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100 Years of Pediatrics at Yale

May 11, 2022 - 11:58am by Melissa Grafe

The Historical Library, in coordination with the Department of Pediatrics, is helping to celebrating 100 years of Pediatrics at Yale through a new physical exhibition in the Medical Library’s Rotunda.  Founded in 1921, Yale Pediatrics has always been on the forefront of research and clinical practice. The exhibition features material on some of the department’s initiatives, including: Dr. Ruth Whittemore and the first pediatric rheumatic fever and cardiac clinic in New England in 1947 Development of Dr. Edith Jackson’s pioneering Rooming-In Program at Grace New-Haven Hospital from 1946 to 1953 Creation of the first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) by Dr. Louis Gluck in 1960 Today, Pediatrics has thirteen subspeciality sections, with 87 residents, 47 clinical fellows, 207 full-time faculty and 73 clinical faculty from the community. The department’s mission can be distilled into three words: heal, innovate, and collaborate. This exhibition was organized by Kaiulani Shulman and Jennifer DeSantis, with assistance from Melissa Grafe, Ph.D, Head of the Medical Historical Library, and contributions from various members of the Department of Pediatrics and Medical Library staff (Kelly Perry, Chris Zollo, Melissa Funaro, Dana Haugh, Kaitlin Throgmorton, Melanie Norton, and Terry Dagradi). Some materials displayed are on loan from Manuscripts and Archives, the Medical Historical Library, and Yale New-Haven Hospital archives.  Several labels were adapted from previous exhibitions curated by Toby Appel, Ph.D, and Susan Dee, Archivist, Yale New Haven Hospital. 

Picturing Public Health and Medicine

April 1, 2022 - 1:53pm by Melissa Grafe

   Images from the Bert Hansen Collection of medicine and public health in popular graphic art Like audiences today, 19th-century readers of popular magazines and newspapers learned about public health initiatives and medical discoveries through articles and imagery. The Medical Historical Library team digitized over 500 images from The Bert Hansen Collection of Medicine and Public Health in Popular Graphic Art (Ms Coll 67), representing the earliest works in a very large collection that contains materials from 1850-2010. The new digital collection contains chromolithographs and wood engravings from 19th-century magazines like Harper’s Weekly, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Puck, Judge, and Scientific American on topics including cholera, diphtheria, polio, tuberculosis, vaccinations, Pasteur’s treatments for rabies, hospitals, mental asylums, unsafe foodstuffs, and public sanitation. There are numerous illustrations using medical imagery in political satire.  These diseases and topics continue to resonate with audiences today, particularly in the COVID-19 era.  Bert Hansen discussed the collection in his recent talk, "Picturing Public Health-Turning Points in Public Health History Conveyed through Prints." The effort to digitize these images and make them freely available worldwide was generously funded by the Arcadia Fund. You can also find other Arcadia-funded digitized texts, including incunables, medieval and Renaissance medical and scientific manuscripts, Yale Medical School theses and early Arabic and Persian books and manuscripts, through our digitized collections page or through Cushing/Whitney Medical Library site on Internet Archive, as part of the Medical Heritage Library.

National Public Health Week

March 28, 2022 - 12:15pm by Kayla Del Biondo

National Public Health Week is April 4-11, 2022 but the medical library is celebrating all month long! Please join us for two virtual lectures. "Picturing Public Health” with Bert Hansen: Turning Points in Public Health History Conveyed through Prints" By Bert Hansen, Professor Emeritus of History at CUNY Baruch College April 5, 2022 at 4pm The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library will welcome Bert Hansen, historian of medicine and public health, for an illustrated lecture drawing upon materials that he donated to the Medical Historical Library from 2015 to 2022. This illustrated lecture will showcase the variety of historical insights that can be discovered in hard-to-find old prints and ephemera, with a spotlight on public health efforts starting in about 1850. Some are shocking, many are humorous, and all bring us closer to the attitudes and awareness of ordinary Americans in former times. This program will consist of a 40-minute PowerPoint presentation, followed by ample time for audience questions.  All are invited to attend this virtual lecture to gain a greater sense of the rich history of public health in America.  Infodemic Management in Black American Communities: Strategies for Creating Culturally Relevant Health Information Literacy Interventions By Bethany McGowan, Associate Professor of Library Science and Health Sciences Information Specialist at Purdue University April 25, 2022 at 4pm Bethany McGowan is an Associate Professor in the Libraries and School of Information Studies at Purdue University, where her teaching and research focus on designing health information literacy interventions for academic and community settings and on teaching learners to use data and information to solve real-world problems. She is a certified World Health Organization (WHO) Infodemic Manager, trained to design and evaluate health information literacy interventions and strengthen individual and community resilience to mis/dis/malinformation campaigns. Her current research includes an IMLS-funded project that examines how cultural and historical influencers impact health-information-seeking behaviors in Black American communities and a collaboration with the U.S. Department of State to develop strategies that make it easier to identify malinformation campaigns.   In this lecture, Professor McGowan will: discuss how health information-seeking behavior in Black American communities can be modulated by social, cultural, environmental, and historical influences discuss strategies for raising one's consciousness of and sensitivity to authentic community health information needs illustrate strategies for creating culturally relevant interventions by reviewing how she created a community engagement campaign to deliver health information literacy interventions to local African American communities    

Medical Library Collects Medical Supplies for Ukraine

March 16, 2022 - 10:01am by Dana Haugh

    With the Russian invasion of Ukraine showing no signs of easing, violent assaults continue to wreak havoc and devastation on civilians in Ukraine and refugees in neighboring countries. In an effort to help those who are suffering, the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library is working with the Franciscan Bridge of Help to deliver desperately needed medical supplies to hospitals in Lviv, Ukraine. Father Norbert M. Siwinski of St. Michael’s Parish of Bridgeport, Connecticut, created the Franciscan Bridge of Help after he connected with Bishop Edward Kawa in Lviv, which is near the border with Poland. The initiative establishes a direct path between Bridgeport and Lviv to help those affected by Russia’s military operations. All donated medical supplies are sent, with the help of a Polish shipping company, to Lancut, Poland, where the supplies are then transported to Bishop Edward in Lviv. On March 7, a donation box was placed near the Medical Library’s circulation desk and, in just two days, three boxes were filled with donated medical and surgical supplies. Student worker Anna Baker, YC ’22 translated medication labels into both Ukrainian and Russian so those overseas could read the ingredients and dosages, while Thomas Shao, YSPH ’22 helped pack boxes. “I am glad my language skills were able to come in handy here,” said Baker. “This war feels deeply personal to me and while it feels like nothing I can do could be enough, I hope that this helps at least some. I also hope that this medical supplies drive is an opportunity for others who feel powerless to do anything to help.” This war feels deeply personal to me and while it feels like nothing I can do could be enough, I hope that this helps at least some. - Anna Baker YC '22 The first shipment of supplies was sent to Lancut, Poland, on March 10.  St. Michael’s Parish is also collecting monetary donations for Ukrainian relief efforts through Venmo: @stmichaelbpt Items Needed: sterile gauze, sterile packing materials, different kinds nitrile gloves IV catheters, large gage- G18 or close tourniquets nasopharyngeal airway Chest seal (asherman, halo, other) decompression kit (chest air release system) CPR face shield IV kits surgical needles, and suture material medical scissors antibiotic creams Acetaminophen 1000mg dose Meloxicam 15mg dose Antibiotics: gatifloxacin 400mg or other oral antibiotics for trauma use Tylenol for Adults and Children Ibuprofen Neosporin Bandages Aspirin 325mg This article is also viewable on the Yale School of Medicine website.

Hallway Exhibition: Scenes of city life

March 4, 2022 - 1:44pm by Susan Wheeler

In a new hallway exhibition, Scenes from the Great Depression and its aftermath are presented in the works of recent immigrants and others for the Federal Art Project and the Works Progress Administration.  Works include: The Relief Station, 1938, Lithograph by Oscar Van Young b. Viena 1906 d. U.S.A.1991,  "The Relief Station," a realistic and not uncommon scene in art of the period, reflects the despair and patience of families who could no longer feed themselves without assistance. After coming of age in Russia during the civil war, Oscar was sponsored by influential American diplomats to settle in the United States. In the U.S. Oscar studied painting and became well known. His works were widely exhibited.   Gladys, 1936, Lithograph by Will Barnet "Gladys" was published by the U.S. government's Works Progress Administration, soon after the program's creation.  Its purpose was to create government jobs for the nation's many unemployed in all types of work including the arts. Barnet enjoyed a long career of painting, teaching, and exhibiting his art. He was awarded a National Medal of Arts in 2011 presented by President Obama in a White House ceremony.     Charlie Parker Going to Wash Dishes, 1984, Photo-etching on Rives paper by Sue Coe, born 1951 England, active in the U.S.A. 1972 --present  To pursue music, Charles Parker left his home in Kansas City and hitched to New York where he looked for opportunities to play his alto saxophone. To make ends meet, Parker washed dishes at Jimmies Chicken Shack in Harlem.  He would become a major innovator in jazz when, with Dizzy Gillespie, he created "bebop."  

New Exhibition on Hip Replacement Surgery

February 1, 2022 - 1:42pm by Melissa Grafe

Innovation & Evolution in Hip Replacement Surgery: Highlights from the Keggi–Rubin Hip Implant Collection at Yale University  On view in the Cushing Rotunda, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library January 28th - April 29th, 2022      This exhibit explores the evolution of hip replacement surgery through historic implants selected from the new Keggi—Rubin Hip Implant Collection at Yale University. The displayed implants trace the trials, innovations, successes, and failures of hip replacement surgery over time, providing insight into the dynamic world of surgical history. By archiving and studying these implants, one can witness the remarkable changes that have resulted from design, engineering, biomaterials, manufacturing, and technological advances over nearly a century. The evolution of total hip replacement has been possible thanks to the timeless contributions and collaborations of many dedicated surgeons, researchers, engineers, industry experts, and manufacturers over the past 70 years. This exhibition was organized by Marguerite “Maggie” Gilmore, College of the Holy Cross; Daniel H. Wiznia, MD, Assistant Professor; Kristaps J. Keggi, MD, Professor Emeritus; and Lee E. Rubin, MD, Associate Professor, with the assistance of Melissa Grafe, Ph.D.  Multiple donors contributed materials to the collection.  An online exhibition is available to explore, containing additional content from the collection.

Announcing: Love Data Week 2022 at the Medical Library

January 26, 2022 - 4:40pm by Kaitlin Throgmorton

    Love Data Week will be February 14-18, 2022. This event marks the importance of data in our lives, science, medicine, and countless other areas.  This year’s theme — “data is for everyone” — reminds us both that data should be accessible and equitable. Everyone should be able to feel confident in accessing and using data, and everyone should see parts of themselves, and their communities, in the data we collect, analyze, and share.  In the spirit of the idea that “data is for everyone” during Love Data Week, we’ll be offering data workshops for users at all levels, and we hope you’ll learn something new whether you’ve just started working with data, or you’ve been doing so for a while.  Join Yale’s Cushing/Whitney Medical Library in observing Love Data Week with the following events: Where in the World is the Data You Need? How to Find and Reuse Data — Learn how to find, evaluate, and use data, especially publicly available data, in this session on Tuesday, February 15. You’re encouraged to BYOD (bring your own dataset) for an exploratory class where we’ll look for and discover data in the wild!  Excel for Research Data Management — This session will cover tips and tricks for managing data in Excel, from text and data manipulation, to filters, functions, and formulas, and more. Join the Marx and Cushing/Whitney data librarians for this session on Friday, February 18. Data Librarian Office Hours — Starting Monday, February 14, the data librarian for the health sciences will be hosting office hours every other Monday afternoon. The first session during Love Data Week will focus on ‘adopting a dataset,’ but all topics are welcome.  Managing Your Research with Electronic Notebooks: How to Use LabArchives — Get a jump start on Love Data Week with this session the week prior on managing data and research in electronic notebooks, happening on February 10th. Want more Love Data Week fun? Check out ICPSR's Adopt a Dataset initiative! (ICSPR, a data repository, is the international host for Love Data Week.) This is a great opportunity to explore and interact with a public dataset, and learn more about it.  Plus, explore more Love Data Week sessions across the Yale University Library and at the National Library of Medicine. (And, here on campus, if you're into big data, don't miss Yale Center for Research Computing's Python for Big Data Analysis class on Friday, February 18.) We look forward to seeing you for Love Data Week, and beyond!

New Collection: Yale Child Study Center Reference Collection

January 6, 2022 - 11:37am by Melissa Grafe

         The Medical Historical Library is the new home for a large collection of approximately 3,800 short published works on topics related to child welfare used by Arnold Gesell and the staff of the Yale Child Study Center as a reference collection. Topics include children and the war; day care centers; education; infant mortality; juvenile delinquency; intellectual disability and the eugenics movement; mental health; mental illness; nurseries; and nutrition. A portion of collection materials documents organizations and conditions relevant to child welfare in New Haven and Connecticut. Materials in the collection include pamphlets, reprints, newsletters, newspaper clippings, and reports published between 1886 and 1958, with the bulk of materials published between 1910 and 1950. Multiple publications in the collection were authored by Arnold Gesell and Yale School of Medicine faculty and staff.  The collection, the Yale Child Study Center reference collection (Pam Coll 11), is open for research in the Medical Historical Library, and searchable in the online finding aid, down to the title of each published work. The Yale Child Study Center was founded in 1911 by Arnold Gesell. At that time Gesell had completed a PhD in psychology and was working towards an MD at the Yale School of Medicine, which he completed in 1915. Gesell obtained the use of a room in the New Haven Dispensary to continue his previous work with children with disabilities and created the Yale Clinic of Child Development. Gesell became known for his studies of child development at the clinic. Using one-way mirrors to photograph and film researchers interacting with children, he documented developmental milestones for children from infancy through adolescence. Gesell was a prodigious writer, publishing numerous articles and more than a dozen books about his findings for the scientific community and the general public. His most famous work, An Atlas of Infant Behavior, contains 3,200 photographs captured from sessions at the clinic. Dr. Gesell was the director of the clinic until his retirement in 1948. Today, the Yale Child Study Center is a department of the Yale School of Medicine dedicated to improving the mental health of children and families, advancing understanding of their psychological and developmental needs, and treating and preventing childhood mental illness through the integration of research, clinical practice, and professional training. The center serves as the Department of Child Psychiatry for the Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital; is a center for basic neurodevelopment research on the earliest neurodevelopment and behavioral problems troubling children; and provides services in clinics, community settings, homes, and pediatric practices. The center’s faculty are engaged in domestic and international policy making; provide trainings in child psychiatry, social work, child psychology, research, specific intervention and prevention approaches, and in special areas of children’s mental health; and are engaged in research on the genetic and neurobiological basis of childhood psychiatric disorders.

New Gift: Waltham Hospital medical records

January 3, 2022 - 11:16am by Melissa Grafe

   The Medical Historical Library is pleased to announce a new gift of patient records from Boston’s Waltham Hospital (which closed in 2003) dating from 1889 to 1897. Within 7 bound volumes are what are now called progress notes, operative reports, pathology reports, and medication records written by attending physicians. The volumes provide a snapshot of patient care, disease, and medicine in late 19th century Massachusetts. The collection is a generous gift of Alan M. Engler, M.D.; Yale College, Class of 1976.  The Waltham Hospital medical records (Ms Coll 82) are now available for researchers to view in the Medical Historical Library. Included in the volumes are notes documenting surgery in 1894 for a perforated appendix, in which Dr. Alfred Worcester operated and saved a patient’s life – under ether, and 50 years before antibiotics became widely available. Worcester was the founder of the Waltham Hospital and was known for advocating for early surgical intervention in the treatment of appendicitis and for the use of Caesarean section in difficult births. In the 1880s, appendicitis was treated by waiting for an abscess to form and was often fatal. Worcester found that he could usually operate before the appendix had ruptured by entering the peritoneum (the membrane lining the cavity of the abdomen) and greatly reduce morbidity and mortality. The reports of his cases and the controversy between him and the surgeons of Boston demonstrate the evolution of medical and surgical practice. The volumes also document trauma (gunshot wounds, people kicked by horses, occupational injuries), cancer, birth injuries, rheumatic fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and suicide attempts.

Welcome New Staff!

December 13, 2021 - 10:26am by Dana Haugh

The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library is delighted to welcome three new staff members to our team: Megan Nance, Kaitlin Throgmorton, and Laura Juliano. Megan Nance joined the Access and Delivery Services team as the Evening/Weekend Access Services Librarian. Previously, Megan was at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida where she was Acting Head of Access Services and Archives.   Kaitlin Throgmorton joined the Technology and Innovation team as the Data Librarian for the Health Sciences. Kaitlin came to us from Sage Bionetworks, a nonprofit health research organization, where she was the Bioinformatics Analyst and Data Curator.   Laura Juliano joined the Medical Historical Library team as a Term Archivist. Laura will be processing the Gary Burget papers, a large collection of plastic surgery records and materials. Laura most recently interned at the American Civil Liberties Union, and previously worked as a Collections Assistant at the Brooklyn Historical Society.  
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