Interactive Theater Carolina: Promoting Health, Wellness, and Social Justice

Interactive Theater Carolina (ITC), according to its mission statement, "uses scripted and improvisational theatre to promote health, wellness, and social justice in the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill community. We believe that when audience members engage the characters and conflict on stage, they are more likely to explore and change their own attitudes and behaviors."

To inquire about ITC performing or holding a workshop for your class, organization, or event, contact Ben Saypol, Program Coordinator, at itc@unc.edu or 919-966-2999. For further information, visit the ITC web site.

Bullitt Club Lecture on Medieval Medical Education

The next meeting of the Bullitt History of Medicine Club will be Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at the UNC Health Sciences Library in the 5th Floor Conference Room (527). Please join us at 5:30pm for light refreshments followed by the lecture at 6pm. Meetings are free and open to the public.

Dr. Michael McVaugh, Professor Emeritus of History at UNC, will be presenting a lecture entitled, "Arabic into Latin (Or, Why Medical Schools Got Started)."

In medieval Europe medicine was a craft, not a subject that could be studied from books, until the twelfth century, when Latins discovered in Arabic manuscripts this new source for medicine knowledge, translated them into their own language, and made them the basis for a new invention, the medical school, with a set curriculum, examinations, and degrees.

Dr. McVaugh received his education at Harvard (AB, 1960) and Princeton (PhD, 1965). He has been on the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty since 1964 and is presently William Smith Wells Professor of History (Emeritus). His books include Medicine before the Plague: Practitioners and Their Patients in the Crown of Aragon, 1285-1345 (Cambridge, 1993), The Rational Surgery of the Middle Ages (Florence, 2006), and he is a member of the editorial commission for the Arnaldi de Villanova Opera Medica Omnia (12 vols. published since 1975).

For further information about the Bullitt Club, including the schedule for 2009-10 and mp3 recordings of past lectures, please visit the organization's web site.

International Open Access Week

The first International Open Access Week will take place October 19-23, 2009. The Open Access movement aims to promote free, online access to content that has traditionally been available on a subscription or fee basis. Many examples of open access journals can be found in the Directory of Open Access Journals, which currently tallies 4,371 journals world-wide. BioMed Central and the Public Library of Science (PLoS) are among the leading publishers that make scientific and medical literature freely available to the public.

The UNC Health Sciences Library has long been a strong supporter of Open Access, and a number of useful Open Access and Scholarly Communication resources can be found on the HSL web site. Beginning in April 2008, Congress mandated that National Institutes of Health-funded researchers must submit articles produced from such funding to PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. To facilitate this process, HSL has prepared an NIH Public Access Policy Toolkit, and also manages a fund to support Open Access publishing fees.

On Monday, October 19, the UNC Libraries Scholarly Communication Committee will be sponsoring a panel on Perspectives on Open Access, which will feature Phil Edwards, UNC School of Information and Library Science; Kate McGraw, UNC Health Sciences Library; James Boyle, Duke Law School; and Kevin Smith, Duke Scholarly Communications Officer. The event will be held in Room 214, Davis Library, from 3:30-4:30pm, and is open to the public.

SAHMS Call for Papers Extended

The Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS) invites paper proposals for its twelfth annual meeting on March 5-6, 2010 in Louisville, KY, co-sponsored by the University of Louisville School of Medicine and the Innominate Society. Deadline extended to October 31, 2009. Students whose proposals are accepted are eligible for travel awards (see below).

SAHMS welcomes papers on the history of medicine and science, broadly construed to encompass historical, literary, anthropological, philosophical and sociological approaches to health care and science including race, disabilities and gender studies. Participants may propose individual papers of panels of several papers on a particular theme.

Each presenter is limited to 20 minutes, with additional time for questions and discussion. Please do not submit papers that have already been published, presented or scheduled for presentation at another meeting. All participants are responsible for their own travel expenses and must pay registration costs in advance of the meeting. There are student travel awards each year, for more information on applications for this competitive award, please see information on the SAHMS website. Electronic submissions as email attachments in MS Word or other readily supportable formats are required.

Submit a one-page abstract of the paper that includes the headings: Purpose of study, Rationale and significance, Description of methodology, Identification of major primary and secondary sources, and Findings and conclusions. Abstracts will be selected on the basis of merit. Proposals must also include three learning objectives for the presentation. Include a one-page CV and cover sheet (found on the website) for each presenter.

Proposals should be submitted no later than October 31, 2009. All attendees must register in advance of the meeting. Please send paper proposals to: Mary E. Gibson, PhD, RN at meg2e@virginia.edu.

Checklist for proposal submission:

-- Cover sheet (from website)
-- One page abstract including name, contact information and affiliation.
-- Three learning objectives
-- One page CV

Student Travel Awards
Students seeking financial assistance to attend SAHMS in Louisville are invited to submit their requests at the time of paper submission to Mary E. Gibson, PhD, RN at meg2e@virginia.edu. Students must submit a letter of reference along with their application. Awards are limited and will be announced along with Program Committee determination.

For more information, please visit the SAHMS web site.

Celebrating the North Carolina Record

As archives throughout the nation celebrate American Archives Month in October, the North Carolina State Archives offers programs and activities reflecting our state theme, “Celebrating the North Carolina Record,” during North Carolina Archives Week, October 19-25, 2009. All activities are FREE and will take place in the North Carolina State Archives Building, 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27601.

:: Home Movie Day
Saturday, October 17; 1:00 p.m.—4:00 p.m.
Location: State Archives Building, Auditorium, 1st Floor
Home Movie Day is a celebration of amateur home movies created by individuals, families, or groups. Join us in Raleigh to view the movies that reflect our own cultural perceptions. Bring your own family films to share (8mm, super8 and 16mm—sorry, no video). Sponsored bythe State Archives, North Carolina State University Film Studies Program, and A/V Geeks.

:: Exhibit: “Extraordinary People in Ordinary Documents and Treasures of the State Archives”
Monday, October 19; 10:00 a.m.—1:00 p.m.
Location: State Archives Building, Archives Search Room, 2nd Floor
View on ordinary public documents the names of those North Carolinians who would go on to do extraordinary things. This exhibit alsofeatures a page from the original 1663 North Carolina Charter, North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights, postcards, letters, and historic photographs. The Tar Heel Family, will play on a continuous loop. This black and white film, ca. 1954, depicts North Carolina’s transition froman agrarian economy an industrialized one.

:: Presentation: “North Carolina Maps: From the 16th to the 21st Century”
Tuesday, October 20; 10:00 a.m.—11:00 a.m.
Location: State Archives Building, Room 308, 3rd Floor
View an online demonstration of some of our oldest and rarest maps and the ways we are preserving current geospatial data for legal, fiscal,analytical, and historic purposes.

:: Presentation: “The New Manuscript and Archives Reference System (MARS): Online Access to State Archives Records”
Wednesday, October 21; 10:00 a.m.—11:00 a.m.
Location: State Archives Building, Room 208, 2nd Floor
Many people now perform research from the convenience of the home laptop. What historic North Carolina documents are available through the Internet? The State Archives staff will present a hands-on demonstration of how to search the newly revised catalog to discover and locate the types of records in our collections. The new Web interface links to images of over 50,000 documents.

:: Presentation: “Managing and Accessing Your Digital Images”
Thursday, October 22; 10:00 a.m.—11:00 a.m.
Location: State Archives Building, Room 308, 3rd FloorState
Archives staff will demonstrate best practices for naming and retrieving your collections of digital photographs, documents, and otherimages.

For a fuller description of our activities and events, visit the North Carolina State Archives web site.

ICMJE Adopts Uniform Format for Financial Disclosures

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has adopted a uniform format for the disclosure of financial associations of authors. To date, different journals have had different reporting requirements, which has led to inconsistencies and confusion regarding potential conflicts of interest. The new form [PDF] is available on the ICMJE web site, as is a sample completed form [PDF].

Editorials announcing this new approach are being published by all journals that are members of the ICMJE. In this editorial, it is stated:

We ask authors to disclose 4 types of information. First, their associations with commercial entities that provided support for the work reported in the submitted manuscript (the time frame for disclosure in this section of the form is the life span of the work being reported). Second, their associations with commercial entities that could be viewed as having an interest in the general area of the submitted manuscript (the time frame for disclosure in this section is the 36 months before submission of the manuscript). Third, any similar financial associations involving their spouse or their children younger than 18 years of age. Fourth, nonfinancial associations that me be relevant to the submitted manuscript.

The ICMJE is also soliciting feedback about the new form until April 10, 2010, and is calling this interval a period of beta testing. The ICMJE will be meeting in late April 2010, and will make any needed changes at that time.

University Day at UNC: 1793 to 2009

Celebrated since 1877, University Day at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill commemorates the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the first building of the first state university, on October 12, 1793. Highlights of the 216th anniversary of this happy occasion include Chancellor Thorp's address to the university community and a keynote speech by Governor Beverly Perdue at the convocation held earlier today.

To learn more about the history of the university, there are a number of online resources that can be explored, including the following:

:: The Carolina Story: A Virtual Museum of the University

-- Medical and Health Education
-- Public Service and Professional Schools at Carolina
-- Teachers, Scholars, and Citizens: Distinguished Carolina Faculty
-- Names Across the Landscape

:: The First Century of the First State University

:: This Day in the History of the University of North Carolina

:: Virtual Tour of the University

-- HSL and Health Affairs Schools

:: History of the Health Sciences Library and Health Affairs Schools

:: UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health: Meeting the Public Health Challenges of the 21st Century

In addition, here a few selected publications that deal with various aspects of the history of Health Affairs at UNC:

:: Bettering the Health of the People: W. Reece Berryhill, the UNC School of Medicine, and the North Carolina Good Health Movement / by William W. McLendon, Floyd W. Denny Jr., William B. Blythe [2007]

:: Norma Berryhill Lectures: 1985-1999 / The School of Medicine, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ; edited by William W. McLendon, William B. Blythe, Floyd W. Denny, Jr. [2000]; volume two, containing lectures from 2000-2008, has recently been published.

:: Medical Education at Chapel Hill / by W. Reece Berryhill ... [et al.] [1979]

:: Memories & Reflections: Academic Medicine, 1936-2000 / John B. Graham [2002]

:: The School of Pharmacy of the University of North Carolina: A History / by Alice Noble [1961]
:: Dreaming of a Time: The School of Public Health: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939-1989 / by Robert Rodgers Korstad [1990]

:: The University of North Carolina School of Public Health Relates to the Needs of a Changing Society: A Selective and Interpretive Account with Emphasis on the Decade of the Sixties / by William Fred Mayes [1975]

Lastly, the HSL Special Collections web site features a variety of guides to research materials such as archival collections, digital collections, oral histories, etc. concerning the history of Health Affairs and the university as a whole. The library's online catalog also provides subject access to hundreds of resources on university history.

Note: The image above is from the Photographic Archives of the North Carolina Collection. It is a pen and ink sketch by John Pettigrew and depicts Old East circa 1797.

Duke Lecture Series: The Future of the Past, the Future of the Present

Duke University's Provost's Lecture Series takes as its theme for 2009-10 "The Future of the Past, the Future of the Present: The Historical Record in the Digital Age." Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh will be delivering the first lecture in the series, "A Report Card on Obama's Foreign Policy," on Tuesday, October 13, 5-6:30pm in Page Auditorium.

On October 26, Diana Taylor will be lecturing on "The Digital as Anti-Archive?" and on January 19, 2010, Lynn Hunt will speaking on "The Digital Revolution in the Humanities: Does It Create New Knowledge or Just Makes Us Work Harder?" Further information on the Provost's Lecture Series is available on the Duke web site.

Sheldon Lecture in Anatomy, History, and Society

All interested students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend the second annual George F. Sheldon Lecture in Anatomy, History, and Society on Monday, October 19, 2009 at 8:30am.

Dr. Sheldon himself will be delivering the lecture, which is entitled: "Anatomy, Medicine, and Social Policy." Dr. Sheldon is Zack D. Owens Distinguished Professor of Surgery at UNC, and was Chair of the Department of Surgery from 1984-2001. He is also the director of the Health Policy and Research Institute of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Editor-in-Chief of e-Facs.org, a web portal of ACS.

The lecture will be held on the UNC campus in Room G-202 of the the Medical Biomolecular Research Building (MBRB).

UNC Health Sciences Library Hosts Talk on Art and Medicine

The UNC Health Sciences Library will host a panel discussion on October 14, 2009 on the relationship between art and medicine. The talk, “Reflecting the Medical Sciences through Art,” is held in conjunction with “Learned in Science, Explored in Art,” an exhibit of paintings by Dr. Wolfgang Ritschel, professor emeritus at the University of Cincinnati. A painter and sculptor, Ritschel holds doctorates in medicine, pharmacology and philosophy, and a master’s degree in pharmacy. Several of his paintings and collages are on display on the 1st and 2nd floors of the library until December 31.

The talk will cover topics such as whether medicine is an art and a science; where art appears in the everyday lives of scientists; and whether a distinction should be made between “artist” and “scientist.”

The talk will take place from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on the library’s 2nd floor. Light refreshments will be served.

Panel discussion members are Terrence Holt, M.D., Ph.D., research assistant professor in the School of Medicine’s social medicine department, clinical assistant professor in the division of geriatric medicine and author of In the Valley of the Kings; Gretchen Case, Ph.D., visiting instructor in the medical school’s social medicine department, a Thompson Writing Program fellow at Duke University and adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine; and Ann Millett-Gallant, Ph.D., lecturer in UNC-Greensboro’s liberal studies program and art department and author of the forthcoming book The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art.

For more information and to see images of Ritschel’s art, visit the HSL web site. Health Sciences Library contact: Ginny Bunch, (919) 966-0943, gbunch@email.unc.edu

Countway Library Fellowships in the History of Medicine

The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine is pleased to offer two annual fellowships to support research in the history of medicine. The Francis A. Countway Library Fellowships in the History of Medicine provide stipends of up to $5,000 to support travel, lodging, and incidental expenses for a flexible period between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011. Besides conducting research, the fellow will submit a report on the results of his/her residency and may be asked to present a seminar or lecture at the Countway Library. The fellowship proposal should demonstrate that the Countway Library has resources central to the research topic. Preference will be given to applicants who live beyond commuting distance of the Countway. The application, outlining the proposed project (proposal should not exceed five pages), length of residence, materials to be consulted, and a budget with specific information on travel, lodging, and research expenses, should be submitted, along with a curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendation, by February 1, 2010. Applications should be sent to:

Countway Fellowships
Center for the History of Medicine
Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
10 Shattuck Street
Boston, MA 02115

The appointment will be announced by March 15, 2010.

The Boston Medical Library’s Abel Lawrence Peirson Fund provides support for the fellowship program. The Boston Medical Library is a physicians' non-profit organization, incorporated in 1877. Its mission is "to be a Library for the dissemination of medical knowledge, the promotion of medical education and scholarship, and the preservation and celebration of medical history, and thereby to advance the quality of health and healthcare of the people." Today there are over 300 fellows of the Boston Medical Library. In 1960, the Boston Medical Library entered into an agreement with the Harvard Medical School Library to combine staff, services, and collections into one modern biomedical facility. The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine opened in 1965 and ranks as one of the largest biomedical libraries in the world.

Background
Established in 1960 as a result of an alliance between the Boston Medical Library and the Harvard Medical Library, the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine is the largest academic medical library in the United States. The Countway Library maintains a collection of approximately 700,000 volumes. Its Center for the History of Medicine holds 250,000 books and journals published before 1920, including 802 incunabula. The department’s printed holdings include one of the most complete medical periodical collections, an extensive collection of European medical texts issued between the 15th and 20th centuries, and excellent holdings of pre-1800 English and pre-1900 American imprints. The book collection is strong in virtually every medical discipline and is particularly rich in popular medicine, medical education, public health, Judaica, and travel accounts written by physicians.

The Countway's collection of archives and manuscripts, approximately 20 million items, is the largest of its kind in the United States. The manuscript collection includes the personal and professional papers of many prominent American physicians, especially those who practiced and conducted research in the New England region, or who were associated with Harvard Medical School. The Countway Library also serves as the institutional archives for the Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and the Harvard School of Public Health. The printed, manuscript, and archives holdings are complemented by an extensive print and photograph collection and the collections of the Warren Anatomical Museum. Established in 1847, the museum houses an exceptional collection of medical artifacts, pathological specimens, anatomical models, and instruments.

Student Historical Essay Competition at MUSC

The Waring Library Society and the Waring Historical Library at the Medical University of South Carolina invite entries for the W. Curtis Worthington, Jr., Undergraduate and Graduate Research Papers Competition.

Rules and Guidelines
Deadline: April 30, 2010

Papers entered in the Competition should represent original research in the history of the health sciences. They may cover any historical period and any cultural tradition. Paper topics may include -- but are by no means limited to -- public health policy and the social context of disease and health; the construction of the medical profession and medical institutions; gender and medical theory or practice; learned medical practitioners as social, political, and economic agents; notions of the human body as the subject of health, disease, and therapeutic intervention; medicine and natural philosophy/science; medicine and the humanities; and the development of health science disciplines such as nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and allied health fields.

Entries may not have been published previously, nor be submitted more than once. A person may submit only one entry each year. The same person may not win first prize during two consecutive years. This competition is open to any degree-seeking individual attending an accredited college or university. Additionally, interns and residents in accredited programs are eligible in the graduate category. Entries must be not fewer than 2,500 words nor more than 5,000 words (not including notes and bibliography). Photographs or illustrations should be included whenever possible or appropriate. Manuscripts should be submitted as a Word document or as an unformatted ASCII-preferred document. Send completed application form as an attachment with your submission; do not include any personal identification information in the text of your submission. Entries must be received by April 30th in each contest year.

Winners agree to grant the Waring Historical Library and Waring Library Society both initial and subsequent publication rights in any manner or form without further compensation. Except as provided above, copyright ownership otherwise remains with the author.

One first prize of $1,500 will be awarded each year to the winner in each category: undergraduate and graduate. The winning papers will be published in the Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association, subject to the review and requirements of its editor.

The WLS Awards Committee reserves the right to not give any or all awards in a particular year.

For more information about this competition, please contact the Waring Historical Library at 843-792-2288 or waringhl@musc.edu.

October Is Archives Month

October is Archives Month, with a theme of "Celebrating the American Record" as designated by the Society of American Archivists, and October 19-25th is North Carolina Archives Week. Archives are essential to the historical record, and include a wide range of document types, including such things as letters, legal records, transcripts, photographs, reports, manuscripts, ephemera, artifacts, realia, tapes, and materials in electronic and other formats as well.

The University of North Carolina holds vast archival collections, and finding aids (or guides) to the collections can be found for a large number of these in the online catalog and on the Wilson Library web site. There is also a variety of Health Affairs-related collections, and the finding aids to many of these are accessible in the Archival Collections section of the Special Collections web site. Archival collections at the Health Sciences Library include the papers of the renowned medical illustrator, Dr. Frank Netter, and the internationally recognized water and sanitation researcher, Dr. Daniel Okun.

Many other institutions around the state, country, and world have significant archival holdings. The National Library of Medicine, for example, is highlighting its archival collections concerning Health Care Accessibility and Reform this month. The Library of Congress also has extensive archival collections for which finding aids are available online, and a number of these collections contain information on women's health and their involvement in the medical professions. The Library of Congress also maintains the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.

The National Records and Archives Administration (NARA) was established in 1934 and is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary; a photo gallery of its history as an institution is available online. Among the many millions of documents that it preserves are the Charters of Freedom: the Declaration of Independence; the Constitution of the United States; and the Bill of Rights. A sense of the scope of other holdings can be had from the online subject index. Although its holdings are vast, only an estimated 1-3% of government records are held by NARA, and of these records, only a fraction is available in electronic form. Agency-specific collections include, among many others: Records of the National Institutes of Health; Records of the Health Resources and Services Administration; Records of the Environmental Protection Agency; Records of the Food and Drug Administration; Records of the Public Health Service; and Records of the Indian Health Service.

The American Medical Association maintains historical archives, and information on their use is available online. Only AMA members have access to the archives, with the exception of the Historical Health Fraud Collection, which may be used by non-members on a fee-for-service basis. A descriptive summary of more than 50 collections is available for download.

In North Carolina, archives of interest include the North Carolina State Archives, Duke University Medical Center Archives, Wake Forest Medical Archives, and the History Collections at East Carolina University. The Society of North Carolina Archivists maintains a list of links to other archives in the state.

In addition, there are several other tools that can be helpful in conducting archival research, including ArchiveGrid and WorldCat, which are UNC e-resources, Repositories of Primary Sources, and the UNESCO Archives Portal, which provides access to collections around the world. The HSL Special Collections web site also features a guide to research resources.

The Society of American Archivists is currently conducting an online survey about how people use archives in the US, and welcomes responses by November 30, 2009. The SAA also has two informative guides online for those interested in learning more about donating either personal or organizational materials to collecting institutions: A Guide to Donating Your Personal or Family Papers to a Repository and A Guide to Donating Your Organizational Records to a Repository.

Health Care Reform and the White House

The White House has produced several videos on its Health Care Reform initiative, including the one above entitled, "Doctors Call for Health Reform," which features sound-bites from the White House gathering of physicians from all fifty states held on October 5, 2009. Additional information is available in the Health Care section of the The White House web site. The White House also maintains a YouTube channel with videos on a variety of topics.

New Mobile Options for UNC Libraries

Users of mobile phones, Blackberries, and similar devices now have access to UNC Library collections and services with two sites designed just for them:

-- Mobile UNC Library site
-- For Blackberry and plain-text

The mobile sites provide access to books, journals, research tools, and, of course, librarians in a format specially designed for on-the-go research.

Site features include mobile-friendly access to:

-- Library hours and contact information
-- Online catalog
-- IM and text connections to librarians
-- Research tools including the RefWorks bibliographic management program and the PubMed database from the National Library of Medicine

The Library is eager to receive feedback on the mobile sites. Contact Chad Haefele, Davis Library Reference Department, to ask questions or share suggestions.

The above post was from the UNC University Libraries blog, Library News and Events. For additional university mobile resources, see UNC Mobile, which offers its own mobile site to access such things as:

-- A searchable campus directory with quick dial and e-mail links
-- The NEXTBus bus tracking system
-- News from the main UNC page, GAA, the Medical School and OASIS
-- Events from the events.unc.edu and slice.unc.edu calendars
-- UNC's YouTube channel
-- UNC's iTunes U site (iPhone and iPod Touch only)
-- Alert Carolina with current campus status and links to emergency numbers

Bullitt Club Lecture on Home-Visiting by Health Professionals

The Bullitt History of Medicine Club will be meeting Monday, October 19, 2009 at the UNC Health Sciences Library in the 5th Floor Conference Room (527). Please join us from 12 to 1pm for light refreshments and lecture. Meetings are free and open to the public.

Dr. Janna Dieckmann, Clinical Associate Professor of Nursing, will be speaking on "Home-Visiting by Nurses, Physicians, and Physical Therapists in North Carolina, 1950-1965."

Dr. Dieckmann received her education at the College of Wooster (BA), Case Western Reserve University (BSN), and the University of Pennsylvania (MSN and PhD). She has been on the faculty at the UNC School of Nursing since 1998, and has taught previously at La Salle University, Villanova University, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Caring for the Chronically Ill: Philadelphia, 1945-1965, and in 2007 was awarded The Carolina Women’s Leadership Council Mentoring Award for Faculty-to-Faculty Mentoring at UNC. In addition, Dr. Dieckmann has extensive experience in clinical practice, particularly in community health.

For further information about the Bullitt Club, including the schedule for 2009-10 and mp3 recordings of past lectures, visit the organization's web site.