I hope everyone is staying safe during this latest surge of the pandemic. We have made minor changes to the library space to make things as safe as possible. Students must wear masks when they are in a group study room, which is a change from the fall semester. We also suspended many of our in-person services in January with a planned gradual increase of hours in February. I remain proud of library staff and faculty who are persistent in ensuring all our users do not see a decline in strong support from library services.

 

We continue making improvements to the library space. In working with Student Senate representative Hannah Nelson, we adjusted furniture placement, placed coat hooks in all study rooms, and made under-the-desk pedal machines available. We are evaluating a few more student requests, including various celebrations around finals time. In February, the library is installing napping pods on Level 7. A consistent complaint after we finished the renovation was the loss of recliners. The napping pods are much cooler! Through the support of Facilities, they are updating all the study rooms with wall protection and acoustic panels. The library’s main stairwell is also undergoing repairs. Once that work is finished, we will showcase new art pieces on loan from the Healing Arts program.

 

In this issue, we share some interesting events we are holding in the next few months. I hope you can attend in-person, virtually, or watch later on the DigitalCommons@UNMC platform. Previous lectures are available in DigitalCommons@UNMC.

March 24 from 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Living Library, held in conjunction with the Criss Library at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is a two-part series where people from various backgrounds act as “human books” to share their experiences. Participants at the events check out these human books for one-on-one conversations. The events allow people from different backgrounds to come together in a safe space, engage in candid conversations, and foster empathy and connection with other people in the community. The events will be held in person. Participants can also attend via Zoom. Stay tuned for details on signing up to meet with a “human book.”

 

March 30 from 12:00-1:00 p.m.

Amy Haddad, PhD, MFA, RN, FAAN, is a poet, nurse, and educator at Creighton University, where she now holds the rank of Professor Emerita. She is also an alumna of UNMC’s College of Nursing. Her poetry and short stories have been published in the “American Journal of Nursing,” “Janus Head,” “Journal of Medical Humanities,” “Bellevue Literary Magazine,” and many others. She will read from her first poetry collection, An Otherwise Healthy Woman, forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press. We hope to host a hybrid in-person and zoom event. More details will be announced soon.

 

April 22 from 12:00-1:00 p.m.

The 13^th Annual Davis Lecture in the History of Medicine will feature Janet Gilsdorf, MD. Dr. Gilsdorf is an alumna from the College of Medicine. She is the Robert P. Kelch Research Professor Emerita in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan and an infectious diseases physician at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She will present the History of Meningitis based on her most recent book, Continual Raving: The History of Meningitis and the People Who Conquered It. We hope to host a hybrid in-person and zoom event. Additional details are forthcoming.

The McGoogan Library recently added a graphic medicine collection. This collection focuses on pathographies in the physical graphic novel format. The collection seeks to promote empathy in our future and current healthcare workforce by fostering an understanding of various healthcare experiences through the art of visual storytelling. Contained in the collection are the experiences of patients, patient families, and healthcare providers. Graphic medicine spans all healthcare fields, and in our new collection, you will find topics ranging from public health issues such as sexual violence and abuse to numerous health diagnoses such as epilepsy, gender dysphoria, eating disorders, depression, cancer, autism, chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.

If you are interested in graphic medicine and wish to discuss it further, you want to utilize graphic medicine in the classroom, or have recommendations for the collection; please contact Assistant Professor Jess King, Education and Research Services Librarian, at jessicad.king@unmc.edu.

This spring, three new exhibits are opening on Level 4 of Wittson Hall in the Wigton Heritage Center.  

Open now near the Bennett/Sorrell/Wittson skywalk is Nebraska in World War I, which highlights Base Hospital 49 in Allerey, France. Staffed by some of the more renowned names from the College of Medicine, Base Hospital 49 specialized in traumatic injuries, ear and eye injuries, and “shellshock” (known today as PTSD). The hospital was the least funded of 50 base hospitals in the area but had the best patient survival rate. Artifacts on display are from the McGoogan Library’s Special Collections and Archives or on loan from the collections of History Nebraska. 

 

Coming in March, the Marion E. Alberts, MD, infant feeder collection exhibit will display some of the more beautiful artifacts from McGoogan Library’s Special Collections and Archives. Dating from ancient Rome to the 1890s, bottles and feeders, teethers, and rattles will show the many ways infants were cared for through the ages. 

Also, opening in March, the history of teaching tools exhibition will show the methods professors and students in the health sciences have used to understand their profession, the body, and disease. Stereo cards and wax moulages were early attempts at 3D simulation. Lantern slides were used for in-class instruction. Microscope slides were prepared by students for specimen studies. This is the first of three exhibits dedicated to showing the evolution of teaching tools for health professionals.

 

Cannot make it to campus to see these and the other stories featured in the Wigton Heritage Center? Not to worry. In early April, the library will launch an online exhibit experience highlighting all the content seen on the three floors of the Wigton Heritage Center—and some other exciting nuggets that we did not have space for in the cases. Details about accessing the online exhibit site are coming soon. 

The James and Karen Linder Maker Studio and UNeMed hosted the inaugural session of the “Making and 3D Printing in Healthcare” speaker series on November 16, 2021. Dr. Gregory Bennett, DMD, presented on the revolution of additive manufacturing and its application to dentistry.

 

Dr. Bennett discussed the advantages of 3D printing for dental practice, such as faster production of prostheses, easier reproduction of lost or broken dentures or implants, and less material waste. He also summarized some of his research into anti-microbial 3D printing materials.

 

3D printing also benefits dental education by enabling students to practice procedures that would have previously been too expensive or time-consuming to set up. Faculty can produce task training models that are the same for each student for consistent and objective simulation exercises. Alternately, if a student needs additional practice on a particular technique, models can be customized to present extra work on that individual procedure.

 

The recorded presentation is available for viewing on UNMC’s Digital Commons platform at https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/mcgoogan_3dseries/1/.

Email - askus@unmc.edu