Posts by: Rebecca Morin

The Day of Turkey is upon us, and we hope that you are leaning into an extra-long weekend of relaxation, reconnection, and food. Lots of food.

Your Hirsh Health Sciences Library team will also be taking some time to relax and unwind (and eat), we will have reduced hours this coming week.

The Library will close at 5:00 pm on Wednesday November 23, and remain closed until Sunday November 27 at noon. Building hours will remain the same.

We hope you enjoy some rest and relaxation over the holiday. Maybe get a head start with this Washington Post article “This farm offers turkey cuddling. No, really.”

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It’s Baaaaaaaaack!

Everyone’s favorite Fun Lab, Pumpkin Painting, returns this week!

Starting at noon on Thursday 10/27 and Friday 10/28, stop by the Library Service Desk on MEB 4 to join in one of our most beloved crafts. Just grab a tiny pumpkin and choose from an array of quick-drying craft paints and other decorations to make the Seasonal Decorative Gourd You’ve Always Dreamed Of!

Mini pumpkins in box that looks like a pumpkin patch

So stop by, bring your friends, and enjoy some holiday fun at HHSL!

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Please enjoy this guest post from our Judy Rabinowitz, our Scholarly Communication Librarian

October 24th-30th, we celebrate Open Access Week, a time to focus on what we can do to improve how scholarly research is shared, utilized, and discovered.  Open Access (OA), at its core, makes research literature freely available on the Internet with few copyright or license restriction.  This year’s theme, “Open for Climate Justice,” highlights the power open access can have on boosting innovation, discovery, and improvements in our world.

Image of a polluting factory with the Open Access lock logo

As SPARC, a non-profit open access advocacy group, notes, “Openness can create pathways to more equitable knowledge sharing and serve as a means to address the inequities that shape the impacts of climate change and our response to them.”  As a globally pervasive issue, the climate crisis demands the unbarred and swift exchange of information and data across geographic, economic, and disciplinary boundaries in order to tackle it comprehensively, which open access can facilitate.

And, we can choose to ensure open access is the norm in scholarly publishing.  We can publish our research in open access journals, become peer reviewers in open access publications, and advocate and promote with our colleagues and networks effective and equitable OA business models, such as those that utilize low or no article processing charges and have no embargoes on contents.

Ask Us how you can do more for open access.  Happy Open Access Week!

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Now that classes are in full swing, we’re highlighting some library resources for M1s to help you get in a good headspace so you can set off on the right foot!

Skull model and visualization of ankle and foot for anatomy study

Dissection: ankle and foot superficial dissection © Informa UK Limited 2019. Used under Tufts – Hirsh Health Sciences Library License. Accessed 2 Jan 2019.

Study Tools

Covering content across Step 1 subjects, these question banks are useful self-assessment tools even starting in your first year of medical school. We’re excited about our new subscription to Thieme MedOne, a question bank designed for M1 and M2 students that uses adaptive learning technology to help you identify gaps in knowledge and prepare for Step 1. Through the library, you also have access to LWW Health Library’s self assessment tools. For a list of Step 1 review books on reserve, see our medical board prep research guide.

PBL

The PBL Guide is a great place to start! For some LQs, you may need to look beyond the resources encompassed in the guide (for example, physical examination resources!). If you get stuck with a particularly tricky LQ, don’t forget that your PBL group’s librarian is available to help. See the M26 PBL Group Assignments on Canvas for your librarian’s name and email address. We also drop by your group once each semester, so that’s a great time to ask questions as well.

Anatomy

Anatomy will be here before you know it, and we’ve got you covered with a variety of study tools. Browse anatomy models available for 4-hour check out from the Library Service Desk. We have anatomy books and virtual anatomy models available online or for check out from reserve as well.

 

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a smiling white woman in a patterned dress

We are thrilled to welcome yet another new Research & Instruction librarian to our ranks, although this one is a familiar face. Paige Scudder joined the team in early August as our R&I Librarian for Educational Technology. A graduate of the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons, she joins us from Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries. Prior to her stint at Dartmouth, Paige worked here at HHSL as a Reference Assistant and we couldn’t be happier to have her back on the team.

Paige is an avid (and talented) craftsperson who can usually be found sporting her own handknits and custom sewn creations. She can also be found outdoors, enjoying the woods around her home as much as possible in all seasons whether on foot or strapped into her cross country skis. Please say hello and (re)introduce yourself to Paige when you see her around the Library!

It’s July, so it’s time to welcome our new crop of Interns, Residents, and Fellows of Tufts Medical Center and our affiliated programs!

Remember, House Staff of TMC and affiliated hospitals have full access to the research collections of the Hirsh Health Sciences Library (for questions about access, visit this page. We are happy to assist you with all of your library research needs, including access to Point of Care Tools, access to Guidelines, access to ebooks, and much more! We can help you with your literature searches, and work with you on bigger research projects as well (just fill out this Consultation form and we’ll get right back to you).

We are available during Staffed Hours to assist remotely with all of your questions, no matter how big or how small. Feel free to email us at hhsl@tufts.edu,  or use our Chat feature to reach someone right away.

Welcome to Tufts, and we look forward to helping you navigate the next phase of your medical education!

 

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June 17th 2022 marks 247 years since the Battle of Bunker Hill (aka How Many Kids From New England Learned About the Concept of a Pyrrhic Victory). Considered by many to be the first true battle of the American Revolution, many thought the events starting the evening of June 16th would not result in a battle at all.

Bunker Hill Monument and Col. William Prescott statue

By Siddharth Mallya. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

British Army Commander General Thomas Gage was under pressure to end the colonial rebellion once and for all. Along with his fellow Commanders, he decided that the best plan of action would be to seize the high grounds surrounding Boston and use the positions to strategically crush and uprisings in occupied Boston. The plan was leaked and 1,000 colonial soldiers mobilized to seize the high ground in Charlestown, and fortify both Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill (the hill where the Bunker Hill Monument stands is actually Breed’s Hill; Bunker Hill is a few blocks away and is home to the Roman Catholic church St. Francis de Sales). While colonial revolutionaries worked through the night to reinforce their hold on the hills, well over 2,000 British soldiers were mobilized to Charlestown.

When the time came to engage, it is estimated that approximately 2,400 trained British soldiers faced off against 1,500 colonists, a mix of militiamen and locals. The bloody battle that ensued lasted approximately two hours, and resulted in massive casualties, numbering over 1,000 British fighters and more than 400 Revolutionaries. While British forces did seize the hills, the casualties they suffered facing off against the colonists were devastating, and led to substantial rethinking of how the occupying British would engage with colonial forces in battle.

There is so much more to tell about this pivotal battle of American Revolution, so if you are interested, check out this National Park Service article, this Timeline of the Revolution, and this Smithsonian Magazine piece debunking some of the tales you may have learned about the battle in history class.

Of course, the best way to learn about the Battle of Bunker Hill is to visit the Boston National Historic Park sites in Charlestown! There is major renovation work taking place in the Monument and Lodge, but you can still visit the site and the Museum across the street.

 

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Hear ye, hear ye…

Due to planned maintenance and repairs, there will be NO POWER in the Medical Education building for 24 hours this weekend, and that includes all Library spaces.

The work is scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm Friday July 23 and planned to end at 6:00 pm Saturday July 24.

The Library will provide remote assistance on Saturday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm; reach us here with any questions!

This might be the perfect excuse to frolic outside…the weather looks pretty nice!

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The day that so many have been waiting for has finally arrived!

As of April 19, 2021, adults in every U.S. state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico are now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

This is an exciting time for many of us, who have been waiting (possibly impatiently) for our shot. But with so many people clamoring for appointments, how can you secure an appointment for that sweet, sweet vaccine?

Here are some proven tips from your already-vaccinated friends at the Hirsh Health Sciences Library**:

Good luck and good health everyone!

**please note that these resources are listed for informational purposes, and the Hirsh Health Sciences Library is not affiliated with any site or service listed above.

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** Please enjoy this repost, chock-full of Boston Massacre info! While 2021’s social-distancing rules prevent Revolutionary Spaces from holding the annual reenactment in front of the Old State House, if you are interested in the events of 1770, Crispus Attucks Day, and the wider history of the fight for racial and social justice in Boston, join Revolutionary Spaces March 5th at 5:00 pm for Grief, Remembrance, Justice: the Boston Massacre Anniversary. This panel discussion will reflect on the legacy of Melnea Cass and will be held via Zoom. **

…Your estates and your freedom, your children and Wives; A story I’ll tell you that’s truth now indeed, And when you hear of it your hearts will bleed.

The above comes from A Verse Occasioned by the late horrid Massacre in King-Street, a broadside published in Boston in 1770 to express outrage over the events of the evening of March 5th, the event we now know as the Boston Massacre. On the evening of March 5, 1770, a row broke out in front of the Custom House on King Street (now State Street) in Boston. Accounts of what provoked the trouble are mixed, but most include a soldier striking a boy, and a mob of Bostonians replying by hurling both snowballs and insults at the soldier. As the crowd grew more hostile, more soldiers were called in, and eventually nine armed British soldiers faced a rowdy group of over 50 colonists. Eventually, the soldiers fired into the mob, and when the casualties were totaled, five men were dead and six more were injured. The events of that March evening were seized upon by Boston radicals, and spun to create even more animosity toward the Crown. One of the most famous pieces of propaganda is Paul Revere’s compelling (if inaccurate) depiction of the event, which circulated wildly in the spring of 1770.

Colored engraving of British soldiers wearing red coats firing into a crowd in front of the building now known as the Old State House in Boston. There is also a dog.

Paul Revere, “The Bloody Massacre in King-Street, March 5, 1770.” Boston, 1770. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

Of course, this event took place a short walk from the Hirsh Health Sciences Library. Commemorate this event with a Boston Massacre Study Break! Start on the Freedom Trail, and visit the Boston Massacre Marker on the corner of State and Congress Streets, right near the Old State House. Head back toward campus on Tremont Street, and stop in at the Granary Burying Ground. You’ll find the grave marker for the victims of the Massacre next to Samuel Adams. You can also visit with John Hancock and Paul Revere while you’re there. As you follow Tremont toward Boylston Street, take a detour into Boston Common at Avery Street, and enjoy the beautiful Boston Massacre/Crispus Attucks Monument, erected in 1888.

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