Edwin Gerhard Krebs [1918-2009], Nobel Laureate, Dies

Dr. Edwin G. Krebs, who shared the 1992 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology with Dr. Edmond H. Fischer "for their discoveries concerning reversible protein phosphorylation as a biological regulatory mechanism," died December 21, 2009. His death was reported in a New York Times obituary.

His Nobel Lecture on Protein Phosphorylation and Cellular Regulation as well as an autobiography is available on the Nobel web site. (Krebs is no relation to Hans Adolf Krebs [1900-1981], who won a Nobel Prize in 1953, for the discovery of the citric acid cycle, also known as the "Krebs cycle").

Student Essay Contest in North Carolina History

The North Carolina Museum of History is accepting entries for the 2010 Fourth Annual Student Essay Contest for undergraduate and graduate students. A prize of $200 will be awarded for the best research paper about North Carolina history. Judging will be based on historical accuracy, quality of written communication, and contribution to the field of local history. The winning essayist must be willing to present a lecture at noon on May 12, 2010, during History à la Carte, an informal lunchtime program held each month.

All contest submissions (including cover page) must be e-mailed as a Word or PDF attachment. Send submissions to contest coordinator, Rachel Dickens, at rachel.dickens@ncdcr.gov, by midnight on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010.

All papers must be 15 to 20 double-spaced pages (including footnotes and bibliography), prepared with 1-inch margins and typed in 12-point font. A cover page with the following information must be attached to the submission: title, student’s name, abstract of 100 to 150 words, college affiliation, educational status (undergraduate class year or graduate level), mailing address, phone number and e-mail address. The student’s name should not appear on the paper, as the essays will be judged through a double-blind review process by a panel of three judges in the history and public history fields.

For additional details, call Dickens at 919-807-7969. For more information about the N.C. Museum of History, call 919-807-7900.

Santa Is Ready To Ride!

Or so says a team of health care professionals at UNC Hospitals and School of Medicine that has given Santa Claus the thumbs-up for the rigors of heavy lifting and worldwide travel. Doctors involved in this thorough pre-holiday examination include Santa's personal physician, Tim Carey, MD; endocrinologist, John Buse, MD; cardiologist, Cam Patterson, MD; psychologist, Cynthia Bulik, PhD; and geneticist, James Evans, MD, PhD, who observes that "Santa is clearly a mutant." Dr. Bulik has been especially busy this season, and also offers up a psychoanalysis of the Grinch.

2009 Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Houpt

Dr. Jeffrey Houpt delivered the 2009 Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lecture entitled, "What We're Like When We're at Our Best and Today's Realities," on September 30, 2009. Dr. Houpt is Dean Emeritus of the UNC School of Medicine.

The two volumes of collected Norma Berryhill Lectures covering the period 1985-2008 have recently been made available online.

UNC Forum on Health Care Reform and Electronic Medical Records

The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and Accenture, LLC, are sponsoring the forum, Toward Health Care Reform through Electronic Medical Records, to discuss the use of electronic medical records and its impact on the the U.S. health care system.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 -- 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM (reception to follow)
Michael Hooker Research Center, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation Auditorium, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

Registration is available online.

Presenters include:

Jonathan Oberlander, PhD
Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Associate Professor of Social Medicine, UNC School of Medicine

Tim Carey, MD, MPH
Director of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine, UNC School of Medicine

Deniese M. Chaney, MPH
Partner, Accenture Health and Public Service

* * *
FREE PARKING will be available in the McCauley Deck beneath the FedEx Global Education Center on Pharmacy Lane off of McCauley St. near Pittsboro St. (Map/Directions).

Norma Berryhill Lectures: 1985-2008

The Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lectureship was established at the UNC School of Medicine in 1985 by its Dean, Stuart Bondurant, MD, to honor some of the School's most accomplished scientists and scholars. The lectureship serves to recognize Norma Berryhill, who with her husband Dr. Walter Reece Berryhill, made substantial contributions to the development and success of the School, which began its four-year curriculum in 1952. Mrs. Berryhill was herself the subject of the 1992 lecture delivered by Dr. George Johnson, Jr.

The lectures have twice been collected and published by the Medical Foundation of North Carolina, and to reach a broader audience, each volume has now been made available online, both by individual lecture (Volume I; Volume II) and as complete volumes in PDF (Volume I; Volume II). Each print volume is also held by various UNC Libraries (Volume 1; Volume 2).

:: Norma Berryhill Lectures: 1985-1999 / The School of Medicine, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; edited by Drs. William W. McLendon, William B. Blyth, and Floyd W. Denny, Jr. (Chapel Hill: Medical Foundation of North Carolina, Inc., 2000) [PDF of entire volume]

1985 :: Genetics at Chapel Hill: The Evolution of a Program of Graduate Education and Research
John B. Graham, MD, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Pathology

1986 :: Carolina: A Research University -- Genesis and Consequences
G. Philip Manire, PhD, Kenan Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

1987 :: The Growth and Development of Pediatrics in North Carolina and at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Floyd W. Denny Jr., MD, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics

1988 :: A Potpourri of Thoughts Concerning the Development of Scholars and Women Scientists
Mary Ellen Jones, PhD, Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Nutrition

1989 :: The Department of Surgery: A Historical Perspective
Colin G. Thomas Jr., MD, Byah Thomason Doxey-Sanford Doxey Professor of Surgery

1990 :: Carolina's Contributors to Nephrology
Carl W. Gottschalk, MD, Kenan Professor of Medicine and Physiology

1991 :: Esse Quam Videri: The Essence of the University and the Medical School
William B. Blythe, MD, Marion Covington Professor of Medicine

1992 :: Norma Connell Berryhill: A North Carolina Treasure
George Johnson Jr., MD, Roscoe Bennett Gray Cowper Professor of Surgery

1993 :: Lessons from an Epic
Stuart Bondurant, MD, Dean, School of Medicine, Professor of Medicine

1994 :: Basic Research in a Clinical Department
Judson J. Van Wyk, MD, Kenan Professor of Pediatrics

1995 :: The Magic Continues
Christopher C. Fordham III, MD, Chancellor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, School of Medicine

1996 :: The Leaven of Letters
Frank C. Wilson, MD, Kenan Professor of Orthopaedics and Chief Emeritus

1997 :: Chapel Hill Odyssey: On the Crew and at the Helm, 1965-1997
Joseph S. Pagano, MD, Director Emeritus, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Professor of Medicine and Microbiology

1998 :: From Morbid Anatomy to Pathogenomics: A Century of Pathology at UNC
Joe W. Grisham, MD, Kenan Professor and Chair Emeritus, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

1999 :: The Power of Community
P. Frederick Sparling, MD, J. Herbert Bate Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology

:: Norma Berryhill Lectures: Volume II, 2000-2008 / The School of Medicine, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; edited by Drs. William W. McLendon and Elizabeth Dreesen (Chapel Hill: Medical Foundation of North Carolina, Inc., 2009). [PDF of entire volume].

2000 :: The University, the School of Medicine, and the Department of Surgery in the 21st Century: Re-examining the Social Contract
George F. Sheldon, MD, Zack D. Owens Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery

2001 :: Carolina: Lighthouses on the Hill
Edward A. Norfleet, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology

2002 :: Fifty Years as a Bench Scientist
Oliver Smithies, MA, DPhil, Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

2003 :: The Observations of a Former Student: A Half-Century of Constancy and Change
Harold R. Roberts, MD, Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Medicine and of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

2004 :: Structure and Function: Developing Pulmonary Medicine at UNC
Philip A. Bromberg, MD, M.D. Bonner Professor in Pulmonary and Allied Diseases

2005 :: Medicine's Arrow, Medicine's Cycles
Joel E. Tepper, MD, Professor and Chair of Radiation Oncology

2006 :: Great Expectations: The Art of Graduate Medical Education at Chapel Hill
Robert C. Cefalo, MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynecology

2007 :: My Brief Sojourn at UNC: The First 40 Years and the Next
H. Shelton Earp III, MD, Lineberger Professor, Director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology

2008 :: Cystic Fibrosis: A Disease of Mucus Dehydration
Richard C. Boucher Jr., MD, William Rand Kenan Professor of Medicine

Note: A video of the 2009 Norma Berryhill Lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Houpt entitled, "What We're Like When We're at Our Best and Today's Realities," is also available online. Dr. Houpt is Dean Emeritus of the UNC School of Medicine.

A Gift of Books

What does a world-famous neurosurgeon get a prominent epidemiologist for the holidays? Well, if the year is 1915 and you are Dr. Harvey Cushing [1869-1939], then the gift of choice for Dr. Milton Rosenau [1869-1946] is a copy of the two-volume work, The Life of Edward Jenner, M.D. . . . with Illustrations of His Doctrines, and Selections from His Correspondence, by John Baron, M.D., F.R.S. Published in 1838, Cushing's presentation copy to Rosenau is among the holdings of Special Collections at the Health Sciences Library.

Pasted in on the bottom portion of the inside front cover of volume one is the following handwritten note on Cushing's letterhead from The Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston:

Dear Rosenau,

You and Jenner and John Baron will find each other congenial company
I trust. I present them to you with my sincere Christmas Greetings.

Yours,

Harvey Cushing

Dec. 25, 1915

The gift is a fitting one as Dr. Jenner [1749-1823] was of course a pioneer of the smallpox vaccine (see An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the variolae vaccinae . . . (1798); the print volume is housed in Special Collections), and his life story would have been both familiar and of great interest to Rosenau, who himself was the author of the first comprehensive public health text, Preventive Medicine and Hygiene (1913), and was the first head of Harvard's Department of Preventative Medicine and Epidemiology. Upon retiring in 1935, Rosenau came to the University of North Carolina, and served as Director of the Division of Public Health (1936-1939) and then as Dean of the newly created School of Public Health (for more information on the School's history, visit HSL's online exhibition).

Dr. Cushing's achievements as a surgeon and educator were many, and include the development of a variety of surgical techniques for the brain. He discovered the endocrinological basis for what is known as Cushing's Disease, and introduced the sphygmomanometer to North America, which greatly promoted the measurement of blood pressure as a vital sign. He was also a biographer in his own right, and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1926 for The Life of Sir William Osler.

150th Anniversary of the Birth of Doktoro Esperanto

Today is the 150th anniversary of the birthday of Dr. Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof, who was born in Bialystok, Poland on December 15, 1859 and died in 1917. He studied medicine in Moscow and Warsaw, and began his practice as an ophthalmologist in 1886 in Vienna. He was a gifted linguist as a young boy, and attempted to create a universal language while still a secondary student.

Esperanto was the name Zamenhof gave to this artificial language, and in 1887 he is said to have published the book, Lingvo internacia. Antaŭparolo kaj plena lernolibro (International Language. Foreword And Complete Textbook), but no record for this is present in WorldCat. Zamenhof used the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto, or "Doctor Hopeful," and though Esperanto has not achieved his goal of becoming a common language among the world's peoples and thus an instrument for improved global communications, it still has many thousands of adherents. The Universal Esperanto Association is the largest present day organization of Esperanto speakers, with members in over 100 countries. In 1907, Zamenhof was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by 12 members of the British Parliament for his work in creating Esperanto.

The earliest works by Zamenhof held in a library are apparently the German text, Internationale Sprache: Vorrede und vollständiges Lehrbuch, and the French text, Langue internationale, préface et manuel complet, both appearing in 1887. An early English translation of Zamenhof's work was published in 1889 as An Attempt Towards an International Language, by Dr. Esperanto. The translator was Henry Phillips, Jr., and the Rare Book Collection at UNC's Wilson Library has a presentation copy autographed by Phillips. An online edition of Esperanto (The Universal Language): The Student's Complete Text Book, Containing Full Grammar, Exercises, Conversations, Commercial Letters, and Two Vocabularies (1907) is available on the Internet Archive.

Note: In honor of Zamenhof's birthday, Google is flying the Esperanto flag on its search page (image above). Google does not yet offer Esperanto translation on its site, but does provide machine translation for many other languages. One such tool is the blog translator found in the righthand column of this blog, which will translate any of the postings found here into one's choice of several dozen languages.

Human Rights Day 2009

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually on December 10 to mark the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted in 1948. In her statement to commemorate the occasion, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay observed:

I would therefore like to encourage people everywhere--politicians, officials, business leaders, civil society, national human rights institutions, the media, religious leaders, teachers, students, and each and every individual--to honor Human Rights Day 2009 by embracing diversity and resolving to take concrete and lasting actions to help put an end to discrimination.

The Declaration was proclaimed through United Nations General Assembly Resolution 217 A (III) and has been translated into more than 300 languages and dialects. The English version is available here, while other versions are available via an online database. A guide to UN Human Rights documentation as well as various related UN databases are also accessible on the UN Human Rights web site.

Where the Bullitt Club Got Its Name

The namesake for the Bullitt History of Medicine Club is, of course, Dr. James Bell Bullitt [1874-1964]. Dr. Bullitt served as professor of pathology at the UNC School of Medicine from 1913-1947, and as shown in the photograph here, was fond of pipe-smoking and the whittler's craft, something he practiced often, particularly during meetings.

Dr. Bullitt was well known to Dr. John Graham, who first met him in 1939 while a second-year medical student at UNC. As UNC only had a two-year program at that time, Dr. Graham's medical degree was earned at Cornell University in 1942. He joined the faculty at UNC in 1946 as an instructor in pathology, and spent his entire illustrious career at the university, being instrumental in establishing a genetics curriculum which laid the groundwork for today's Carolina Center for Genome Sciences. Dr. Graham retired in 1985 as Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and was an internationally recognized expert in blood coagulation, genetics, and human population dynamics.

In 1985, Dr. Graham was also named the School of Medicine's first Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lecturer. (The Berryhill lectures have been compiled into two volumes; the first collection, covering 1985-1999, will be made available online shortly, and the second, covering 2000-2008, is now online).

In 2002, Dr. Graham published the book, Memories and Reflections: Academic Medicine, 1936-2000. It contains 29 fascinating essays, including two biographical pieces on Dr. Bullitt. Entitled James Bell Bullitt, M.D., 1874-1964: A University of North Carolina Giant and The James Bell Bullitt Enigma: A Case of Metaphorical Siamese Twins, these have been added to the Bullitt Club web site for those interested in learning more about the man who was referred to as "Gentleman Jim" and whose creed was mens sana in corpore sano (a sound mind in a sound body). His method of examining medical students' knowledge of histological slides was governed by strict rules and led to what Graham describes as "Bullitt-English." Exams lasted exactly 30 minutes, and no more than 50 words could be used to describe both tissue and diagnosis; anyone exceeding either limit risked an "F."

UNC Symposium on Public Information in a Digital World

The School of Information and Library Science (SILS) and School of Government (SOG) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) will hold a day-long symposium called "Preparing Stewards of Public Information in a Digital World" on January 15, 2010 from 8-5 in the Warren Jake Wicker Classroom of Knapp-Sanders Building on the UNC-CH campus. The symposium will include panel discussions and other interactive sessions related to lessons and strategies for professional preparation to engage in public information stewardship. Registration for the symposium costs $45 (or $25 for students) and can be done online.

The themes of the day will include persistent issues in the stewardship of electronic records; the "policy game" – what it is and how to play it successfully; advancing professional values through IT policies and systems; and professional education – context and strategies of SILS and the SOG at UNC.

The symposium is part of Educating Stewards of Public Information in the 21st Century (ESOPI-21), which is a three-year collaboration between SILS and the SOG at UNC-CH, sponsored by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

ESOPI-21 is based on the belief that the stewardship of public information is a fundamental responsibility of a democratic society. Public information (e.g. agency records, government publications, datasets) serves as evidence of governmental activities, decisions, and responsibilities at the local, county, state, and federal levels. Providing appropriate access to public information promotes accountability, rights of citizens, effective administration of policy, and social memory.

Digital Publishing at UNC Press

The program for the December meeting of the UNC Scholarly Communication Working Group will be "What's New with Digital Publishing at UNC Press." Dino Battista, Senior Director of Marketing at UNC Press, will describe some ongoing and new publishing programs at the press, such as ebooks, bringing out-of-print books back into print as print-on-demand titles, large-print editions, and audio books.

When: 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m., Thursday, December 10, 2009

Where: Room 214, Davis Library

The Scholarly Communication Working Group is sponsored by the Odum Institute. For more information about the group, visit their web site.

2010-11 Paul Klemperer Fellowship in the History of Medicine

Each year the New York Academy of Medicine offers the Paul Klemperer Fellowship in the History of Medicine. The Klemperer Fellowship supports research using the NYAM Library's resources for scholarly study of the history of medicine. It is intended specifically for a scholar in residence at the NYAM Library. To see a list of recent fellows, click here.

Each Klemperer fellow receives a stipend of $5,000 to support travel, lodging and incidental expenses for a flexible period between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011. Besides completing a research project, each fellow will be expected to make a public presentation at NYAM and submit a final report. We invite applications from anyone, regardless of citizenship, academic discipline, or academic status. Preference will be given to (1) those whose research will take advantage of resources that are uniquely available at NYAM, and (2) individuals in the early stages of their careers.

The selection committee, comprising prominent historians and medical humanities scholars, will choose the fellow from the pool of applications. These fellowships are awarded directly to the individual applicant and not to the institution where he or she may normally be employed. None of the fellowship money is to be used for institutional overhead.

Applications must be received by NYAM by Tuesday, March 2, 2010; candidates will be informed of the results by May 4, 2010.

Application forms and instructions are available online. Potential applicants for either fellowship are encouraged to visit the NYAM website to further acquaint themselves with NYAM and its library. When using the online catalog of the NYAM Library, please be aware that entries for a considerable portion of the collections have not yet been converted to electronic form.

Requests for application forms (for those unable to access the forms through the web) or further information should be addressed to:

Historical Collections
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
Email: history@nyam.org Telephone: 212-822-7313

Please tell others about our fellowships! Download and print a color flyer of this announcement in pdf format.

2010 McLendon-Thomas Award in the History of Medicine

The Bullitt History of Medicine Club is pleased to announce the 2010 McLendon-Thomas Award in the History of Medicine, which is open to all UNC-Chapel Hill students in the health sciences.

Purpose: To encourage interest and recognize scholarship in the history of medicine, the McLendon-Thomas Award in the History of Medicine, with a prize of $500, will be given annually for the best unpublished essay on an historical topic in the health sciences.

Eligibility: Any current medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing, public health, or allied health sciences student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may submit an essay. Prior winners are not eligible.

Format: The essay may address any aspect of the history of the health sciences and should be 3000-5000 words in length.

Judging: Faculty advisors of the Bullitt History of Medicine of Club will assemble a team of faculty members from various departments to judge the scholarship and quality of the submissions. The winner will be encouraged to present the essay at a program of the Bullitt Club.

Submissions: Entries must be submitted on or before April 1, 2010. Entries should be sent electronically via email attachment to Dr. Elizabeth Dreesen.

:: DR. WILLIAM W. MCLENDON served from 1973-1995 at UNC as Director of the Hospital Clinical Laboratories and as Professor and Vice-Chair of Pathology. Since his retirement in 1995 he has been Professor Emeritus of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. An MD graduate of UNC in 1956, he and Bob Whitlock (MD '57) were the student co-founders in 1954 of the Bullitt History of Medicine Club. Dr. McLendon is the co-author, along with the late Drs. William Blythe and Floyd Denny, of the recently published Bettering the Health of the People: W. Reece Berryhill, the UNC School of Medicine, and the North Carolina Good Health Movement.

:: DR. COLIN G. THOMAS, JR. joined the faculty of the UNC School of Medicine in 1952, and is currently Byah Thomason-Sanford Doxey Professor of Surgery. From 1966-1984 he served as Chair of the Department of Surgery, and from 1984-1989 as Chief of the Division of General Surgery. Dr. Thomas was one of the early faculty members of the Bullitt History of Medicine Club, and is the co-author, along with Mary Jane Kagarise, of the 1997 history, Legends and Legacies: A Look Inside: Four Decades of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1952-1993.

World AIDS Day 2009: Universal Access and Human Rights

World AIDS Day has been observed annually on December 1st since 1988 and has served to increase international awareness in the campaign against HIV and AIDS. More than 25 million people are estimated to have died from AIDS from 1981 to 2007, with over 30 million currently infected with HIV.

In his World AIDS Day message, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé stated:

“The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is Universal Access and Human Rights. For me, that means doing everything we can to support countries to reach their universal access goals for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support--all the while protecting and promoting human rights.”

Further information on UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, is available on its web site, including its most recent biannual report (2008) on the global AIDS epidemic.

At the University of North Carolina, a number of events are being held from November 30 to December 5 in recognition of World AIDS Day; for details, see the schedule online.

Bullitt Club Lecture on the Fear of Premature Burial

The Bullitt History of Medicine Club will be meeting Thursday, December 10, 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.

Chris Dibble, MD/PhD student at UNC, will be speaking on "The Dead Ringer: Medicine, Poe, and the Fear of Premature Burial."

Chris' presentation is based on his winning entry for the 2009 McLendon-Thomas Award in the History of Medicine, an essay competition sponsored by the Bullitt History of Medicine Club, which honors Dr. William McLendon and Dr. Colin Thomas, Jr. and recognizes scholarly excellence in the history of the health sciences.

The essay competition is now accepting submissions for the current academic year, and is open to all UNC-Chapel Hill students in the health sciences: medicine, pharmacy, public health, dentistry, nursing, and allied health sciences. The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2010. For further information, please see the competition guidelines.

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

Note: The image above is a 1848 daguerreotype in the photograph collection of the American Antiquarian Society.

Book Drive to Benefit Pediatric Cancer Patients at UNC

Children undergoing cancer treatment will find comfort in new books thanks to a book drive on the UNC campus Nov. 9 – Dec. 10.

Several UNC departments and organizations are sponsoring the drive on behalf of the Book Fairy, an organization that donates children’s books to the Pediatric Oncology Clinic at UNC Hospitals.

All new or gently-used books for ages one through mid-teen are welcome. The need is especially great for Spanish-language books at the preschool level and picture books or easy readers in English, said Book Fairy Kathy Humphries.

Campus drop-off locations are:

Davis Library lobby
Undergraduate Library lobby
Wilson Library lobby
Health Sciences Library
Law Library
School of Information and Library Science, Manning Hall lobby
School of Education, Peabody Hall Student Affairs Office lobby 1st floor
School of Social Work, Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building lobby

A list of suggested books is available online. The book drive is sponsored by the University Library Diversity Committee, the Health Sciences Library, the School of Information and Library Science, the School of Education, and the School of Social Work.

Friends of the Library will wrap up the drive by accepting donated books at the annual Winter Stories program on December 10 at 5 p.m. in the lobby of Wilson Library.

For information about the drive, contact Rebecca Vargha, librarian, Information and Library Science Library, (919) 962-8361.

Related Links
The Book Fairy
List of suggested books
Searchable campus map

UNC Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship

The Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship and the Introduction to Entrepreneurship course are both designed for UNC graduate students, doctoral candidates, post-docs, faculty and staff to complement their studies in traditional disciplines with an exploration of how entrepreneurship is changing their fields and learn how to conceive, plan and execute new commercial and nonprofit ventures.

Introduction to Entrepreneurship is an open-enrollment course open to any UNC graduate student, doctoral candidate, post-doc or faculty or staff member, regardless of whether they intend to pursue the full certificate. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. Students may choose an introductory course in one of three areas:

:: Artistic Entrepreneurship — creating for-profit and nonprofit ventures in any industry related to the arts, from music, film, gaming, performing arts, creative writing to graphic design, photography, and arts and crafts.

:: Scientific Entrepreneurship — entrepreneurship, technology transfer and venture creation related to any field of science.

:: Social Entrepreneurship — using social entrepreneurship to address social needs and launching new ventures with a social purpose.

The Graduate Certificate requires nine credit hours for completion, including the introductory course. It is offered in two sequences, Literacy and Enterprise Creation, based on students' interests and whether they intend to create a real business or nonprofit.

For more information, contact: Margaret Swanson, Graduate Certificate Registrar, (919) 962-2753, Margaret_Swanson@unc.edu.

Susan Dimock and the Company She Kept

Dr. Elizabeth Barthold Dreesen, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at UNC-CH, will be presenting a James A. Hutchins Lecture on "Susan Dimock and the Company She Kept," on Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 4:00pm - 5:30pm in the Royall Room at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on the UNC Campus. The Hutchins Lecture series is sponsored by the Center for the Study of the American South.

Washington, North Carolina native Susan Dimock became the first woman member of the North Carolina Medical Society in 1872. When she died three years later at age 28, she was already a well-respected surgeon, author and medical educator. She merited a New York Times obituary and pallbearers drawn from the luminaries of Harvard Medical School.

Dimock's life was one of liminality--a Southerner who moved to Massachusetts in the middle of the Civil War, an American student in a Swiss medical school, a woman surgeon in orthodox male medicine. Dreesen's exploration of Dimock's life sheds light on women's education in antebellum North Carolina, the entry of women into medicine, and the rise of nursing education, public health, and anti-sepsis procedures.

Note: Additional information on Dimock, as well as her dissertation on puerperal fever, written in German, is available online as part of the International Theses Collection at the UNC Health Sciences Library.

For further information on the event, contact Lisa Beavers (919-962-0503) at the Center for the Study of the American South.

The Carolina Challenge 2010: Connect, Create, Launch

To foster social and commercial entrepreneurship at the university, UNC sponsors the annual Carolina Challenge, which on November 17, 2009 will begin holding preparatory sessions leading to entry in the 2010 competition (see 2009-10 schedule).

The Carolina Challenge is an innovative venture competition, and last year medically-related projects took the winning and runner-up prizes (large cash awards) in both the social and commercial entrepreneurship tracks. Rules, FAQs, and contact information are provided on the Carolina Challenge web site.

Medieval Help Desk, or The More Things Change . . .

Originally broadcast in 2001 on Norwegian television, "Medieval Help Desk" was a skit from the show "Øystein og jeg" that has subsequently been viewed several million times on YouTube. The piece is credited to Knut Nærum, and features Øystein Backe as the assistant and Rune Gokstad as the monk. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

The MacKinney Collection of Medieval Medical Illustrations

Dr. Loren C. MacKinney [1891-1963] was a professor of medieval history who specialized in medieval medical history. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1925, and joined the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty in 1930. "Recognized internationally as an outstanding authority in the history of medicine, particularly for his studies of pre-Renaissance illuminated medical manuscripts, it has been said Dr. MacKinney has set medical history forward at least 150 years," observed The Bulletin of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in 1957.

MacKinney authored several books, including Early Medieval Medicine (1937), The Medieval World (1938), Bishop Fulbert and Education at the School of Chartres (1957), Medical Illustrations in Medieval Manuscripts (1965), and numerous articles on medical themes. A key part of his research was the photographic documentation of medieval medical illustrations that he studied during research trips to libraries and archives around the world. MacKinney predominantly used Ektachrome slide film, which is significantly more prone to deterioration than Kodachrome, and during his life MacKinney expressed concerns about the preservation of his unique collection.

Professor Michael McVaugh, a medievalist who joined the UNC History Department in 1964, was instrumental in the safekeeping and eventual digitization of MacKinney's collection. A master set of slides was transferred to the National Library of Medicine, and a duplicate set was maintained at UNC. In 2007, the slides at UNC--which number over 1000--were digitized and now form the MacKinney Collection of Medieval Medical Illustrations.

Further information about MacKinney himself and the processing of the collection is also available online. The collection is keyword searchable and can be browsed in its entirety. A finding aid for the collection is also available online, which describes MacKinney's archives of microfilm and photostats; subject files and research notes; and glass negatives.

Note: The image above is from the MacKinney Collection; it depicts a cesarian delivery and dates from the 14th century, with text in Arabic.

Research Fellowships for the History of Women in Medicine at Countway Library

The Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine is pleased to offer two fellowships to support research related to the history of women in medicine at the Countway Library's Center for the History of Medicine and its Archives for Women in Medicine.

The Foundation will provide two $2000 grants to support travel, lodging, and incidental expenses for a flexible period between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011. In return, the Foundation requests a one page report and a copy of the final product as well as the ability to post excerpts from the paper/project, as well as a photo and bio of the Fellow on its website.

Foundation Fellowships are offered for research related to the history of women in medicine. Preference will be given to projects that deal specifically with women physicians or other health workers or medical scientists, but proposals dealing with the history of women’s health issues may also be considered.

The fellowship proposal should demonstrate that the Countway Library has resources central to the research topic. Preference will also be given to those who are using collections from the Archives for Women in Medicine, but research on the topic of women in medicine using other material from the Countway Library will be considered. Preference will be given to applicants who live beyond commuting distance of the Countway, but all are encouraged to apply, including graduate students.

Applicants should submit a proposal (no more than two pages) outlining the subject and objectives of the research project, length of residence, historical materials to be used, and a project budget (including travel, lodging, and research expenses), along with a curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendations by March 1st, 2010. The decision should be made by May 1st, 2010.

Applications should be submitted to:

Foundation Research Fellowships
Archives for Women in Medicine
Center for the History of Medicine
Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
10 Shattuck Street
Boston, MA 02115

Guide to State Legislation on Comprehensive Health Care Coverage

The Law Library of Congress has prepared a guide to state legislation on comprehensive health care coverage for the four states that have attempted to cover all residents or those without insurance. Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont have each taken different approaches, and the guide offers background information as well as citations to relevant statutes for the extent of coverage, employer and individual contributions, benefits assistance, and exemptions. Hawaii was the first state to offer near universal coverage with the passage of the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act in 1974, which was implemented the following year. Hawaii requires most employers to offer insurance, while Massachusetts requires most individuals to obtain some coverage. Maine and Vermont partner with the private sector, and subsidize coverage for low-income individuals.

An important related resource from the Library of Congress is Thomas (named after Jefferson), which is a comprehensive digital collection for federal legislation, including the current health care reform bills in the House of Representatives and Senate. Thomas also offers the Congressional Record as well as the full-text of bills, resolutions, presidential nominations, treaties, committee reports, and other government resources; an online guide describes the various resources available and how to search them effectively.

Health, Harmony, and Balance: American Indian Concepts of Health and Wellness

As part of American Indian Heritage Month, the UNC American Indian Center and Health Sciences Library invite you to join in a discussion featuring Dr. Clara Sue Kidwell, Director of the UNC American Indian Center, regarding traditional and contemporary concepts of American Indian health and wellness practices. Entitled "Health, Harmony, and Balance: American Indian Concepts of Health and Wellness," the event will be held on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 in Room 527 of the Health Sciences Library. An informal discussion and light refreshments will begin at 3:30pm and the presentation will follow at 4:00pm.

A schedule of other events at UNC during American Indian Heritage Month is available on the American Indian Center web site. Governor Beverly Perdue's proclamation is also online.

Public Service Announcement for NC Health Info

Designed to meet the needs and interests of North Carolinians, NC Health Info is an online guide to thousands of web sites of quality health and medical information and local health services throughout North Carolina. It was also the first resource of its kind to link local health information with corresponding information from MedlinePlus, the consumer health site maintained by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

NC Health Info informational flyers in English and Spanish are available in the "Community" section of the UNC Health Science Library's online exhibition on public health.

NC Health Info is created, housed, and maintained by the project staff at the UNC Health Sciences Library, and is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

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.