldier and prisoner of war during the American Civil War. The goal of the project is to make these materials easily searchable and accessible through the UMB Digital Archive. Throughout this process, Yasmeen has enjoyed reading the letters and relating to the family. She finds the dramatic tone of Cordell’s letters to his mother moving, entertaining, and at times humorous.

…

Dr. Cordell was born June 24, 1843, the final child of Dr. Levi O’Connor (UMSOM Class of 1825) and Christine Turner Cordell in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia). The Civil War letters document Dr. Eugene Cordell’s education at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, before he convinced his father to allow him to join the Confederate Army. After July 1861, the letters document Eugene’s service with General Henry A. Wise’s unit. Most of Cordell’s letters document camp life and the news he received about the war.

Dr. Eugene Cordell was wounded during a battle in 1864. He returned to his unit before his wounds –one in his leg, one in his abdomen, one in his thigh – completely healed, which led to further complications and a hospital stay. Cordell was captured by Union forces in 1864 and held in Camp Chase, OH, before escaping. He was captured for a second time in March 1865 and held at Fort Delaware, DE, until his release at the war’s end in June 1865. Letters from his time in both prisoner of war camps are part of the collection.

In addition to the Civil War letters of Dr. Eugene F. Cordell, there is a wartime diary of George Edwards Cordell, born October 8, 1838, the fourth child to Dr. Levi O’Connor and Christine Turner Cordell. George enlisted as a private with Mosby’s Twelfth Cavalry in the Confederate Army in 1864 and was later captured by the Union Army and held prisoner at Camp Chase, OH.

The Turner Cordell Papers were added to the UMB Digital Archive 2019 and 2020. In addition to Civil War correspondence, the collection includes papers and letters documenting the lives of two wealthy, connected Southern families. Most of the collection relates to Dr. Eugene F. Cordell and his mother Christine Turner Cordell.

Yasmeen hopes to complete transcription of the Civil War letters during her internship, which will continue through the fall semester. In addition to basketball, Yasmeen plays volleyball and throws shot put and discus in track. After graduating next year, Yasmeen plans to go to college, where she hopes to major in engineering. She is the first high school intern in the Historical Collections department and is a wonderful addition!

Continue Reading

 

Posters & Presentations

Vickie Campbell and Na Lin, MLS, presented a poster “Resource Sharing During the Time of COVID: Challenges and Solutions” at the Towson Conference for Academic Libraries on July 28.

Brian Zelip, MSLIS, MA, presented as a panelist on “Developing Communities of Practice From MIRA” at the annual Makerspaces for Innovation and Research in Academics (MIRA) conference in July.

Honors & Awards

Emily Gorman, MLIS, was selected as chair-elect to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Library Section

Tony Nguyen, MLIS, has been selected as a Fellow in the 21-22 NLM/AAHSL Leadership cohort. The Program prepares emerging leaders for director positions in academic health sciences libraries through a year-long mentoring relationship with a director of another library and a curriculum focused on developing leadership knowledge critical to enhancing the value of libraries in their institutions. In this highly competitive program, Tony will be one of ten fellows and mentors from academic health sciences libraries across the U.S. who will begin their work together in November.

M.J. Tooey, MLS, AHIP, FMLA, was appointed to the Medical Library Association’s Vision 2048 Task Force to envision the future of medical librarians and the MLA.

Patrick Williams was named UMB’s May 2021 Employee of the Month for his efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure deliveries were received at HSHSL.

April Wright, MLS, was awarded the Medical Library Association’s Sewell Stipend.  The stipend will allow her to participate in the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting to improve information services to public health practitioners.

Miranda Young was named UMB’s July Employee of the Month for her hard work and dedication keeping the first floor of the HSHSL clean and disinfected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congratulations to Persia Drummond and Tara Wink, MLS, for their selection into the UMBrella Coaching Program, and to Everly Brown, MLIS, for her selection into the UMB Emerging Leaders Program.