By Kate Saylor
Outreach Librarian
University of Michigan
Taubman Health Sciences Library

The Taubman Health Sciences Library at the University of Michigan will host the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition, Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race. The exhibition illustrates how Nazi leadership enlisted people in professions traditionally charged with healing and the public good, to legitimize persecution, murder and, ultimately, genocide. Deadly Medicine, which is cosponsored by the University of Michigan’s Center for the History of Medicine, will premiere on February 3, 2012 on the 4th floor of the Taubman Health Sciences Library and runs through April 13, 2012.

Accompanying the exhibition will be an opening reception and closing reflections panel discussion. Event details will be announced at a later date.

“Deadly Medicine explores the Holocaust’s roots in then-contemporary scientific and pseudo-scientific thought,” explains exhibition curator Susan Bachrach. “At the same time, it touches on complex ethical issues we face today, such as how societies acquire and use scientific knowledge and how they balance the rights of the individual with the needs of the larger community.”Deadly Medicine is based on the acclaimed exhibition of the same name that opened at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., in April 2004. An online version is viewable at http://www.ushmm.org/deadlymedicine.

The Nazi regime was founded upon the conviction that “inferior races” and individuals had to be eliminated from German society so that the fittest “Aryans” could thrive. By the end of World War II, six million Jews and millions of others—among them Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), people diagnosed as hereditarily ill, homosexuals, and others belonging to ethnic groups deemed inferior—had been persecuted and murdered. Join us as we explore this dark chapter in history and its legacy on the health profession today.

Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race

Location: Taubman Health Sciences Library – 1135 E. Catherine St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (http://www.lib.umich.edu/thl)

Dates and Times: The exhibition will be viewable February 3 – April 13, 2012 during library hours.

This display is cosponsored by the U-M Taubman Health Sciences Library and the U-M Center for the History of Medicine.Exhibition and events are free and open to the public.

For more information contact Kate Saylor at 734.936.1394 or kmacdoug@umich.edu

By Stacey Knight-Davis
Booth Library
Eastern Illinois University
Charleston, IL

Earlier this year, Booth Library received a Technology Improvement Award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Greater Midwest Region, under Contract No. N01-LM-6-3503 with the University of Illinois at Chicago. Booth Library provides services for programs in health physics, psychology, biology, health education, communication disorders, and nutrition. Booth also serves an online RN to BSN nursing program, and the library’s website is the only point of access to health information for these distance education nursing students. Along with programs directly related to heath and biomedical sciences, we serve the needs of our education students seeking information on school health and children with disabilities. We also provide general consumer health materials and reference services.

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Join us for a very exciting Lake Effects on Thursday, December 15, 2011, from 1-2 pm CT. Hospital librarians Denise Rumschlag, Melinda Orebaugh, and Barbara Platts will be sharing how librarians can become advocates for change in their institutions. We will examine ways of reducing waste and the cost of care, addressing services lines, and increasing the visibility of the library. Learn about collaborating to create tools for advocacy and participating in business performance reviews and LEAN projects. Hear about successful activities revealing that library expertise can have a powerful impact on the larger organization. Discover how you can add value to your library and library services. This is one webinar you won’t want to miss. Register today as space is limited.

By Sandi L. Bates MLIS
Harley E. French Library of the Health Sciences
University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota’s Library of the Health Sciences exhibited at the Grand Forks Women’s Show Oct. 1, providing an opportunity to share NN/LM resources with more than 1,900 people.

For the second year we shared the booth with Dr. Edward Sauter’s research team. Dr. Sauter is professor of surgery at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences and does extensive breast cancer research and education. The exhibit provided both an outlet to discuss health topics with consumers and a place for women to actively participate in the research. We will be able to continue to participate in the translational research platform being built by the University of North Dakota through efforts like this exhibit.

We were able to make contacts with healthcare professionals who were interested in consumer health resources. A local senior center encouraged us to drop brochures and MedlinePlus magazines off for their clientele. Our supply of printed materials for MedlinePlus and Household Products were depleted by the end of the day.

Each year the National Library of Medicine highlights projects from across the country on their webpage.  The web pages of featured projects for National Medical Librarians Month 2011 are available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/lo/profiles11/. This year the GMR included five projects from among recent subcontracts and awards.  Congratulations to these selected programs: Munson Digital Archive Project, Touch Technology Multilingual Health Information, Assessing Mental Health Information Needs of Clergy of Portage, Health-E Public: Improving Access to Health Information Resources for Public Health Professionals in Southeastern Wisconsin County, and Building the Future with Community Health Information.  Read about them at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/lo/profiles11/gmr.html.

For suggestions on Promoting Your Library this month, visit at: http://nnlm.gov/gmr/member/advocacy/.

National Library of Medicine
Bethesda, MD
The National Library of Medicine is part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

By Deb Werner
Biomedical Reference Librarian
The John Crerar Library
The University of Chicago

The videos for all recorded presentations from the 2011 Kathleen A. Zar Symposium, “We’re Teaching, But How Do We Know If They’re Learning?” Assessment of Library Instruction Activities, are now available. Links on the main symposium webpage http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/crerar/zar/ lead to YouTube, iTunes, and the UChicago News site. Slides and handouts from the Symposium are also available on the Program page. See the Program Schedule for links to slides.

Feel free to pass this information on to colleagues who may have an interest in the topic of assessment of library instruction activities. You should also feel free to post this on any appropriate discussion lists.

If you have any questions or comments about the symposium or the recordings, please contact Andrea Twiss-Brooks at atbrooks@uchicago.edu. If you have suggestions on topics for future symposia, we’re always looking for good ideas! Thanks, and enjoy.

By Kacy Allgood
Reference
Medical Library
Indiana University
Indianapolis IN

You are invited to the 2011 Midwest Chapter / Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, to be held in Indianapolis, October 8th-11th. The meeting will be held at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown. The conference hotel is located near the Circle Center Mall, Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Colts, the Indiana State Museum, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis Zoo, NCAA Hall of Champions, an IMAX 3D Theater, outdoor art and canal. Nearby dining includes the Oceanaire, Shula’s Steak House, St. Elmo’s Steakhouse, and much more.

Online Registration for 2011 Midwest Chapter MLA/Indiana Health Sciences Librarians Association Annual Meeting is available now. Early bird discount registration ends September 8, 2011. More pricing information can be found on our website. (more…)

HHS has announced winners of an awards program “that highlights innovative health promotion projects that have demostrated a significant impact on the health of the community within the past three years…”

Nominated organizations had to have an innovative project in at least one of three health promotion areas: healthy weight, physical activity, and nutrition. Awards were granted based on the criteria of creativity and innovation, leadership, sustainability, replicability, and results/outcomes. Some of the winners are in our region:

• Public Sector: Exercise Your Right to Feel Better Minnesota—St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health (St. Paul, Minn.)
• Healthy Workplace (Large employer): Shape up and Go!—Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio)
• Faith-Based and/or Community Initiatives: Taking the YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program to Scale—YMCA of the USA, (Chicago, Ill.)

The press release can be found here: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/07/20110715a.html and more information including a video by Secretary Sebelius, http://healthylivinginnovation.challenge.gov/

Congratulations to the winners!

By Emily Schearer
Outreach Librarian
Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries

The Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries recently wrapped up its Health-E Public project with the Citizens and Organizations Active in Disaster and Medical Reserve Corps of Southeastern Wisconsin. The project was funded by a Public Health award from the NN/LM Greater Midwest Region.

The award allowed us to provide hands-on workshops and both formal and informal presentations for audiences working and volunteering in public health related fields. In addition to providing training on the use of PubMed, MedlinePlus, Toxnet and other resources, we were also able to advertise the availability of LoansomeDoc services to a number of people that had limited or no access to full-text articles.

Throughout the project, we found that many people who wished to attend workshops or presentations were often called out of the office for last-minute flu vaccine clinics or other duties in the community. For this reason, it became necessary to provide a great deal of information via email and electronic formats. Overall, the project allowed us to connect and solidify relationships with community organizations that we had little contact wither previously. We gained a better understanding of the information needs of public health professionals and volunteers, and are better equipped to serve them as they continue their work in Milwaukee and surrounding counties.

By Mandy Meloy
Student Programs Coordinator
Wisconsin AHEC
Madison, WI

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM GMR) funded Wisconsin AHEC to promote InformedCaring.org, portal for Wisconsin health professionals. This site was designed to serve those working in local health departments, federally qualified community health centers, and others providing health services in rural and underserved communities in Wisconsin — particularly those without access to academic or hospital libraries.

With GMR funds, we coordinated with 12 public health departments, Community Health Centers, and partners to train staff, share ideas, gain useful feedback, and spread the word about InformedCaring.org. Trudging through harsh weather conditions, we reached 145 in-person staff. In the west, we reached Monroe County Health Department, Western Region Public Health Nurses and Health Directors Meeting in Eau Claire, and Scenic Bluffs Community Health Center. In central Wisconsin, we traveled to Wood County Health Department, Bridge Community Health Center, University of Wisconsin’s ICTR (Institute for Clinical and Translational Research) Community-Academic Partnership Steering Committee, LEAP (Linking Education and Practice for Excellence in Public Health Nursing Project), and the Wisconsin Department of Public Health. In the east, we ventured to Manitowoc County Health Department and Ozaukee County Health Department. In snow, we finally reached the north woods to present to the Oneida County Health Department. (more…)