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The Himmelfarb Search box is front and center on the Library’s home page, beckoning users to search here! Have you wondered what it is you’re actually searching when you use the Search Box? Or how you can get the most out of it? Here’s some answers and tips.

Himmelfarb Search Box

What Am I Searching?

The Himmelfarb Search Box is a comprehensive discovery tool for the library’s resources. It includes most of the library’s subscription content (journals and articles and online books) as well as records for the library’s physical collections (print books and journals, equipment, and physical media like DVDs).

But that’s not all. By switching the selection with the down arrow on the right side of the search box, you can change what you’re searching to just article content, just online content, or you can select to search the contents of all the libraries in the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC). Select Articles + GW & Consortium Catalog to include books and media at the other WRLC libraries, like Georgetown, American, and Howard.

Himmelfarb Search box search selections

How Do I Improve My Search Results?

The Search Box includes a lot of content.  It uses relevancy ranking, like Google, to try to bring the best search results to the top of the results page. But sometimes it needs a little help and guidance. You can help narrow results to the most relevant by using the Refine Results options on the left side of the search results page.

Refine results in Himmelfarb Search Box

You can narrow the date range of results, look for results using a particular subject heading, or look for things in a particular collection (for example, select CINAHL Complete to narrow to nursing-focused results), or select books or dissertations or Newspaper articles with Content Type.

Other tips for improving results is to use advanced search to search for multiple concepts at once or search a specific field like title or author. Click on Advanced Search next to the Search Box.

Advanced search button in Himmelfarb Search Box
Advanced search in Himmelfarb Search Box

Or use the Journal search option on the top menu if searching for a specific journal title.

Journal search in Himmelfarb Search Box

I Found What I Want, Now How Do I Get It?

In the results view, anything that has a green Available Online link has full-text available by clicking on the link or clicking the title to see the full record and selecting a specific online source in View Online. For many article results, you may also see a Download PDF link that allows you to directly download a PDF. For the most efficient linking to online content, see our Finding Full-Text Content Made Easy! tips.

Full-text linking options in Himmelfarb Search Box

For items like physical books, you can check the status of items on the shelves at Himmelfarb by looking at the How to Get It section of the full record displayed when you click the title in the results. If you can’t physically come into the library to get the item, you can use our courtyard pickup and delivery services. If the book you want is at Gelman or one of the WRLC libraries, click the Sign In option then scroll to the Get It area to find the Consortium Loan Service (CLS) request form; this will request delivery of the item from the owning library to Himmelfarb or the VSTC Library in Ashburn.

Sign in for CLS in full-text record in Himmelfarb Search Box
Links for CLS and Docs2Go in Himmelfarb Search Box

For articles for which there is no Available Online link, you can use the Docs2Go form which is also an option under Get It. A Docs2Go request will order a scan of the item from another library through our interlibrary loan services.

I Can’t Find What I Want, or I Just Need Help - What Do I Do Now?

Use our Ask Us Chat service to get help from a librarian. The Ask Us service is embedded in the Search tool in a blue tab on the right side of the screen. The Chat is staffed Monday through Thursday 8:30am-8pm and Friday 8:30am-5pm.  Or email a librarian or text us at 202-601-3525.

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This Monday, July 26, 2021, marked the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This landmark legislation literally and figuratively opened the doors for millions of Americans with disabilities to equal access to jobs, education, transportation, and recreation. While we are often reminded of physical access in the form of providing ramps for wheelchairs, accessible seating in theaters, provisions for service animals in stores and public transportation, and interpreters for the hearing impaired, just as important are accessibility initiatives in the online world. 

GW has a Digital Accessibility policy and trainings to enable those who provide web services and other online resources to ensure that content is accessible and usable to everyone in the University community. These policies are centered around WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards; among them are making color contrast strong enough to be perceived, ensuring that fonts are of sufficient size and readability, providing alt-text for images, and providing for assistive technologies that allow navigation of a website by voice. 

Recently the library’s search service, Health Information @ Himmelfarb, began providing a voice search component. Use the microphone icon next to the search bar to enable voice search.

Himmelfarb Library is committed to providing accessible resources keeping POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) in mind. If you have questions or comments about accessibility and Himmelfarb Library, contact us at himmelfarb@gwu.edu.

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Reflecting GW’s return to campus and our physical facilities, the default search scope on Himmelfarb Library’s search box is changing. Instead of Online Access only, the default search setting will now include Himmelfarb Library’s physical collections.  Search results will include print books, print journals, physical multimedia like DVDs, and equipment for loan, as well as electronic materials.

If you prefer to continue to search only online collections, you can opt to change the scope to Online Access by clicking the down arrow to the right and then selecting Online Access.

Other available search scopes are Articles only, the Himmelfarb Catalog (does not include articles), or Articles + GW & Consortium Catalog.  The last option includes materials from all of the Washington Research Library Consortium members and all of GW’s libraries. Physical materials from these libraries can be borrowed via the Consortium Loan Service. Sign into Health Information @ Himmelfarb to see Consortium Loan Service requesting options.

If you cannot come physically into Himmelfarb Library there are still pickup and shipping options available.  Visit our Courtyard Request and Shipping Request services pages for details.

Need assistance with searching Health Information @ Himmelfarb? Contact our Information Desk staff at (202) 994-2850, himmelfarb@gwu.edu or Chat Us!

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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.

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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.

Extended Reserves Loans - All reserve books are currently available for a one week check out period. Find reserves supporting the MD program here and reserves supporting Public Health programs here.

Ask a Librarian - Got a question or a research need? Get help immediately through our chat services. When you chat Ask a Librarian you are always “speaking” with a member of Himmelfarb Library’s reference and instruction team!

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!

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Network maintenance activities planned for this Saturday, April 3rd, 6-8am ET may cause brief disruptions in access to library electronic resources. 

Further web services maintenance also planned for Saturday the 3rd, 10 to 11am ET may  impact user’s ability to sign into Health Information @ Himmelfarb, the library’s catalog.  Searching and linking to full-text should not be affected, but users may not be able to sign in for Consortium Loan Services requesting and library account services during a short window. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please contact us through our chat services or email himmelfarb@gwu.edu with any questions or concerns.

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Clara Bliss Hinds
Clara Bliss Hinds with the Columbian University School of Medicine Class of 1887

Clara Bliss Hinds Finley, MD was a lifelong resident of Washington,DC. Her father, Doctor Willard Bliss, served as an army surgeon in the Civil War and later ran the Armory Square Hospital.1 He is remembered for his bungled treatment of President Garfield’s gunshot wound suffered in an assassination attempt in 1881. Bliss rejected the new field of antiseptic medicine and Garfield died of septic infection after two months of repeated probing for the bullet with unsterilized hands and instruments.2

Clara was the second of Bliss’s four children and was described as an 1870’s era debutante in Washington.3  She married Jerome Hinds and they had a daughter named Bliss who would become a suffragist fundraiser and organizer.4  Clara sued for divorce after Hinds abandoned them. As a single mother in her 30s she pursued admittance to a medical school in order to support herself and her child. “A degree would mean bread and butter to me.” she told a Washington Post reporter in 1934.3

It was a hard road for 19th century women who aspired to be physicians. Few schools would admit them and it took influence and persistence to break down those barriers. Clara received support from another woman physician who helped blaze the trail before her.

“Repeated seeking for admission into D.C. medical schools brought many rebuffs, but she was given inspiration and encouragement by Dr. Mary Parsons, one of the few successful women physicians in the country at that time...”3

Dr. Parsons graduated from medical school at Howard University in 1874. When she graduated the Medical Society of the District of Columbia refused to grant her a medical license. She petitioned Congress to amend the Society’s charter to license women. The bill passed in 1875 but the Society and the AMA continued to refuse her membership for three more years. In 1878, as support for females doctors was growing, medical societies started admitting women members and granting consultation privileges.5 

Clara and four other women were admitted to the Columbian University Medical School, now George Washington University School of Medicine in 1884. Of medical school, she recalled,

“They were grinding years...Competing in what was then regarded as purely man’s work, we were doing what no woman had done in the school before us. We asked no favors, and would receive none”3

Clara was the first of the women to graduate with fifty male colleagues in 1887. She and the other women who completed the program were not given opportunities for internships or residencies. Fortunately, Clara met Dr. Ida Heiberger who graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia and did post graduate work in Europe. Together they established the Washington Women’s Clinic in 1891 at 13th and T Streets and this is where Dr. Bliss got her clinical training along with other women physicians. The clinic served indigent women and children. Clinic hours were in the evenings so working women would not have to give up a day’s wages to get care.6 The Clinic later moved to 4704 Georgia Avenue, NW and operated for 60 years. 

Dr. Bliss established a successful private practice and published research on children’s growth patterns. She was a proponent of women’s physical fitness, establishing the first gymnasium for women in DC where they could remove their corsets and other constricting clothing of the day and move freely. Serving as the gym’s medical director helped to supplement her income.7 

Clara married again in 1894 to Henry Jennings Finley, a Washington, DC attorney. That year she and a group of other prominent women founded the Business Women’s Club of Washington DC.4  Her involvement in professional societies and how they aided her education and career is the focus of a paper currently being researched by a group at SMHS including Dr. Kirsten Brown, Professor of Anatomy, Dr. Victoria Shanmugam, Director of the George Washington University Division of Rheumatology, Dr. Nadine Mbuyi, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Sara Hoover, Himmelfarb Library’s Scholarly Communications and Metadata Librarian.

Dr. Bliss died in 1940 and is buried in Rockville Cemetery alongside Henry and her daughter Bliss.8

Today Dr. Bliss is honored as the namesake of the  Clara Bliss Hinds Society for Women in Medicine and Science at GW. The group oversees programs that help to support women faculty including regular meetings and an Annual Women in Leadership Event. On April 14th the Society will host a program on Achieving Gender Equity in Compensation and Career Advancement via Webex from 5-6pm.

To learn more about women pioneers in medicine in the DC area, check out Women Doctors in Gilded Age Washington: Race, Gender, and Professionalization, available in Himmelfarb’s circulating book collection.

References

1. Doctor Willard Bliss, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Willard_Bliss

2. Murder of a President, Who’s Who. American Experience (website), PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/garfield-whoswho/

3. Butler M. First Woman M.D. Here Fought Pioneer Battle Dr. Bliss Recalls Those Grinding Years When She Was Trying to Gain Admission to Medical School and, Afterward, to Get Established, The Washington Post, June 6, 1934.  http://edwinwashingtonproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Heiberger_Ida-Bio.pdf

4. Hammond W and LaBrie A. Biographical Sketch of Bliss Finley, 1881-1970. Biographical Database of Militant Woman Suffragists, 1913-1920. Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Press, 2015. https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1008297916

5. Mary Almera Parsons, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Almera_Parsons

6. Hildebrand JR. Woman’s Clinic Has Blazed Path for Medical School for Women Physicians. The Washington Times Home Edition, August 19,1914. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1914-08-19/ed-2/seq-8/

7. Creese, MRS. Clara Bliss Hinds. Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of their Contributions to Research. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998. p. 166

8. Dr. Clara Bliss Finley, Find a Grave (website), https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46183535/clara-finley

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Do you sometimes have to walk on campus alone after dark? Would you like to have a way to quickly alert authorities of a potentially dangerous situation, or reach someone who can help by phone? 

GW’s Division of Safety and Security has an app that can help! The Guardian app is free to the GW community and can be downloaded here for iPhone or Android.  The app provides quick access to GW and non-GW support services like the GW Office of Advocacy of Support, the National Sexual Assault Hotline, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and Poison Control. There is a button to immediately connect to GW Police & EMeRG (GW's volunteer EMS agency) and a button for 911 services.  

A Safety Timer feature allows a family member or friend to be your guardian while traveling. Set a timer for your trip to alert your guardian if you don’t arrive within the anticipated time. You can alert them or GW PD to your location. 

The app can also be customized to include critical information about you if you are in an accident or in a medical emergency. This includes contact information and your medical history. 

Off campus the Guardian app provides advisories and alerts for your area as well as for the GW campus.  The alerts can be set as push notifications to your phone.

Questions? Learn more about the Guardian app here.

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Attention School of Nursing students, staff, and faculty who primarily use the library at the Virginia Science and Technology Campus! You can now direct your Consortium Loan Service (CLS) delivery to the VSTC library on the CLS request form. Here’s how:

  1. Find the item you want to borrow from another Washington Research Library Consortium library by searching Health Information @ Himmelfarb using the Articles + GW & Consortium Catalog view.

2. Click the title in results to open the record and sign in with your NetID under How to Get It to see request options.

3. Select Consortium Loan Service Request.

4. On the CLS Request form, use the down arrow to change the Pickup Library from Himmelfarb to GW Virginia Science and Technology Campus Library Delivery.

That’s it!  Note that a pick up time must be scheduled with VSTC library staff when your item arrives. Check to be sure you are eligible to schedule pick up from the VSTC Library before designating delivery there.

If you have any questions about Consortium Loan or other document delivery services at Himmelfarb Library, contact mlbdoc@gwu.edu or call 202-994-2860 during business hours.

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Starting fall of 2020, GW staff, faculty, and students have free digital access to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. This new access is available in response to the GW Student Association’s request for better access to legitimate and reliable news sources. 

Newspapers image

For the New York Times, users must create a NYT account with their GW email address. Create a password for the account that is different from your NetID password. You will get access to digital content via the website and the New York Times app. All content is available except for NYT Cooking and Crosswords which require separate subscriptions.

For the Washington Post , access is only available via the website, not the app. There is no need to set up a separate account.  As long as you are signed in with your NetID on the device and browser you’re currently using you should get passed through to Post content.  

For the Wall Street Journal , users must create an account with their GWmail address and identify whether they are a student or staff/faculty. Students will need to provide a graduation date. Again, do not use your NetID password for this account. Use a different password when setting it up. The account provides access to both website and app content for the Journal.

There is a GW Libraries page with more information, including what to do if you already have a subscription to one of these publications that’s linked to your GWmail address, and contacts for technical assistance.

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