Blogs

By Michelle Peralta, Resident Archivist for Yale Special Collections Yale Class of 1974 Alumna Throughout the 2019-2020 academic year, Yale University is celebrating fifty years of co-education with many events and exhibitions that demonstrate the magnitude of contributions of Yale’s women graduates in all areas of life, including politics, sports, academia, and medicine. Thus, it feels particularly fitting that the latest archival collection available at the Medical Historical Library, Ms Coll 64 The Martha H. Roper Papers, was created by an alumna of one of Yale’s earliest co-education classes. The collection contains research, publications, and subject files that document the professional career of Martha H. Roper, Yale class of 1974, and her expertise in international epidemiology. A global health authority on maternal and neonatal tetanus, Roper worked for the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).   A Lifetime of Service Martha Roper (known as Marty to most) dedicated her life to serving the underserved. A colleague wrote that Roper “fought for the uplift of those who were poor, marginalized and whose voices are rarely heard. She loved the human moments that come with being in the field, which keep us honest and true to purpose.” Roper’s service brought her across the world, traveling often to remote locations, and sometimes working in challenging conditions, but she remained committed to her cause of providing health care solutions to the most disadvantaged. This commitment was apparent early on in Roper’s career, when she worked as a research assistant at Yale Medical Center providing support for women experiencing domestic abuse in New Haven and contributing to research on battering and domestic abuse of women by their partners. Afterwards, Roper moved to the West coast and eventually worked as the medical director of Highland General Hospital’s Acute Care Clinic in Oakland, California where she was instrumental in providing support and resources for people dealing with substance abuse, alcoholism, and pelvic infections. Roper continued to work for public health almost until her untimely passing from lung cancer in 2016.  Meticulous Attention to Detail Roper was known for her attention to detail, and her papers arrived at the Medical Historical Library in records cartons filled with folders arranged by topic and labeled with neat handwriting. The collection includes several notebooks filled with research notes and data, but one journal from Roper’s early career labeled “Die Naturphilosophie,” containing a few entries about Roper’s relocation to Alaska to temporarily fill in for a local doctor in his medical clinic, provides a glimpse of Roper’s personality beyond the known medical professional.  “Enough for today. Tomorrow the adventure truly begins. Tonight, I’ll retire with a book, my usual evening occupation, and thereby bridge my familiar past and unfamiliar future.”  An Emerging Field Martha Roper was an early adopter of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and her papers document howthese new technologies became important tools for the field of epidemiology in the 1990s. The collection includes workshop materials, maps, and her presentation: “Spatial Patterns of Malaria Case Distribution in Padre Cocha, Peru” from the third ever conference on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Public Health in 1998. Ms Coll 64 The Martha H. Roper Papers is open and available for research at the Harvey Cushing / John Hay Whitney Medical Historical Library at Yale University. A description and listing of collection contents is available at Archives at Yale.

On Friday 11/8, CWML staff members attended the North Atlantic Health Science Libraries (NAHSL) Annual Conference in Springfield, MA. NAHSL is a regional chapter of the Medical Library Association, comprising medical librarians in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine. The one-day conference featured presentations and posters by eight staff members from CWML.  Presentations included: Creating an Instruction Community of Practice: Logistics, Lesson Plans, and Lessons Learned by Caitlin Meyer Design Basics for Creating Better Visuals by Dana Haugh Fine-tuning a Medical Library's Bioinformatics Support Program to Address the Data Challenges of Biomedical Researchers in the Age of Omics and Precision Medicine by Nur-Taz Rahman All Aboard! Outreach Initiatives by a Clinical Library Team by Alexandria Brackett, Katherine Stemmer Frumento, Janene Batten, Melissa Funaro, and Alyssa Grimshaw Taking the Long Road: Keeping Track of Searches to Improve a Mediated Search Service by Melissa Funaro, Katherine Stemmer Frumento, Janene Batten, Alexandria Brackett, and Alyssa Grimshaw

The bubble plot shown on this page (you may have also noticed it on the Medical Library’s digital signage and webpage banner), was created using ggplot2 in R. It shows publications related to Alzheimer’s Disease, Family Caregivers, and Home Health Care that has been cited more than 40 times by other research efforts. Follow the link here to interact with this graph, and view more details about each of the publications represented in this visualization.     If you have any questions about this graph, please email medicaldata@yale.edu.  

Open Access week is October 21 - 27, 2019! Open Access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What makes it possible is the internet and the consent of the author or copyright-holder.    Celebrate open access publishing and scholarship with the medical library: October 21 from 11am - 1pm: Stop by the medical library to kick off open access week and learn more about how we support open access publishing October 23 from 3pm - 4:30pm: “Reuse My Material – Copyright Clinic” – YSPH, LEPH 126 October 25 from 12:15pm - 12:45pm: “Copyright and Images – How to Find Open Access Images, YSPH And join our colleagues at the Center for Science and Social Science on October 24th for a workshop on "Choosing an Open Access Journal for Publication of a Paper."  

October is Disability Awareness Month! National Disability Awareness Month was declared in 1988 by the United States Congress for October to raise awareness of the employment needs and contributions of individuals with all types of disabilities. Upcoming events in October 2019: Monday, October 7 Lupus Panel Event w/DAY, WWN, & YAAA 12:00-1:15 pm | Child Study Center, 230 S. Frontage Road, Cohen Auditorium | Register: http://bit.ly/lupuspanelevent   Join DiversAbility at Yale, Working Women’s Network, and the Yale African American Affinity Group for a panel discussion that will bring awareness to what Lupus is, the impact it has on the body, types of Lupus, causes of Lupus, facts about Lupus and its prevalence, diagnosis of Lupus, life with Lupus, the stigma associated with Lupus, and what we can do to provide support. Thursday, October 10 Resources For Aging Adults For Yale Employees 12:00-1:00 pm | 221 Whitney Ave, 612 | Register: http://bit.ly/2kMrWM8    Join a senior care specialist from Magellan, Yale’s Counseling and Support Services program, to learn about the array of resources available for all Yale employees, that address eldercare and aging family members. Details on services and programs will include, but are not limited to: Resource and referral, workshops, support from Magellan Behavioral Health (Yale’s Counseling and Support Services vendor), adult caregivers kits, and more. Friday, October 11 Social Media Accessibility: Basics 9:00-10:30 am | Poorvu Center for Teaching & Learning, 301 York Street, Room 121 | Register: http://bit.ly/2mc2MH8   In this training you’ll learn not only how to use the accessibility features that are available on these platforms, but also valuable work-arounds to counter those that are not. Wednesday, October 16 Café Con Leche w/DAY & YLNG 12:00-1:15 & 1:30-2:30 pm | 221 Whitney Ave, 109 & 800 Howard Ave, LL05 | Register: https://bit.ly/2TtdN3q    Join the Yale Latino Networking Group and DiversAbility at Yale to celebrate National Disability Awareness Month. Come to taste Latin coffee, sample Latin desserts, and learn about disability facts specific to the Latin community. Panel Discussion: Teachable Moments: Learning from Parents of Children with a Disability 12:00-1:15 pm | 55 Whitney, 369 | Register: http://bit.ly/2ml82bJ   Join DiversAbility at Yale and the Working Women’s Network for a workshop that will feature university staff sharing their experiences of parenting a child with a disability. Topics will include: successful parenting techniques, child advocacy, educational resources, self-care, family networks, and more.  Siteimprove Basics 2:30-4:00 pm | 25 Science Park, Room 321 | Register: http://bit.ly/2kMqQjD  Siteimprove is a self-service application available to all Yale faculty and staff to give website owners the insight they need to work towards improving the quality and accessibility of their sites, optimize the site for search engine discovery, and capture basic analytics about site use to help prioritize improvement efforts. This training will include hands-on activities. Saturday, October 19 Yale Rep Performance of Girls - Touch Tour, Audio Described, and Sign Language Interpreted 1:00-3:30 pm | University Theatre, 222 York Street | Register: http://bit.ly/October19Performance Exiled to boarding schools for his entire life, Deon returns to his birthplace with a vengeance––luring the women of the town to the woods for a night of uninhibited partying. Meanwhile, a young reactionary with a big social media following condemns the debauchery and vows to restore order. Pulsing with a beat that is as dangerous as it is seductive, Girls is an electrifying contemporary spin on the classic Greek tragedy, The Bacchae, with a killer DJ, bumping dance music, and live-streaming video.   Sunday, October 20 2019 Walk to End Lupus Now 3:00 pm | Calf Pasture Beach, Norwalk, CT | Register: http://support.lupus.org/goto/yaleaffinitygroups Imagine a day when doctors can say, “There is a cure for lupus”. Until that day though, there is work to be done. That’s why DiversAbility at Yale, Working Women’s Network, and the Yale African American Affinity Group are taking action in the fight against lupus. Join us as we participate to raise critical funds for the estimated 1.5 million people living with lupus in the United States. Tuesday, October 22 Accessible Word Documents, PowerPoint Presentations, and PDFs 9:00-10:30 am | Poorvu Center for Teaching & Learning, 301 York Street, Room 118A | Register: http://bit.ly/2metteh        This beginner's document accessibility workshop is designed to train staff in the basic methods used for making Word documents, PowerPoint Presentations, and PDFs digitally accessible, for inclusion on university websites or for university-related business, including teaching, student services, and other administrative support. Wednesday, October 23 Captioning Your Media at Yale: Options and Basics 9:30-11:00 am | 25 Science Park, 125 | Register: http://bit.ly/2lReQ0w   This two-hour training covers paid options for captioning your media through our Preferred Captioning Vendors 3Play Media and Rev.com, as well as free options, like YouTube. Attendees will leave understanding their obligations under Yale’s policy, the differences between the major captioning file types, and how to create, edit, and sync captions to their media for both Canvas courses and websites. DiverseAbility Career Fair 11:30 am - 2:30 pm | West Campus Conference Center, 800 West Campus Drive | Register: http://bit.ly/DiverseAbilityOCT23 The DiverseAbility Career Fair will feature 15-20 employers that are committed to hiring. There will be free professional photos for LinkedIn profiles, resources for persons with disabilities, employer hiring incentives, and more. The first 50 people to register can attend a special Career Fair Prep Session!    Thursday, October 24 Web Accessibility Training for Content Editors 1:00-4:00 pm | 25 Science Park, Room 321 | Register: http://bit.ly/2lYkkX2    This half-day workshop is designed to train staff who input content into websites how to do so in ways that meet Yale's Web Accessibility Policy. This workshop is primarily for people who create content through tools such as Wordpress or YaleSites Drupal. Friday, October 25 Student Perspectives on Inclusive Course Design 11:30 am - 1 pm | Poorvu Center for Teaching & Learning, 301 York Street, Room 120A | Register: https://bit.ly/2mmSyE4      Inclusive course design aims to create a learning environment in which every student has an equitable opportunity to engage and succeed. What should instructors know about the experience of students with disabilities when designing and managing an inclusive course? A panel of Yale students will share perspectives and recommendations in a wide-ranging lunchtime discussion. Saturday, October 26 DAY Yale Rep Performance of Girls - Open Captioned 2:00-3:30 pm | University Theatre, 222 York Street | Register: http://bit.ly/October26Performance  Exiled to boarding schools for his entire life, Deon returns to his birthplace with a vengeance––luring the women of the town to the woods for a night of uninhibited partying. Meanwhile, a young reactionary with a big social media following condemns the debauchery and vows to restore order. Pulsing with a beat that is as dangerous as it is seductive, Girls is an electrifying contemporary spin on the classic Greek tragedy, The Bacchae, with a killer DJ, bumping dance music, and live-streaming video. Wednesday, October 30 DiversAbility: Addressing Disability, Equity & Inclusion at Yale and Beyond 12:00-1:15 pm | Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 120 High Street | Register: http://bit.ly/diversabilitypanel  While some people live with disability from birth, many of us can expect to experience disability at some point in our lives.  Disability affects nearly 1 in 5 Americans, yet despite this reality, widespread misunderstandings, misconceptions and stigma continue to surround disability and those who live with disabilities.  Join us for an informative, robust discussion and learn more about the ways disability and accessibility are being addressed at Yale and across the country.