All Libraries will be closed on Monday, May 27th for Memorial Day.

• Mondays – 9:30am-12:00pm
• Tuesdays – 9:30am-12:00pm
• Wednesdays – 9:30-12:00pm
• Thursdays – 9:30am-12:00pm

During office hours, we can assist you with:

• Questions about your library account
• Searching the library catalog and specialized databases
• Finding books and full-text articles
• Getting materials from other libraries (interlibrary loan)
• Using citation managers like RefWorks and EndNote
• And much, much more!

A selection of chemistry reference books are also available. If you have questions or if you would like to make an appointment outside office hours, please contact the Sciences Library at lib-sciences@uiowa.edu or (319) 335-3083.

Today is the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in the Brown v Board of Education, making separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The Daily Iowan story is in the May 18, 1954 issue.

The ruling did not affect Iowa because segregation of schools had been illegal since 1868.

“Our first public schools were for “white” students only. But in 1868, eighty-six years before Brown versus State Board of Education, Topeka—which struck down separate schools for blacks and whites in 1954—Alexander Clark Sr. successfully sued the City of Muscatine so his daughter, Susan, could attend the white elementary school. This was the same year that Iowa became the first northern state to guarantee black men’s right to vote.”

—Letters to a young Iowan [excerpt], Hal S. Chase

Just one year after the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Iowa students elected an African American woman, Dora Lee Martin, as homecoming queen. This election was touted in state papers as demonstrating tolerance at the University, such as this excerpt from the Sioux City Tribune-Journal.

You can read more about Dora Lee Martin in a previous blog post, Queen of the campus.

Medical practice announcement, Victor, Iowa, 1864 | UI College of Medicine Historical Photographs

New at Iowa Digital Library:
University of Iowa College of Medicine Historical Photographs
digital.lib.uiowa.edu/com
featuring dozens of images documenting the study and practice of medicine at the UI and its surrounding area

Dissection class, University of Iowa, circa 1898 | UI College of Medicine Historical Photographs

Possessed of rather rude demeanor, Addison nevertheless had a large practice. He was a brilliant lecturer and diagnostician and one of the most respected physicians at Guy’s Hospital, devoting himself almost wholly to his students and patients.

The present work is one of the truly remarkable medical books of the nineteenth century and has long been among the principal desiderata for medical book collectors. Addison describes here for the first time two chronic diseases of the adrenal gland: Addison’s disease and pernicious anemia (Addison’s anemia), the most important primary disease of the blood.

The work is supplemented by several fine hand-colored lithographs. Addison’s discoveries were never widely recognized by his contemporaries, yet today they are regarded as fundamentally significant in the study of the endocrine glands and the treatment of pleuriglandular diseases.

More information from the USGS: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3580&from=rss_home

Topography by quinn.anya on Flickr

Several items from the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections are now a part of the exhibit “Marking Territory, Cartographic Treasures of the Mississippi River and the World Beyond,” March 2- June 16, 2013 at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport. http://www.figgeartmuseum.org/

Curator Rima Girnius from the Figge, worked with Mary McInroy and Greg Prickman to select 17 maps, 3 books and 1 copperplate for this exhibit which explores “how maps communicate highly complex ideas about identity, politics, and culture.” After selecting the objects for the show, the items were documented and prepared for exhibit by the Conservation Staff. Giselle Simón, Bill Voss, and Kat Tandy of Conservation, with the help of graduate student Pamela Olson, completed repairs, fabricated mounts, and framed the maps for delivery and installation at the Figge on February 28, 2013.

submitted by Giselle Simón

Tiny is the only word to describe this 58mm volume La divina commedia di Dante.  This is the second smallest edition of Dante ever printed and is notable for using the smallest movable type ever cast.  It was printed in Milan in 1878 by Ulrico Hoepli.

If you want to test your eyesight, stop by to give this one a try.

Engineering Library resources on flight: http://ow.ly/kTQ6I