Annual reports
At the Health Sciences Library, we power curiosity, discovery, and connection. We take a collaborative approach, bringing our expertise, engagement, critical content, and cutting edge technologies to prepare the next generation of health care providers. Together we make the difference.
Catalyst report Impact and Initiatives of the Health Sciences Libraries | July 2023-June 2024
We're asking BIG questions
At the Health Sciences Libraries, we're embracing big "What if?" questions to guide and advance our work.
What if... we can prompt deep reflection about how health's history can inform evolving practices?
What if... we meet students where they are at and let them lead the way?
What if... ideas were not limited by access to resources?
What if... we open doors to careers in the health sciences?
What if... we think broadly about what "counts" in scholarship?
Our annual report highlights how we are joining in partnership with colleagues from across the health sciences, the University, and beyond to answer these big questions.
Along the way, we're demonstrating the many ways that the Health Sciences Libraries are powering curiosity, discovery and connection at the intersection of health and quality health information.
Echoes of health, reflected
Curators at the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine connect five centuries of historical resources to timely conversations around health and healthcare.
New curriculum integration within the Medical School expands upon our work with the School of Dentistry, prompting all first year students to thing critically about how current practice is connected with healthcare's past — and future.
New funding broadens understanding of reproductive health, expands access to East Asian materials, creates curricula around the intersections of race and health, and makes our most rare and fragile materials available to audiences worldwide.
New exhibits show how medical artifacts reveal the complex history of past practices, how mushrooms have been integrated into care over time, how collections are enriching student research, and the healing power of hot springs.
New historical collections amplify diverse voices with materials that highlight indigenous health practices, along with first person experiences of female practitioners, black providers in practice and training, and disability.
Opening doors
We're sharing expertise to enrich the student experience and expand the edges of their curiosity.
Our librarians continued their 30 year partnership with the Family Medicine Clerkship to strengthen patient-provider communication skills as students become fluent in health literacy concepts and finding credible consumer health information.
Our grant-funded team designed interactive sessions using primary source materials to help students understand the histories of today's social determinants of health, offering courses at the School of Public Health Summer Institute and local hospitals.
Our curators mentored nine interns—from health to PhDs—who completed projects at our Wangansteen Historical Library to reinforce their learning and launch their careers.
Our staff welcomed high school students participating in the Perry Initiative and Go4Brains programs as they visited the Libraries to learn about the technologies that are shaping the future of care, and the history that guides it.
New initiatives
Making it evidence-based — from the start
Taking a page from our College of Pharmacy collaboration, we're teaching all incoming Medical School students evidence-based practice and research methodology in their first week of school, building skills for lifelong learning and informed care.
Understanding the patient experience
Thanks to the Libraries' new Embodied Labs virtual reality experience, geriatric education specialist Christina Cauble partnered with library experts to give students a first-person view of Alzheimer's, sparking rich conversation and deeper understanding.
Reframing death and dying
Learners and educators will soon be able to access a library of evidence-based educational resources on death and dying, with librarian contributions to a joint initiative of the Center for Interprofessional Health and the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program.
Expanding collections, expanding possibilities
Our growing collections offer graphic medicine novels, diverse authors and content, and virtual reality experiences to expand notions of what "counts" as scholarship, whose voices matter, and what ways of knowing and learning are valued.
By the numbers
Course readings
7,405
We made 7,405 course readings available to 492 health sciences courses.
Course-integrated instruction sessions
199
We reached 6,247 students in 199 courses, with integration into Nursing Theory and Research, Molecules to Medicines, Epidemiological Methods, GOALe, and courses across the health sciences.
3D printer filament
16 Miles
Our 3D printers used 16 miles of filament to create everything from custom adaptive equipment to 3D models of patient scans for surgical planning.
Student savings
$1.17 Million
Affordable content provided by the Libraries offered health sciences students the opportunity to save over a million dollars.
Publications and presentations
31
Our librarians and curators partnered with faculty to publish high impact studies that advance health practice on broad topics including pediatric obesity, oral health, antibiotics in surface water, and more!
Monthly visits
40,000
In just one month, we provided spaces (including a NEW wellness room), information resources, technology, and expertise to 40,000 in-person visitors (April 2024).