Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library Blog

The UCLA Library is continuing our ongoing efforts to cancel print journal subscriptions when we license access to the electronic equivalent.  For 2008, we are focusing our efforts on the journals in all subjects identified by UCLA librarians where we have both print and electronic subscriptions. 

The 543 journal titles on the list and website have been identified by UCLA librarians where there is both a print and digital subscription and where they feel it is sufficient to have electronic access only.  If, however, you feel that it is important to maintain a print subscription to these titles, we would like to hear from you.

The list of proposed journal cancellations is available online through June 13, 2008. You can browse the list by holding library or individual title. Each title has an interactive button so you may send a comment directly to the librarian responsible for that subscription. If you have additional questions or comments please contact Janet Carter, Collection Coordinator for the UCLA Biomedical Library, at jcarter@library.ucla.edu.

The UCLA Library, Academic Senate, Academic Senate Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication, and the Office of Intellectual Property Administration have created a series of lunchtime sessions to educate faculty about special topics in intellectual property. Upcoming sessions include:

• If You Don’t Ask, How Can You Tell?: Getting Permission to Use Material in Course Instruction and E-Publishing (December 6th, 2007)
• “Don’t I Own My Own Work?”: Negotiating to Keep Your Copyright (February 7th, 2008)
• “What Are My Rights?”: Software, Patents, and Open Source (spring quarter 2008; date TBA)

Read full descriptions of each workshop and register on the Library’s web page, Intellectual Property in the Digital Age: The Rights Stuff for Teaching and Publishing.

Learn how to find the full text of articles online, how to discover the best databases for articles on a given topic, and how to search databases and other resources effectively through in-person demonstrations and hands-on instruction.

This fifty-minute session, focused on health and life sciences, will take place Friday, November 9 at 11am in the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library (12-077 CHS) Classroom.  No registration is required– just bring your questions! For more information, contact us at biomed-ref@library.ucla.edu.

You don’t need to travel far to find rare books, manuscripts and digital resources documenting the history of the health and life sciences. Located on the 4^th floor of the UCLA Biomedical Library is the History & Special Collections Division, one of the finest repositories on these subjects in the country. The Division owns important classical and seminal works upon which the fields of health and life sciences are built.

The Division is involved in a variety of activities to promote the study of the history of medicine, allied health fields, and the life sciences. The Study of the History of Medicine at UCLA is an interdisciplinary program designed to assist in the exploration of resources related to the history of medicine. This portal includes a brief overview of the collection, explains access procedures for using the collection, and provides links to other departments on campus with historical collections. There are also links to events, fellowships, people, and research tools such as indexes, oral histories and organizations involved with the history of medicine.  

On November 16-17, 2007, History & Special Collections and the History of Medicine faculty from the School of Medicine will co-host “The Architecture of Healing: an international conference at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.” The conference will focus on the development of the hospital and its place in our society today as a center of healing and research. Registration forms are available online and are due by November 2^nd. 

The Division is involved with many online exhibits and digitization projects which have allowed unique materials to be easily accessible to a wider audience.  One interpretive exhibit, Spices – Exotic Flavors and Medicines, showcases beautiful drawings of spice plants and provides information on the historical importance of spices.  Another project, Relief of Pain & Suffering, is an exploration of attitudes towards pain and its relief from 1800 to the present. The impressive AIDS Posters collection consists of 625 posters from public health campaigns worldwide. The Donald Ryder Dickey Photographic Collection includes photos of California’s wildlife and landscapes taken from 1911-1929. This collection currently consists of 350 images, and 1000 additional photos will be added by 2008. 

The History & Special Collections Division’s books, journals, manuscripts, medical artifacts and digital resources are an extraordinary resource not available at many other universities. The librarians, archivists, curators, and staff of the Division encourage you to explore our collections online or in person on the 4^th floor of the Biomedical Library.