Posts by: Cameron Duval
New adapters have arrived at the Hirsh Health Sciences Library circulation desk…or should we say dongles? If you’re using wired headphones but your phone or laptop doesn’t have a 35mm headphone jack, these are the dongles for you!
Apple dropped the headphone jack on their iPhones in 2016, and in recent years many cell phone manufacturers including Google have followed suit. Luckily, we have both the USB-C and Lightning variety of headphone dongle available for 4-hour loans at the circulation desk. We also have wired headphones available to check out, so if you lost your AirPods on the Orange Line, we’ve got the complete package for you here at Hirsh.
Speaking of dongles – why do we call them that? I hadn’t really thought about the origin of the word “dongle” until I sat down to write this post. I learned that the etymology of the word is disputed, but it first appeared in the 1980s as a catch-all for a small external piece of hardware that provides another device with enhanced functionality when plugged into an access port. That’s some word salad, isn’t it? And so the word “dongle” was invented – possibly by a Mr. Don Gall, and probably because the dongle dangled – and we still use it today.
We have recently put a number of exciting medical artifacts and curiosities from our special collection on display on the 6th floor. These items, mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries and received through donations to the university, are sure to catch your eye as you exit the main elevators.
Among these items are a pocket surgical kit in a velvet-lined leather case, an 1800s blood transfusion kit, and a surgeon’s field amputation kit circa the American Civil War.
We also have on display a mysterious device known as a Phantasmagoric Magneto Machine, a quack medical device which purported to cure nervous diseases with a mild electric current generated by a hand crank.
Along with these eye-catching instruments, you can find two mortars and pestles and number of medicine bottles with their contents still inside – though well past their expiration date.
Take a look through our display case and see for yourself how medicine was practiced over a hundred years ago!
Happy New Year from all of us at the Hirsh Health Sciences Library! Whether you’re excited to make 2022 the best year of your life or dreading 2020: Part 3, the library is always here to help. We have new books on display in the Leisure Reading section on the 4th floor that we hope you’ll find helpful for sticking to your resolution – or maybe they’ll inspire you to take on a new one.
- The Doctor’s Kitchen: Supercharge Your Health with 100 Delicious Everyday Recipes by Dr. Rupy Aujla
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
- If Our Bodies Could Talk: A Guide to Operating and Maintaining a Human Body by James Hamblin
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Get Out of Your Mind & Into Your Life: The New Acceptance & Commitment Therapy by Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D. with Spencer Smith
- Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey, MD with Eric Hagerman
- The “I” Diet by Susan B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Betty Kelly Sargent
- Year of No Sugar: A Memoir by Eve O. Schaub
- Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen
- The Gift of Presence: A Mindfulness Guide for Women by Caroline Welsh
Is there something we don’t have in our collection that you think we should? Let us know by recommending a purchase.
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