Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library Blog

In Fall 2008, most undergraduate students in Robert Gore’s Fiat Lux seminar, Artists’ Books in the UCLA Library and Beyond, made and presented their own artists’ books as class projects. Several of these unique creations are displayed alongside published examples from the Biomedical Library’s History & Special Collections for the Sciences. From the rebirth of Venus to the Hippocratic Oath and various topics in between, the students and other artists comment through unusual combinations of content, structures, and images.

The Biomedical Library’s new exhibit, Artists’ Books from Library and Classroom, is on view now through mid-July. The exhibit begins outside the library’s entrance in our showcase area, continues in the lobby and extends to the 4th floor public reading room.

<submitted by Russell Johnson and Andrea Lynch>

In an ongoing effort to eliminate duplicate journal subscriptions, the UCLA Library is reviewing subscriptions to print journals where licensed access is available electronically.

The 803 journal titles on the list, of which the Biomedical Library holds 513 titles, and Web site have been identified by UCLA librarians for cancellation where there is both a print and digital subscription and sufficient coverage of the content is available electronically. If, however, you think it is important for the UCLA Library to retain both a print and digital subscription to a particular title, let us know by June 8th.

The list of proposed serials cancellations is available as an interactive webpage <http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/mainlib/serials/index.cfm>. You can browse lists by titles, publisher or holding library.  You can also search for individual titles or groups the titles by selecting librarian.  Each title has a button enabling you to send a comment directly to the librarian responsible for the subscription.

Your feedback is essential in this review process. Please contact Janet Carter, Collections Coordinator at the Biomedical Library with any concerns or questions.

<submitted by Andrea Lynch>

The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Committee on the U.S. Commitment to Global Health released its final report on May 20th which concludes that the U.S. government and U.S.-based foundations, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and commercial entities have an opportunity to improve global health and provides specific recommendations for how these groups should proceed. To follow-up on this release, the Kaiser Family Foundation will hold a live, interactive webcast tomorrow, Thursday, May 21 at 9 a.m. PT from its Washington, DC studio, to discuss what the report results will likely mean for the U.S. government’s response to global health. For more information on this webcast and for a link to the IOM report, go to http://globalhealth.kff.org/Multimedia/2009/May/21/gh052109video.aspx.

<submitted by Andrea Lynch>

The Maurice N. Beigelman Collection of Ophthalmology contains landmark works in vision science from the Renaissance and later. Maurice N. Beigelman, M.D. (1896-1975), a Los Angeles ophthalmologist, donated these rare books to the UCLA Biomedical Library in 1954. This gift formed a core around which the library built and continues to develop collections of primary sources in the structure, functions, and diseases of the eye. More than 50 titles in the collection have been digitized and are freely available as part of UCLA’s contributions to the Internet Archive.

<submitted by Russell Johnson>

Although many popular accounts have contrasted the contemporary influence of pharmaceutical marketing in clinical practice with a nostalgic remembrance of uncomplicated relations between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry at mid-century, the relationship between pharmaceutical promotion and physician education had already prompted significant professional and public debate in the 1950s and 1960s. This talk will use historical perspective to explore the problem of industrial vs. professional sources in how physicians incorporate emerging therapeutics into their practice. Tracing the issue from the advent of the postwar ‘wonder drugs’ through today’s concerns regarding industry influencer in formal continuing medical education (CME) and off-label prescribing, this talk will document how and why the pharmaceutical industry was allowed to develop and maintain the central role it now plays within postgraduate medical education and prescribing practice. The talk will also explore paths not taken: alternate structures for medical education and the diffusion of medical innovation that were abandoned along the way.

Lecture by: Jeremy Greene, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, and the Harvard Medical School Division of Pharmacoepidemiology

Date: Thursday, 21 May 2009, 4:30 p.m.

Location: Louis Jolyon West Auditorium, Semel Institute, C8-183 Center for the Health Sciences, UCLA

The lecture is open, free of charge, and is followed by an opportunity to converse over light refreshments in the foyer.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. For more information, please contact the History & Special Collections for the Sciences, Louise Darling Biomedical Library at 310.825.6940 or via email at: tgj@library.ucla.edu.

<submitted by Russell Johnson>

Mental Measurements Yearbook has moved to Ovid’s SilverPlatter database platform to make your searches for psychological, educational, and personality-related tests and measures even easier. This resource allows you to search by test titles, authors, keywords, publishers, publication dates, and revision dates of over  2000 tests. You may also use the advanced search to make your search more specific. UCLA’s subscription to Mental Measurements Yearbook includes access to the 5th through 17th editions, covering 1985-present. Contact the Biomedical Library if you have questions about this new platform, or need help searching for psychological tests and measures.

<submitted by Amy Chatfield>

This year marks the sixty-first year of the Robert B. and Blanche Campbell Student Book Collection Competition, among the oldest competitions of its kind in the country and one of the most distinguished. UCLA student book collectors, both graduate and undergraduate, are invited to submit their collections for judging and the chance to win awards ranging from $150 to $500. Full details and application information are available on the Campbell website at http://www.library.ucla.edu/campbell/index.cfm.

Applications are due by Thursday, May 7, 2009. Awards will be announced at a ceremony in the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections at 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 28, 2009.