The end of 2022 is only a few days away and before the year ends, Himmelfarb Library staff would like to reflect and recognize the many accomplishments and positive changes that occurred during these twelve months.
In 2022, Himmelfarb Library welcomed a new library director and several new staff members. In the summer, Laura Abate was officially named the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library Director, filling that position after the retirement of Anne Linton. In the July 11th Himmelfarb Library News article, Laura stated that she is “excited to continue to rebuild and hone our collections, and want to explore new ways that we can support teaching and learning, research and scholarly publishing, and clinical care.” Along with a new director, Himmelfarb Library welcomed Rachel Brill (Reference and Instruction Librarian), Temitayo Wolff (Daytime Reference Specialist), Nat Curtin (Evening and Weekend Library Assistant), and most recently Deborah Wassertzug (Reference and Instruction Librarian) to the team!
Himmelfarb Library continues to meet the evolving needs of our users and in 2022 our collection expanded in exciting ways! During the summer, we acquired two Quest VR Headsets that were preloaded with the Medicalholodeck medical virtual reality platform. During the August orientation, students were able to test the VR headsets and both headsets are currently available for checkout.
The Serials department also restored access to 30 journals whose subscriptions were canceled in 2021. Thanks to the work of this department, Himmelfarb Library once again has access to journals such as Advances in Nutrition, Clinical Chemistry, Journal of Allied Health, Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs and more. Himmelfarb Library, Gelman Library and Burns Law Library also worked to secure a “transformative” agreement with Cambridge University Press. Per this agreement, GW authors are able waive article processing charges (APCs) when they publish their work in open access Cambridge journal titles, which will give authors the opportunity to share their research to a wider audience without significant financial burdens.
Himmelfarb Library now offers free 3D printing to our users. This policy went into effect during the summer and users may submit their printing request online.
Library staff developed several new research guides for the Himmelfarb community. Our Borrow from Other Libraries guide breakdowns the Consortium Loan Service, Documents2Go and how to acquire materials from other libraries. The Correcting Misinformation with Patients guide is a useful tool when engaging with patients and provides techniques to assist you during complex health conversations. The NIH Data Management & Sharing Plan (DMSP) guide discusses the new NIH Data Management plan that is scheduled to go into effect early 2023. The DMSP guide explains the new policy, how it will impact researchers and what researchers can do to ensure they comply with the policy.
Lastly, Read by QxMD is an application that allows users to stay up to date on current health sciences research. The app provides full text PDFs to research and users can curate their feed to receive up to date articles tailored to their specific research interests.By selecting GW as your institution’s affiliation on the app, users will have access to Himmelfarb’s full-text collection on their smart device. To learn more about any of the listed resources, please contact Himmelfarb Library at himmelfarb@gwu.edu or (202)-994-2850.
2022 also saw the return of the library’s Annual Art Show. The art show took place virtually and in person during the spring. Preparations for the 2023 art show will occur in a few months, but if you’d like to view the artwork from the 2022 show or any previous show, please visit the art show collection in the Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC).
The HSRC also reached its one millionth download recently! The repository shares GW authored research with readers around the country and new research is added on a monthly basis. Sara Hoover, Himmelfarb’s Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian, co-authored with Karen S. Kesten of the GW School of Nursing on the paper ‘Doctor of nursing practice scholarship dissemination through open access repository’ which discussed the Doctor of Nursing Practice collection in the HSRC.
As we wrap up this year and prepare for the winter break, we would like to extend our gratitude to all of our users. We look forward to returning in 2023 and offering more exciting resources and services to assist you with your information, research and education needs!
