Source
News from the McGoogan Health Sciences Library
June 2021
DEI Efforts by the Library
Emily McElroy
For years, the McGoogan Library has emphasized diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) through staff development, library collections, and acknowledgment of the library's need to be a welcoming space. While we have made progress in this area, I do not want the library to ever let up in helping the campus advance its programs and culture. After George Floyd's murder, library staff created an action plan for this fiscal year. Listed are some of the items we accomplished with a move to continue serving the campus community in the year to come. All items relate to UNMC's FY21 strategic plan. Please contact me for any partnership opportunities or questions.

Increase retention, recruitment, engagement, and mentorship of all faculty, students, and staff to enhance diversity and inclusivity across all UNMC and Nebraska Medicine programs and sites.
  • Began a partnership with Omaha North High School curriculum specialists and a UNMC librarian to support students enrolled in the BioMedical Science magnet program. The library provided open access information resources for use in the health and science curriculum. The library additionally offered an "Introduction to 3D Printing" class.
  • Submitted application for hosting two positions in Omaha's Step-Up program.
 
Enrich the environment of inclusivity, diversity, and collaboration for all faculty, staff, and students in the communities we serve through programs that eliminate unconscious bias and promote and sustain exemplary inclusivity in the learning and working environment.
  • Hired a temporary employee, Emily Brush, to strengthen representation in special collections and archives. Emily reported on best practices from libraries and archives across the country that have successfully increased DEI in archives. She is interviewing Omaha and UNMC community members about Omaha history, future archive collections, and additions to our oral history collection.
  • In Spring 2021, we launched our new author events series. Dr. Donny Suh spoke about resiliency in healthcare through inspiration. Dr. Lydia Kang discussed her research for her book on medical quackery.
  • Planning has started for a human library in partnership with UNO's Criss Library to be held in Spring 2022.
  • With suggestions from UNMC faculty, staff, and students, the library developed research guides on books, videos, and educational resources. Librarians launched three guides with e-books purchased focused on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQ+, and abilities. Additional guides will come out later in 2021.
 
Maintain a welcoming and safe environment for all learners, faculty, staff, patients, and those visiting all of our campus sites.
  • The library created a new website outlining our inclusive and accessible spaces focusing on technology, collections use, spaces, accommodations, requests for services, and resources.
 
Assure that all students, faculty, and staff own their individual role in a welcoming, collaborative, and inclusive culture at UNMC that aids in recruitment of a more diverse workforce.
  • The library issued an internal DEI climate survey for staff. We are incorporating survey results in our three-year strategic plan.
  • Building on years of DEI training, we enhanced staff development by offering bystander training through the Hollaback organization. All staff completed an Intercultural Development Inventory. A staff engagement event featured a virtual tour from the Tenement Museum in NYC. A faculty member presented on the power of the decisions we make managing space, materials, and resources and how this impacts the people we serve. Staff evaluations included a reflection question on DEI. We also had a high participation rate in campus DEI programming.
 
Develop UNMC college and institute-specific collaborative programs and linkages with the Interim Director of Inclusion.
  • We launched a brave and safe space on March 25. Students selected images and quotes that appear on the walls. Information on affinity groups is available in an adjacent area.


Dean Emily McElroy
Using Rare Books in Continuing Education
heart
In March, Erin Torell, Rare Books Librarian, presented "The Anatomy of the Heart in Rare Books" for the College of Allied Health Professions continuing education program. The talk was given live on Zoom to more than 20 attendees. Torell exhibited nine books from the library's rare book collection and the H. Winnett Orr Collection. The session's objectives were to provide a brief biography of the anatomists, discuss the artists and artistic nature of the images, and discuss the printing techniques. Also discussed was the often-lengthy process of creating an anatomical book from dissection to publication.

Attendees were able to view changes in medical illustration based on the understanding of the heart's anatomy through the centuries and the various artistic techniques used to portray anatomy and distinguish the anatomist. The books presented a variety of printing techniques, including woodblock, metal engraving, and lithography. The presentation shared works by well-known anatomists Bartolomeo Eustachi and John Bell and introduced lesser-known anatomists Joseph Maclise and Jean Marc Bourgery. The earliest book displayed was Anatome corporis humani by Juan Valverde de Amusco from 1589.
Wigton Heritage Center Opening
columns
The McGoogan Library is excited about the dedication of the Wigton Heritage Center on June 29, 2021, at 11 a.m. Please join the virtual viewing of the program and ribbon cutting of the center at unmc.edu. This beautiful addition to campus is located between University Tower and Wittson Hall, with a large atrium built around the original façade of University Hospital. On levels 3, 4, and 5 are 11 exhibits featuring images and artifacts from the library's Special Collections and Archives, UNMC College of Nursing, UNMC College of Dentistry, and cultural institutions across the state. Three additional exhibits will open in November 2021. Visitors can also view 13 interactive displays throughout the space on campus images, biographical information, and selections from the library's rare book collection. Visitors can also listen to oral histories from past UNMC leaders.

The day's events also include two virtual lectures hosted by the library. At noon, Katherine L. Carroll, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, will present "Signposts in the City: Medical Centers in the Early Twentieth Century." At 4 p.m., Dr. David Hoyt, Executive Director of the American College of Surgeons, will present the 12th annual Richard B. Davis, MD, Ph.D., History of Medicine Lecture "The History of Resuscitation." Information about viewing these lectures will be announced on the library's website.
Wigton Heritage Center Exhibits
dentistry exhibit
The Wigton Heritage Center exhibits celebrate the enormous achievements of UNMC's diverse and innovative faculty, staff, and students, past and present. As you walk through levels 3, 4, or 5 between Wittson Hall and University Tower, you will encounter stories, biographies, images, and artifacts drawn from all eras of UNMC's history.

  • Meet Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American physician (Umonhon, Omaha Tribe), and see artifacts from her practice in Walthill, Nebraska.

  • Read about the College of Dentistry when it was the Lincoln Dental School and see beautiful furniture and some unnerving instrumentation typical of an 1870s-1880s dental office.

  • Explore eight selections from the McGoogan Library's rare book collection, which has been in development since UNMC was Omaha Medical College. Use the 55-inch interactive touch screen to "leaf" through the images in beautiful, high-resolution detail.

  • Hear from alumni of the College of Medicine class of 1944 who had just started their medical education when the bombing of Pearl Harbor changed the trajectory and intensity of their curriculum.

These are only a few of the exhibits featured in the soon-to-open Wigton Heritage Center. You will also meet distinguished alumni from the College of Nursing, Legacy Families of UNMC, and some of the early anatomy professors at the College of Medicine who were both feared and beloved by their students. You will journey to western Nebraska through profiles of rural practitioners of the late 1800s-early 1900s, and you will learn about innovative care in the Department of Psychiatry in the 1950s.

Located throughout the exhibits are other interactive screens with a university timeline, distinguished award winners, stories of UNMC's global impact, and profiles of campus leadership, past and present. Plus, there will be three additional exhibits opening this fall that highlight UNMC's Base Hospital 49 from WWI, the Marion E. Alberts, MD, infant feeder collection, and an early history of teaching tools. An online exhibit site will also launch in Fall 2021.
Author Readings
Dr. Suh
Dr. Donny Suh

The library's 2020-2021 speaker series kicked off with Dr. Donny Suh, MD, a pediatric ophthalmologist, and medical missionary. In his presentation, "How Do you Find Resilience in Healthcare through Inspiration, and Where do you Find it?" Dr. Suh highlighted details from his autobiography, Catching A Star: My Story of Hope.

Through humor and first-hand knowledge, he described some of the many challenges he faced while doing global missionary work. He detailed working in harsh geographic and weather conditions and with limited equipment because of customs regulations, as well as language hurdles. He has become an expert at adapting and improvising to provide as many teaching examples as possible for the local medical professionals to continue care.

He brought his desire to help the vision of all children to Omaha with VisionMobile. Since 2008, Dr. Suh and the team have screened over 14,000 children a year for vision problems and treated or provided glasses to over 1,200 children.

Dr. Suh focused on how he could be resilient against burnout and stress from working against such obstacles for over two decades. His reason to keep going is hope. His goal is to provide hope to the underserved, the medical professionals he teaches on international trips, and the communities with whom he works. By spreading hope, he wants to show people that he genuinely cares about their well-being.

A recording of Dr. Suh's presentation can be viewed online.
Dr. Kang
Dr. Lydia Kang

Lydia Kang, MD, assistant professor of internal medicine, discussed quackery during a virtual presentation on April 29. Her talk was based on her book Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything, which she co-wrote with Nate Pederson.

Dr. Kang explained that quackery is the practice and promotion of intentionally fraudulent treatments but also includes situations where people honestly believe their claims are true and have the best intentions.

From snake-oil salesmen, bloodletting, the use of mercury or gold, and even cannibalism, quackery has persisted across time. In the 19th century, ingesting ground-up mummies, sold as Mumia, was popular and was often faked because mummies were difficult and expensive to procure.

At one point, "everything under the sun was treated by bloodletting," Dr. Kang pointed out. The practice harkened back to the humoral theory, which posited that the body needed a balance of blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Practitioners believed removing blood from the body would restore that balance. Sometimes leeches were used for this, and she noted that leeches are still used today, "but only for very specific disease processes."

Dr. Kang also discussed more recent examples of quackery, including the ingestion of tapeworms for weight loss and the diet powder Sensa, the makers of which were called out by the Federal Trade Commission for fraudulent claims. Regarding this persistence of quackery, Dr. Kang said, "We don't have a perfect cure for every problem, and in the absence of that, quackery fills the space."

Dr. Kang and her co-author, Nate Pederson, have a new book coming out in November 2021 titled Patient Zero. She thanked the library for help with her research. "Oftentimes, I'm asking you to find articles on things that are really quite frightening," she said.

A recording of Dr. Kang's presentation is available online.
Staff and Faculty Notes
Otten, M. R., Kildow, B., Sayles, H., Drummond, D., & Garvin, K. L. (2021). Two-Stage Reimplantation of a Prosthetic Hip Infection: Systematic Review of Long-Term Reinfection and Pathogen Outcomes. The Journal of Arthroplasty. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arth.2021.02.046
Peace Ossom-Williamson, Jamia Williams, Xan Goodman, Christian I. J. Minter & Ayaba Logan (2021) Starting with I: Combating Anti-Blackness in Libraries, Medical Reference Services Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2021.1903276
 
Heather Brown was appointed to the Association of College and Research Libraries Membership Committee.
 
Emily Glenn was invited to be a mentor for the 2021 MLA Rising Stars Program.
Larissa Krayer was appointed to the Society of American Archivists' Digital Archives Specialist Subcommittee of the Education Committee.
Danielle Westmark completed the Inter-Professional Informationist certificate program at Simmons University. For her capstone project, she developed and facilitated the "Reproducibility for Biomedical Researchers 2021" workshop series with the University of California San Francisco Library.
McGoogan Health Sciences Library
Email - askus@unmc.edu