Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

All of us here at Hirsh Library would like to give a warm welcome to new students starting this month! We’re delighted have met some of you already and are looking forward to meeting those we haven’t yet! While you might not see us physically in the library, we want to assure you that we are here to help virtually during online staffed hours. Please don’t hesitate to reach out via chat, email, or text if you have any questions.

Hope your semester is off to a good start!

Image by Selling of my photos with StockAgencies is not permitted from Pixabay

Panicking about your personal statement? Feeling threatened by your thesis? Never fear, Writing Consultants appointments resume later this month!

Registration is now available for 45-minute long appointments, conducted over Zoom. This semester, appointments will be held on Tuesday and Thursdays from 10am-2pm, and Sundays from 1pm-5pm.

Spots go fast, so sign up now! Never met with a writing consultant before? Visit our Writing Consultants Guide for more information about what she can help with and how to prepare.

In late June, the Tufts Libraries Council (TLC) published a Statement of Solidarity and Commitment in support of community protests against police brutality and systemic racism. TLC pledged to discuss and commit to a set of actions demonstrating Tufts Libraries’ commitment to antiracist values. In late October, TLC published a follow-up statement to share actions that have been taken across all the Tufts Libraries to reframe elements of our everyday work with an anti-racist lens and contribute to building an anti-racist community.

We wanted to highlight some of the Hirsh-specific actions here:

• We have created an Anti-Racism Resource Guide which includes:
  • Information about the BLM movement
  • Resources documenting and addressing racial discrimination in health/medical professions
  • Mental health and community resources for those who identify as BIPOC
  • Educational material for co-conspirators
• Library staff have formed an Anti-Racism reading group, which held their first discussion in October. We asked them to share a summary of their first session:

In response to suggestions from the Anti-Racism Resources Guide Tea in the summer, Hirsh Library hosted its first ever Anti-Racism Reading Group discussion in October. The goal of this first session was to foster an interdisciplinary space for people across the Tufts community to acknowledge the problem and understand the impact of anti-Black racism in the health sciences. The readings were selected by Hirsh librarians in the fields of biomedical science, dentistry, library science, medicine, nutrition, and public health. If you missed the discussion but want to take a glance at the readings, the reading list is still posted online. The discussion was rooted in the following questions:

• What was the most impactful thing that you learned from the reading and why was it impactful to you?
• Based on your reflections, what are ways in which you as an individual or your profession as a whole can work to address some of the impacts of anti-Black racism in your field?

The 35 registrants for the event included students, staff, and faculty in public health, dentistry, librarianship, nutrition and medicine. The greatest share of attendees were affiliated with the dental school, with the second-largest from Tufts Medical Center.

We were so excited to see people from many different disciplines and positions across Tufts come together to form this space. We hope to hold another reading group discussion sometime in the Spring 2021 semester so keep your eyes peeled for more announcements in the future!

• We are looking into providing a dermatology database that includes images of a range of skin colors, something previously lacking in dermatology textbooks. Our collection does currently contain a number of dermatology books that consider the range of human skin colors. Here is a short selection of titles available online:
  • Clinical Cases in Skin of Color : Adnexal, Inflammation, Infections, and Pigmentary Disorders
  • Clinical Cases in Skin of Color: Medical, Oncological and Hair Disorders, and Cosmetic Dermatology
  • Dermatoanthropology of Ethnic Skin and Hair
  • Pediatric Skin of Color
  • Skin of Color : A Practical Guide to Dermatologic Diagnosis and Treatment
  • Taylor and Kelly’s Dermatology for Skin of Color
  • Treatments for Skin of Color