Enjoy a fun evening of learning to paint portraits with: PAINT WITH ARTIST NADER HADJEBI (GW CCAS BFA ‘98) DATE: THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021 TIME: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM ONLINE VIA ZOOM Join portraitist Nader Hadjebi for an interactive and informative session to learn the basics of creating a self-portrait. Nader is an accomplished artist who specializes in oil paint portraits that celebrate the complex realities of women of color.
Rediscover all the things that Rosslyn has to offer with this fun outside activity: ROSSLYN REFRESH DATE: MAY & JUNE 2021 Head over to Rosslyn just across the Key Bridge where there is an array of outdoor activities for you to enjoy!
Enjoy good and good friends while dining al fresco throughout the DMV: AL FRESCO DINING IN DC AND SURROUNDING AREAS From: Open Table Celebrate Mother’s Day or any special occasion this spring with outdoor dining on a beautiful patio or terrace around DC. Check out Open Table’s Al Fresco dining restaurants. Unless noted, outdoor tables are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Every few years, Himmelfarb Library reaches out to SMHS, GWSPH, and SON faculty members and asks them to complete a short survey about our journal collection. It’s that time again! Our 2021 Faculty Journal Survey is now available and waiting for you to provide valuable feedback.
By completing this short 10-minute survey, you can help us:
Determine the perceived value of of our journal collection
Identify faculty publishing preferences and journal usage habits
Prioritize potential titles to add to the collection in future years
We’ll use your anonymous responses to make decisions about our journal subscriptions and to ensure that our journal collection meets the research and teaching needs of SMHS, GWSPH, and SON faculty.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown quite a lot of the problems the health sciences community is facing into sharp relief. Questions of equity, access, and resource allocation have all had their turn. While science communication has been a concern throughout the pandemic, the announcement that everyone 16 and older in the United States is now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine has foregrounded the need to communicate efficiently and effectively with the general public. Drs. Emily Smith and Heather Young with the Milken School of Public Health have been working hard to communicate COVID-19 information to the general public since the beginning of the pandemic. I took this opportunity to speak with them about their experiences, and to ask their advice for how best to work with the public to combat misinformation and encourage those who might be vaccine hesitant to get vaccinated.
In early 2020, as the new SARS-CoV-2 virus spread around the globe, Dr. Smith noticed the questions her friends, family, and even strangers were posing on the internet. Often these were the same questions - what preventative measures can I take, what do I do if I or a family member think we have it, what is my risk, etc. Because the data and information were so new and this was a rapidly evolving situation, those without a health sciences background were encountering information that just wasn’t written for them. Even her fellow scientists were asking where information was coming from, since everything at this stage was coming from preprints and sourcing reliable numbers was vital. There was a clear need for someone to step in and help translate the science in a way anyone could understand, and to aggregate it into one central location that linked back to primary scientific literature. Thus, COVID-101.org was born. Dr. Smith and a few colleagues established the website as a resource they and their fellow science communicators could link to when asked these questions.
The backbone of COVID-101.org is its review process. Not only do scientists and experts write the articles answering questions and referencing primary scientific literature, their colleagues provide peer review before posting the articles. This is where Dr. Young comes in. Early on in the pandemic, Dr. Young gave a lecture to a group of medical students breaking down the basics of epidemiology. Dr. Smith had recently launched COVID-101.org, and sent out an email asking for contributions. Dr. Young adapted her lecture and submitted it, and she continued collaborating with the other volunteers working on COVID-101.org, both writing and reviewing posts. And that’s one of the key things to remember about COVID-101.org, that all of the contributors are volunteers. Everyone from epidemiologists to undergraduates to web developers, all are volunteering their time and talents. Both Drs. Smith and Young think of this as a silver lining - getting to connect with everyone working on the site, old colleagues and new.
As the pandemic progressed, Drs. Smith and Young saw the purpose of COVID-101.org shifting. In the early days, the site served as an aggregator, compiling information and responding to questions. Dr. Young recalls a specific pivotal moment in the evolution of the site: “When President Trump had his bleach injection moment, it was one of those times where five or six of us jumped on the Slack channel and were like ‘we have to get something out there, it has to be out there quick’... we kind of shifted gears from waiting for people to ask us stuff and decided that we needed to go put a message out there that we thought was important.” A little over a month later, COVID-101.org published a post on the social justice movement and why people may decide to protest during the pandemic, describing the “dual pandemic” of racial injustice and COVID-19. These two instances compelled COVID-101.org contributors to take a more active role in creating messaging and putting accurate information where the public could find it.
When they started working on COVID-101.org, neither Dr. Smith nor Dr. Young had extensive experience with science communication. Dr. Smith had some experience in her work with the Gates Foundation, translating scientific data and information for policy makers. Dr. Young, on the other hand, didn’t have any “formal” experience, though she believes teaching requires a similar mindset of distilling complex information in a way students can understand. I asked what they had learned through this process, and what advice they might have for others in the health sciences community who are trying to counter misinformation and, in particular, address vaccine hesitancy.
Both Dr. Smith and Dr. Young described two important things they’ve taken away from their work on COVID-101.org. First, you want to encourage people when they do ask a question. Let them know it’s a good thing that they have this question. Lead with that attitude, and people will be more receptive to your answer. Understand that the misinformation people encounter may have a kernel of truth in it. Acknowledge that, without dismissing their concerns or mocking whatever misinformation it is. As Dr. Young said, you have to “meet people where they are.” Have a conversation with them, rather than lecturing them. Frame the conversation as a way to equip them with information to come to their own decisions rather than convincing them one way or another. Second, you need to make your answer specific to a person’s life. Dr. Smith recalls one of the earliest posts on COVID-101.org:
One of the first posts we put out before things were shut down was “no you shouldn’t go to a large gathering.” And the questions we got in response were things like “Can I go to this concert?” or “Can I go to this game?” These follow up questions that, to me, should have already been answered by the post. But it wasn’t specific enough, and it wasn’t specific to their life. As a scientist it feels kind of duplicative or I worry that it’s too much the same, but I think that’s one of the valuable ways that we can add here and same for anyone trying to communicate with other people.
Dr. Emily Smith
Dr. Young echoed this, describing the need to “repeat and repackage” for individuals. Everyone is approaching risk assessment and the pandemic with their own lived experiences. If we can make our information relevant to their experiences, it makes it easier for them to incorporate that information into their lives. A recent concept introduced on COVID-101.org, the risk budget, can help people situate the information they are getting within the context of their own life.
Not all of our work combating misinformation or vaccine hesitancy occurs with people on the internet, however. Quite often friends and family members will come to those of us who work in the health sciences with their questions, seeing us as a trusted and valuable source. While the information you’re providing doesn’t change, having that pre-existing relationship with someone can make it easier to encourage them to think critically about the misinformation they’ve encountered. Dr. Young describes telling friends and family “Well, okay, maybe you don’t trust the scientists in the lab, but you trust me, right? And I’m not going to tell you to do something that I legitimately would think is harmful.” Dr. Smith also sees the opportunity to give people the facts “within the context of their life.” You know these people and can tailor your response in a way that makes sense to them.
So how do we best communicate with our friends, family, and even strangers? It’s a difficult line to walk, and one that is becoming increasingly important as access to the COVID-19 vaccine expands. The best thing you can do is prepare yourself with readily available resources. Of course, COVID-101.org is an excellent place to start. If you can’t find an answer to your question, you can always ask them. Himmelfarb Library has also put together a Correcting Misinformation with Patients Research Guide. It has tons of resources, information on communication techniques, and even specifically addresses vaccine hesitancy. The Conversation: Between Us, About Us video series from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Black Coalition Against COVID is a living video library and a phenomenal resource for the black community featuring answers from black scientists, black doctors, and black nurses. While The Conversation's target audience is the black community, the information is clearly communicated and could be useful to others. NIH’s Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) has some great resources focused on engaging communities most at risk. If you’re looking for continuing education (CE) opportunities, LearnToVaccinate.org has a number of CE activities related to patient communication. This is a pivotal moment for the health sciences community, and we as a whole need to be ready to answer questions empathetically and accurately. There has already been a great deal of progress and reason for optimism - over 50% of US adults have had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Armed with these resources, we can meet the general public and encourage everyone to get fully vaccinated. And hopefully we can harness the tools and lessons learned from the pandemic and apply those to other areas of science communication. The more informed the public is the more we are all empowered to make the right decisions for our health and the health of our communities.
As always, if you have any questions you can reach us via email at himmelfarb@gwu.edu. If you’re interested in volunteering on the COVID-101.org project, reach out via the Ask Us page on the site.
Himmelfarb Library extends congratulations to all the GW Research Showcase prize winners, and the residents and students who participated in this year’s event! Formerly GW Research Days, the Showcase highlights research and innovations across all GW disciplines. This year’s presentations were held via Zoom April 12th-14th.
If you participated and would like to provide a way for those who couldn’t Zoom in to see your poster/presentation, consider making it available in Himmelfarb’s Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC). The HSRC has a space dedicated to Research Days/Showcase content and will make presentations searchable not only within HSRC, but also in Google Scholar.
HSRC record of a 2017 GW Research Days poster
Depositing presentations in a searchable, open access archive helps you build a CV and easily share and promote your work. Posters and presented papers are great candidates for HSRC as they are often not published in other sources. If you have published posters, presentations, or research articles, it can still be advantageous to include them in HSRC. Many publishers allow pre-prints of works to be archived for sharing. Even if this is not allowed, having citations linking to your works in one centralized space provides a unified online CV where others can see all of your research activities and interests.
Information on how to contribute works to HSRC is in the Author FAQ. If you have additional questions, please contact Sara Hoover, Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian at shoover@gwu.edu.
As many of you know, tomorrow is Earth Day! This annual event is not only celebrated in the United states, but the entire world as we know it. What is it, and why does it matter to us? In the late sixties, Earth day was founded by peace activist John McConnell to honor the Earth and the concept of peace. The holiday was later sanctioned in a proclamation at the United Nations. Not even a month later, the United States joined in the notion by holding a nationwide environmental teach day on April 22nd. To this day, Earth Day continues to be a reminder of the critical role we play in preserving our planet.
What may seem like a light hearted concept actually requires a lot of work and effort to maintain. If you are like me, a human being who values their Netflix subscription, chips and salsa and outdoor trails at the local park, Earth day might be something to stop and think about.
Everything from the butter we spread on our toast, the shoes we wear, and the paper we write on consumes valuable resources from the planet. Not only do our daily requirements use up what the Earth has to offer at an alarming rate, but our plastics, vehicles, and chemicals continue to negatively impact our home.
Life on earth is part of a vulnerable cycle, and one that we are all a part of. The choices we make today, no matter how small, will reflect on us tomorrow. You would be surprised at what even the smallest changes to our habits can do for the environment. Do you have a poor track record of recycling? Or perhaps you are neglecting that trip to get your vehicle emissions tested. Never fear! There is no time like the present to change your mind. To assist, here are some ways you can help to celebrate Earth day not just today, but to make it a new healthy, and mindful habit.
A few ways you can help:
Conserve water: That might mean shortening those long showers to ten minutes or less and turn off your faucet while brushing your teeth; even an extra minute of being turned off can conserve gallons that would have gone down the drain otherwise.
Use reusable shopping bags: a one time purchase that is not only trendy, but durable as well. What if they were bought en masse, imagine just how much it would reduce the need for plastic bags as a whole. Ask yourself, how many plastic bags do you have lying around right now, and do you really need them?
Plant a tree! For as little as one dollar, you can plant a tree in a country of your choosing at https://onetreeplanted.org/
RECYCLE: Not sure what you can recycle? DC has put together a helpful list of what can be recycled and what belongs in the trash.
Give the gift of a cleaner Earth: 4ocean offers beautiful handmade bracelets for sale in exchange for one pound of trash to be cleared from our oceans. Proceeds also go to non profit organizations that are focused on maintaining our beautiful planet.
Meatless Mondays: Consuming less meat is a popular and effective way to help reduce climate change since meat production is a large producer of greenhouse gases.
Take a Walk or Bike Ride: If you need to run an errand and your destination is within walking or biking distance, resist the urge to drive. Walk or bike to your destination and reduce emissions while you get the added benefit of getting some exercise and some fresh air!
Financial donations or not, the most valuable donations we can make to the Earth is to offer our time, consideration and effort to keeping our own environment sustainable and free of pollution and waste.
TelemedInsights is a new online resource developed by Wolters Kluwer in collaboration with GW faculty from the School of Nursing and the School of Medicines and Health Sciences. TelemedInsights provides health care students and professionals access to interactive, self-paced learning modules offer up-to-date, evidence-based guidance to support the provision of quality, culturally competent patient care through telehealth technology. The modules are designed for clinicians in any field, with any level of experience and include:
Telehealth Primer: definitions and types, benefits and challenges, and future directions of telehealth
Patient Care via Telehealth: virtual visit preparation, conducting virtual visit, and conducting remote physical exam
Regulations, Reimbursements, and Ethical Issues in Telehealth: legal and regulatory issues, reimbursement, and ethical considerations in telehealth
Interprofessional Health Teams: team-based telehealth, communication among teams, and telehealth to facilitate innovation in interprofessional practices
Infrastructure and Organization: evaluation, selection and adoption of technologies, technical infrastructure, data management, and assessment of patient safety and quality of care
Mobile Health Technologies: remote monitoring, tools, and future directions
TelemedInsights is available to all GW affiliates. To access, login to the GW VPN with your GW NetID/password, then connect to TelemedInsights.
Would you like to learn how to create a complete and accurate Google Scholar profile to showcase your research? Or how to spot the distinguishing characteristics of a predatory publisher? Do you need to learn a simple method for switching the citation style of your publisher-bound manuscript?
Running from March 13th through April 15th, National Deaf History Month is a time to honor the contributions of deaf individuals and the deaf community and learn more about the ongoing advocacy work deaf organizations undertake in order to make the world accessible to deaf and hard of hearing individuals.
This awareness month runs through March and April because it recognizes three key, historical moments that impacted the deaf community. On March 13, 1988, the ‘Deaf President Now’ or DPN movement successfully campaigned for a deaf president to be installed at Gallaudet University. April 8 marks the anniversary of the founding of Gallaudet University, the only higher education institution for deaf and hard of hearing students. The university is named after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, an influential figure whose research and advocacy led to an improved educational system for deaf and hard of hearing children. Finally, April 15th commemorates the founding of the American School for the Deaf, one of the first public schools for deaf children.
National Deaf History Month is not a federally recognized holiday, yet many organizations and advocacy groups continue to lobby Congress for recognition. There have been improvements in deaf accessibility in and out of a classroom setting, yet many deaf individuals must navigate a world that frequently privileges hearing people.
There are countless ways hearing people can serve as allies to the deaf and hard of hearing community. First and most importantly, listen to the stories and experiences of deaf people. Deaf people have documented their experiences and should be the experts on how to help their community. Gallaudet University maintains a list of books related to deaf history and this is a great starting point to learn more about deaf history and culture. If you’re interested in learning about the deaf community’s relationship to the medical community, consider this 2020 article from Hour Detroit that profiles Dr. Philip Zazove, the third deaf person licensed to practice medicine within the United State. And pick up Dr. Zazove’s memoir, When the Phone Rings, My Bed Shakes: Memoirs of a Deaf Doctor, which is available for check out through a Consortium Loan Service request. And watch these two TEDtalks that feature deaf presenters:
You may consider taking a sign language course and learning more about the rules and nuances of this language. Check with your city’s library as many offer ASL courses to the public. Or check out ASL Connect, an online service from Gallaudet University, that offers basic ASL vocabulary videos and free online ASL lessons. Deaf rights advocacy groups are still working to make the world accessible for deaf and hard of hearing individuals and families. Explore the National Association of the Deaf’s website and learn more about ongoing civil rights issues facing deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Search for ways to ally with the deaf community as they fight for equity in education, healthcare and other important areas of their life.
April 15th marks the end of National Deaf History Month, yet we must continue to educate ourselves on the deaf community and the current barriers they face. If you’re interested in exploring the history of the deaf community, check out any of the resources linked in this article!
TEDx Talks. “I’m Deaf, but We Can Still Talk | Rebekah Afari | TEDxExeter.” YouTube, uploaded by TEDxTalks, 7 June 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3f_mENOQaE.
The American Library Association has declared April 4-10, 2021 National Library Week. This year’s theme is “Welcome to Your Library”.
The pandemic has challenged all kinds of libraries to adapt and find creative ways to reach and serve their users. Here at Himmelfarb we’ve made changes for both the small cohorts of students and staff who can still visit the physical library and those now using our services virtually only. We encourage you to continue to take advantage of these new adaptations!
Ross Hall Courtyard Pickup and Returns - You can schedule an appointment to both pick up and drop off Himmelfarb Library collection items and items borrowed through the Consortium Loan Service (CLS) via the Ross Hall Courtyard. This service is available to users who currently don’t have physical access to Himmelfarb. Learn the details here.
Shipping Service - For those who can’t come to Himmelfarb Library or the courtyard, there is limited shipping service to have items delivered or to return Himmelfarb collection or interlibrary loan items. Requesters are responsible for shipping costs and the service is not available to students out of town for a rotation or clerkship. Learn more here.
As always, our electronic resources are available to you 24x7 via the library website. Frequently used resources are in the Popular Resources box at top left, including links to PubMed, DynaMed, and top journals. Use our Research Guides to find trusted resources on topics including citation style, predatory journals, boards preparation, cultural competency, and researcher services.
We look forward to welcoming many of you back to our physical facility as soon as we can safely re-open to all our users!
We’ve promoted the Himmelfarb LibraryAsk Us chat on our blog before. But did you know that the Ask Us chat is not automated, it’s staffed by real people? Not only are we real people, but we’re all Himmelfarb employees in the Reference and Instruction department! You might have attended webinars we’ve hosted, had us embedded in your classes, or just seen us around on campus. We thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves, so you can get to know the people on the other end of the chat, answering your questions.
Paul Levett, Reference and Instructional Librarian, has been with Himmelfarb for 15 years. He enjoys getting literature review questions, and recalled this memorable interaction he had on chat:
In July 2020 I had an IM chat that turned into an hour long telephone conversation with a Doctoral student about her dissertation research. It was good to be able to educate her on what statistical and analytical tools were available online through Himmelfarb, the School of Medicine, and GW, to support her research.
Outside of work, Paul is an avid cyclist. He commutes to Foggy Bottom on an electric bike he converted from a pedal bike! If there’s one thing he wants our chat users to know, it’s that we can help connect you with our full text subscriptions.
Stacy Brody, Reference and Instructional Librarian, is one of our newest staff members. As of 3/16/2021, she’s been with us for about 55 weeks! Her favorite kinds of questions to get are about locating references. If the patron only has part of the citation, “it’s like detective work.” Her most memorable chat interactions have offered her opportunities to learn more about GW and the resources offered: “a patron asked about data storage and sharing options, which led me to learn more about the resources Himmelfarb, SMHS, SPH, and GWU offer!” When she’s not at work, you can find Stacy hiking, wine tasting, or sourdough baking. Stacy wants our patrons to know that even if you have a challenging question you should reach out via chat. We can always escalate from chat to a WebEx, phone call, or email, depending on what the question calls for!
Elaine Sullo, Associate Director for Reference and Instruction, has been with Himmelfarb for 14.5 years. Her favorite questions to get via chat are requests for the full text of an article. It’s instant gratification for a patron when we provide the article. During the pandemic, Elaine has gotten into acrylic pour painting, and that’s become her main hobby! She wants our patrons to know our reference team is here to help you with whatever you need.
Tom Harrod, Research Support Librarian, has been at Himmelfarb for over 10 years. While he doesn’t have a favorite type of question, he enjoys being able to get people the information they’re looking for quickly and accurately. Recently, Tom and his wife welcomed their first child! It’s been a major adjustment, but being able to spend more time with their daughter in the early months of her life has been wonderful. He wants our patrons to know that it’s always a real person on the other end of the chat, and never an automated service!
My name is Susan Koenig, Reference Specialist, and I have been with Himmelfarb for about 5 years now. I really enjoy questions that challenge me in some way - to locate a hard-to-find reference, suss out the particulars of a tricky search, that kind of thing. I have a number of memorable interactions from our chat service, but my most memorable are the ones where I develop a working relationship with the patron on the other end. For instance, I had a MPH student who reached out via chat, I helped her find some statistics and articles, and from then on whenever she needed help at the library she would reach out to me. I love that our chat service can help us build those relationships with our patrons. Outside of work, I spend a lot of time these days working on my Master of Science in Library Science. If I’m not working on schoolwork, you can find me hiking or leading (DMing) a Dungeons & Dragons game for a group of friends - we’ve been going for over 2 years now! If there’s one thing I want our patrons to know, it’s that we’re here for you. We know how stressful your programs can be, and we’re here to help. If we can’t fix the problem ourselves, we’ll do our best to figure out who can and connect you with them!
If you connect with us via chat in the evenings, you might have spoken with Samrawit Sisay, our evening Reference Specialist. Samrawit usually monitors chat under the “Himmelfarb Reference Desk” account, so if you see that moniker you’re most likely chatting with her. Samrawit has been with Himmelfarb for a year. Her favorite kinds of questions to get are finding articles a patron is having trouble searching for, because it’s satisfying to find the article and help the patron out. Her most memorable chat interaction was helping a new student learn to navigate Himmelfarb’s resources. Though it took some time, they were really grateful! When she’s not working, Samrawit enjoys crocheting and playing video games. She wants our patrons to know that she’s new to the Himmelfarb team and hopes our chat users can be patient with her as she is still learning everyday!
As always, if you have any questions you can reach out to us via our Ask Us chat service Monday through Thursday 8:30AM to 8PM EST and Friday 8:30AM to 5PM EST, or email us any time at himmelfarb@gwu.edu. We monitor the chat . We look forward to hearing from you!
