If you’re a faculty member in the midst of fall semester preparations, consider using Himmelfarb’s Durable Link Service and let us create durable links your students can use to access their course readings on and off campus.
What is a durable link?
A durable link is a link that will provide reliable access to electronic reading materials, i.e. e-books, e-journals, articles, etc. Whether students access the resource while connected to GW’s network, via their home network, in a coffee shop, at the airport or any other location with internet, they’ll be able to open and read the material. If you’re worried about copyright issues when adding course materials as PDFs to your syllabus, then consider using the Durable Link Service
The Linking to Electronic Resources: Creating Durable Links libguide offers tips and quick tutorials on how to create your own durable links. If you know the article’s PMID, DOI, or an e-book’s ISBN or ISSN, then you can easily create a durable link for your course material. Or check out our Quick Tool where you can input the URL and create a proxy link that can be added to your syllabus or reading list. Worried that the link may be broken? Use the ‘Test Link’ button to ensure that the link works.
This quick tool allows you to create a new durable link from an existing URL.
The Durable Link Service is available throughout the year. Once you have your reading list or syllabus for your courses, feel free to use the libguide to create your durable links. If you’ve created your own links, but want someone to check that they’re not broken or if you’d like someone to create and add links to your syllabus, please contact a staff member at Himmelfarb library by sending an email to himmelfarb@gwu.edu. We’ll be happy to check any links you’ve already created or add new durable links to your syllabus!
After over a year of social distancing and virtual learning, we’re excited to see students, faculty and staff return to GWU's campus for in-person instruction! The university is committed to maintaining a safe environment for everyone and has released updated guidelines and requirements for in person instruction during the fall semester. As part of these new guidelines, the university has implemented a COVID-19 vaccination policy:
All students, faculty and staff members who wish to access any building on GW’s campus must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Once you’ve received your full dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, you must update the university by uploading your vaccination card onto the medical portal. A link to the medical portal is located here.
To upload your vaccination record to the portal, follow these short instructions:
Log onto the portal, enter your date of birth and you’ll be directed to the home page
On the left side menu, click ‘Medical Clearances’
Once you’ve reached the ‘Medical Clearances’ page, scroll until you see ‘Add COVID Vaccine Record’
Press ‘Update’ and upload a copy of your vaccination record
Note: Please upload the file as a JPEG. PDFs will not be accepted
Once you’re ready to upload, click the ‘Done’ button and your record is now in the portal!
The vaccination record must be uploaded by August 1st in order to receive clearance to access any GW buildings.
Doctor Rachel L. Levine is a physician and public health official who became the first openly transgender woman to be confirmed for federal office by the United States Senate in 2021. She currently serves as the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. In this role, she oversees the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, an office in charge of the nation's public health policy. Dr. Levine plays a key role in the nation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but she also hopes to tackle other major public health issues such as the current opioid crisis and the difficulties LGBTQ+ individuals face when searching for and receiving quality health care.
Born on October 28, 1957 in Wakefield, Massachusetts, Dr. Levine graduated from Harvard College in 1979 and received her M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1983. She completed her medical training in pediatrics at Mount Sinai Medical Center and she continued to practice medicine there until 1993. During her time with Mount Sinai, Dr. Levine focused on the connection between physical and mental health in children and young adults.
In 1993, she moved to Pennsylvania and served as a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine. She also founded Penn State Hershey Medical Center's Adolescent Medicine Division and Eating Disorder clinic and she served as the Chief of the Division for several years. She was nominated as Pennsylvania's Physician General in 2015 by Governor Tom Wolf. Her nomination was unanimously confirmed by the state's Senate. She served as the Physician General until 2018 when she was named the state's Secretary of Health. Dr. Levine tackled many public health crises during her tenure as Secretary of Health. One of her biggest initiatives focused on the high number of opioid overdoses. Under her leadership, she authorized law enforcement agents to carry the anti-overdose drug Naloxone that could be administered on the scene. This initiative also allowed Pennsylvanians to purchase Naloxone from a pharmacy without a prescription from a doctor.
Dr. Levine uses her expertise and voice to speak on health inequality issues that impact marginalized communities, such as the LGBTQ+ community. In an interview with ABC News Prime, Dr. Levine said "I am laser focused on my public health mission....That includes, of course, COVID-19, the increasing number of overdose deaths that we're seeing, health equity and many other programs that we need to work on and achieve in public health....I think it is very important to advocate for equality and health equity for the LGBTQ community." She has given countless talks that address her public health initiatives and ideas and has written articles on her research and experiences in the medical field. In 2017, she was named one of NBC News' #Pride30 for her work in addressing the health disparity the LGTBQ+ community faces and in 2015, she served as the Grand Marshal of the Philadelphia Pride Parade.
In a 2020 interview with Philadelphia magazine, Dr. Levine said "One of my goals, being a state health official--especially being the secretary of health during this very challenging time of a global pandemic--is that people will see me. They'll see me doing my work and doing the very best I can to protect the public health of everyone in Pennsylvania." The article's reporter, Emily Goulet, added "....it's about letting people put a face to something they might not understand, so that they aren't fearful, so that they don't get angry, so that it doesn't lead to hate."
If you're interested in learning more about Dr. Rachel L. Levine, check out the articles listed below or watch this brief ABC News Prime interview.
Want to read some of Dr. Levine's published work? Be sure to explore Himmelfarb Library's catalogue for articles, book chapters and books authored by Dr. Levine!
“Dr. Rachel Levine: Trans Youth ‘Need to Be Nurtured,’ Not Limited from Activities.” YouTube, uploaded by ABC News, 1 June 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WYsOe7wxTo.
Doctor David D. Ho is a Taiwanese-American physician and researcher whose work significantly impacted our understanding of HIV/AIDS and how to treat it. Born in Taiwan in 1952, Dr. Ho immigrated to the United States with his family when he was a child. He grew up in Los Angeles and after graduating from high school, enrolled in the California Institute of Technology. He graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology & Physics and attended Harvard Medical School where he earned his MD in 1978. It was during his internal medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center that Dr. Ho first encountered a patient exhibiting symptoms for a mysterious illness that would later be known as HIV. In a 2011 interview with Asian Scientist magazine, when asked how he became interested in researching HIV & AIDS, Dr. Ho said “I happened to be in the right place at the right time...I encountered a number of patients who presented with opportunistic infections suggesting that their immune system was impaired. It was a mystifying syndrome to doctors and scientists alike.”
Towards the end of the 1980s and as more individuals were diagnosed with HIV, Dr. Ho became the founding Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC). The center grew out of the partnership between the Aaron Diamond Foundation, the Department of Health of the City of New York, the Public Health Research Institute and New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Ho and his team of researchers studied HIV replication in vivo and eventually proved the management of HIV replication through the use of antiretroviral therapy. This was a major breakthrough in the fight against HIV/AIDS as patients diagnosed with HIV had a treatment option that allowed them to live their life without being afraid of the virus. Since this breakthrough, Dr. Ho and his lab continues their research and searches for ways to prevent the transmission of HIV, while also researching potential vaccines for HIV.
Dr. David D. Ho has received many honors and awards in recognition for his contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS. For his discovery of antiretroviral therapy, he was named Time's Person of the Year in 1996. In 2001, he was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by then President Bill Clinton. He was also inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2006. On December 1, 2020, World AIDS Day, Dr. Ho received the National Leadership Recognition Award from the National AIDS Memorial. Currently, he serves as the Clyde ‘56 and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and he continues his research while serving as the Director for the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center.
Dr. Ho has published countless articles on his research over the course of his career. If you’re interested in learning more about his work, explore the Himmelfarb catalogue for articles such as ‘Time to Hit HIV, Early and Hard’ or ‘Engineering multi-specific antibodies against HIV-1’ and much more. Check out his conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci during the 2020 Worlds AIDS Day National Conversation and his 2016 interview with TIME magazine.
References:
“Becoming American: The Chinese Experience . David Ho Bio | PBS.” PBS, www.pbs.org/becomingamerican/ap_pjourneys_bio3.html. Accessed 21 May 2021.
“David Ho Receives National Leadership Award from National AIDS Memorial.” Columbia University Irving Medical Center, www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/david-ho-receives-national-leadership-award-national-aids-memorial. Accessed 21 May 2021.
“Faculty - David Ho.” Columbia University Department of Microbiology & Immunology, microbiology.columbia.edu/faculty-david-ho. Accessed 21 May 2021.
Mo, Steven. “AIDS Research Pioneer David Ho Talks To Asian Scientist Magazine.” Asian Scientist Magazine, 11 Sept. 2014, www.asianscientist.com/2011/06/features/aids-research-pioneer-david-ho-da-i.
“Our Legacy.” Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC), www.adarc.cuimc.columbia.edu/about-us/our-legacy. Accessed 20 May 2021.
As we wrap up another school year, prepare for summer classes and the start of the 2021-2022 academic year, the Scholarly Communications Committee is here to help you answer your burning research and publishing questions! Our micro-lecture series video library now includes seven additional lectures that covers a range of topics related to scholarly research and publishing!
Do you want to learn more about an institutional repository (IR) and how to archive your research in an IR? Then watch Archiving Scholarship in an Institutional Repository (IR) where you’ll learn “how to archive items in the Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC), the institutional repository for the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Milkan Institute School of Public Health, and the School of Nursing.”
Are you curious about how editors critique manuscripts? In Screening: What do Editors Look For?Stacy Brody, the Reference and Instruction librarian, “breaks down the key criteria editors use, including novelty, significance, relevance, ethics and reporting, transparency and openness, and technical guidelines.”
Or you may be interested in collaborating with researchers, but aren’t sure where to look or where to begin. Well the Basics of Collaboration Tools in the Research Processlecture offers resources and tips on “how to find collaborators who can bring a fresh perspective and expand the impact of your research.” These are just three of the many short lectures available now in our Scholarly Communications Short Video Library! Be sure to watch all of the videos and explore our Scholarly Publishing libguide that offers additional resources and tips that will assist you with your research needs.
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.
Have you had a chance to watch the new video series from the Scholarly Communications Committee? Located on the Scholarly Publishing libguide, the new micro lecture series covers a range of topics related to scholarly publishing and promotion. One video titled The Researcher Profile Audit Service at the Himmelfarb Library, focuses on the new, free service offered by Himmelfarb Library to help faculty and staff manage their various researcher profiles.
If you're a researcher with profiles spread across different databases, such as ORCiD, Scopus or Google Scholar, then you may not have the time to maintain each individual profile. Having a good researcher profile will not only differentiate your work from others with a similar name, but it may also be a requirement for research funding. If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of time it takes to update your different profiles, then let us help you! The Researcher Profile Audit Service is available to students and faculty who are a part of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Public Health or the School of Nursing.
If you’re interested in learning more about this new service, please explore our Researcher Profile Audit Service guide or watch The Researcher Profile Audit Service at the Himmelfarb Library video. To sign up for the audit service, click the link at the bottom of the Researcher Profile Audit Service guide page and fill out the form. Someone will contact you in 2-3 business days.
Have questions about scholarly publishing outside of managing your researcher profiles? Then explore the library of videos from the Scholarly Communications Committee. Whether it’s setting up your Google Scholar account or learning more about predatory journals, our videos are here to help you navigate the publishing and communications landscape!
In an effort to remain accountable to communities who have been negatively impacted by past and present medical injustices, the staff at Himmelfarb Library is committed to the work of maintaining an anti-discriminatory practice. We will uplift and highlight diverse stories throughout the year, and not shy away from difficult conversations necessary for health sciences education. To help fulfill this mission, today's blog post will cover Mabel Keaton Staupers, R.N.
Mabel Keaton Staupers was an African-American nurse who, through her relentless advocacy, was successful in ending segregation practices in the military during World War II. She also worked within her community to provide African-Americans access to adequate healthcare within their neighborhoods. Born in Barbados in 1890, Staupers immigrated to the United States with her mother in 1903 and her father joined them several years later. They lived in New York City, but in 1917, Staupers studied at the Freedmen's Hospital School (which is now part of Howard University) in Washington DC where she earned her R.N. degree.
As a registered nurse, Staupers immediately began to work to meet the needs of the African-American communities in New York City and Washington D.C. Together with Dr. Louis T. Wright and Dr. James Wilson, she helped establish the Booker T. Washington Sanatorium in Harlem, which treated tuberculosis patients. She also performed a study on the health care needs of Harlem residents. This information eventually led to the creation of the Harlem Committee of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association, where she served as the organization’s first executive secretary for twelve years. Staupers advocacy work extended beyond issues that affected her neighborhood and into issues that impacted African-American nurses throughout the country. Staupers served as the Executive Secretary for the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), a professional organization for African-American nurses at the time. Though the NACGN was eventually dissolved in the 1960s when African-American nurses were allowed to enroll in national, state and local nursing organizations that previously excluded them, NACGN and Staupers played a role in addressing the concerns of Black nurses at the time.
Mabel Keaton Staupers continued her advocacy work and her efforts eventually led to the ending of a discriminatory practice within the military. During World War II, nurses were allowed to enroll in the military, but the Army and Navy set a quota for the number of African-American nurses who were allowed to enlist. Staupers organized a letter writing campaign that encouraged President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other political leaders to eliminate the quota policy for Black nurses. Staupers also met with the president’s wife, Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to bring awareness to her cause. The discriminatory policy was repealed in 1945 and Black nurses were allowed to freely enlist in the military.
Because of her advocacy work, in 1951, Mabel Keaton Staupers was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The award recognizes African-Americans who have significantly contributed to uplifting the needs of the African-American community. Staupers also documented her experiences with ending the discriminatory practices in the military in a book titled, No Time for Prejudice: A Story of the Integration of Negroes in Nursing in the United States. Staupers eventually returned to Washington DC, where she lived until her death in 1989 at the age of 99.
Mabel Keaton Staupers is an excellent example of using your knowledge and expertise to directly address the needs of your local community. Staupers understood that the medical needs of the African-American community was not being addressed by the broader medical community, but through collaboration and dedication to her cause, she not only provided medical care to her local community, but also fought against the discriminatory practices that prevented Black nurses from serving in their full capacity. Her story highlights the importance of uncovering your interests and seeing where those interests intersect with a need within your community. By working with others, you can greatly improve the conditions of your community. If you’re interested in learning more about Mabel Keaton Staupers, R.N. visit our catalog for articles relating to this important woman. And be sure to read her book, No Time for Prejudice, to hear about her experiences in her own words.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Mabel Keaton Staupers | American Nurse and Executive.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Feb. 2021, www.britannica.com/biography/Mabel-Keaton-Staupers.
“Mabel Keaton Staupers, R.N., 1890-.” Journal of the National Medical Association, vol. 61, no. 2, 1969, pp. 198–99, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2611696/?page=1.
The Himmelfarb Library’s Scholarly Communications Committee is pleased to present a series of short lectures that will answer common questions researchers may have! Running for 3-5 minutes, each video will address a specific topic ranging from predatory journals to preprints to changing citation styles and so much more. Below are the titles and brief descriptions for the first round of lectures:
Setting Up Your Google Scholar Profile: Taking control of your online researcher profiles is a great way to put your best foot forward online. One of the most important of those profiles is your Google Scholar author profile and in this video, I'll show you how to claim that profile and make sure it's accurate and complete.
From AMA to APA: Quickly Changing Citation Styles: Reformat the references in your manuscript for submission to a journal in just 5 minutes by using RefWorks Write-N-Cite for Word!
Tracking Citations with Scopus: Following article citations in Scopus can help you identify highly influential articles in a field as well as articles that you may have missed using traditional keyword searching. To that end, in this video we’ll briefly explore Scopus's unique citation tracking features.
The Researcher Audit Profile Service at the Himmelfarb Library: ORCiD. Scopus Author Profile. Publons. Google Scholar Profile.. Keeping up with your author profile in numerous systems can be a daunting task. In this brief video, you will learn about the Researcher Profile Audit Service designed to help researchers at GW maximize their use of these systems. An audit of your researcher profiles in prominent systems can help to differentiate you from other researchers, allow you to quickly demonstrate your impact for professional advancement, and help you to build a professional network.
The Clarivate Manuscript Matcher: The Clarivate Manuscript Matcher is a text prediction tool that can used by authors to identify potential journals to approach about publishing your manuscript. This short video introduction covers the essentials of how to register for an account and how to use the Clarivate Manuscript Matcher.
Preprint Servers: Balancing the Pros & Cons: Do you want to learn more about preprints and how they can help you share your research with others? Are you curious about how preprints differ from published scholarly articles? Then watch ‘Preprint Servers: Balancing the Pros and Cons,” a video from Himmelfarb Library’s Scholarly Communications Committee! In this video, we’ll briefly discuss what preprints are, some benefits of the preprint model and some challenges that may impact scholars and researchers.
How to Spot a Predatory Journal: Learn how to spot a predatory journal quickly and easily! This video focuses on the top five things to look for when identifying predatory journals.
In an effort to remain accountable to communities who have been negatively impacted by past and present medical injustices, the staff at Himmelfarb Library is committed to the work of maintaining an anti-discriminatory practice. We will uplift and highlight diverse stories throughout the year, and not shy away from difficult conversations necessary for health sciences education. To help fulfill this mission, this week’s blog post will cover Dr. Charles R. Drew.
Born June 3, 1904 in Washington DC, Charles Richard Drew was an African-American physician whose research and scholarship on blood banks had such a profound impact that we still feel the ramifications of his work decades after his death.
Though he grew up in a segregated city, the African-American community in Washington DC was filled with well-educated, civic-minded families. At an early age, Drew learned the importance of a formal education and engagement with your community which impacted his future medical career. While Drew was a great student, he was a far better athlete. After graduating from Dunbar High School in 1922, he attended Amherst College in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship, where he was an important member of the track and football teams. There are several factors that eventually led to Drew pursuing a career in the medical field. He credits his biology teacher, Otto Glaser, with helping him develop an interest in medicine and science. In 1920, his oldest sister, Elsie, died from complications from influenza and during his college years, he was severely injured and temporarily hospitalized. These experiences pushed him to learn more about medicine and were the foundations of him eventually becoming a physician.
After graduating from Amherst College in 1926, Drew worked for Morgan College (now Morgan State University) as an athletic director and instructor of biology and chemistry. He put aside money to help finance his medical school education. At the time, there were only a few medical institutions that allowed African-Americans to enroll in their programs. He applied to Howard University College of Medicine, but was denied admission. He was accepted into the medical program at Harvard, but the school wanted to defer his enrollment until the following year. Eventually, Drew moved to Canada and studied medicine at McGill University in Montreal. He graduated from the university in 1933 and completed his internship and surgical residency at Montreal General Hospital, where he would meet professor John Beattie, whose work on transfusion influenced Drew when he researched blood bank capabilities. In 1935, Drew returned to the United States to work for Howard University College of Medicine.
In 1940, Drew was tapped to direct the Blood for Britain project. At the time, Great Britain was under attacked by Germany and was in need of blood and plasma. Thanks to Drew’s research on ‘banking’ blood, he was knowledgeable on how to collect and safely store blood for later transfusion without the blood and fluids losing their effectiveness while outside the body. His work as the Blood for Britain project was so successful that he was later appointed as the assistant director of a national blood banking systems program. This program was jointly sponsored by the National Research Council and the American Red Cross.
Drew still faced discrimination and frustration within the medical community in regards to its treatment of the African-American community. He spoke out against the discriminatory practices that barred African-Americans from blood donation. Eventually the policy was amended, but African-American blood was kept separate from blood donated by white donors. Drew was also highly critical of the medical communities’ exclusion of Black physicians from national organizations, such as the American Medical Association.
Drew continued to work to uplift the education standards for Black physicians and remained an outspoken critic of discriminatory policies and practices within the medical community. He died on April 1, 1950 after sustaining serious injuries after a car accident. Though he died at a young age, Drew’s research would continue to have an impact on the medical community and would receive recognition and awards for decades to come. Throughout Washington DC and the country, there are buildings and landmarks that honor the late Dr. Charles Drew and his legacy.
This blog article serves to provide a brief glimpse into the life and research of Dr. Charles Drew. To learn more about this prolific figure or to read some of his research, check out the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s collection titled, The Charles R. Drew Papers, which feature photographs, scholarly research, personal letters and other artefacts from the doctor’s life. You can also browse Himmelfarb Library’s collection for articles related to Drew and his research.
