Hardin News

• Open Access to Scientific and Medical Literature
  BioMed Central
  PLoS (Public Library of Science)
• Interlibrary Loan / Article Delivery Service
• OECD Health Data 2003
• Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room
  Eye Surgery in the 16th Century

For the last fifteen years, subscription costs to the world’s scientific and medical literature has risen far beyond that of general inflation, greatly diminishing the ability of libraries to provide ready access to this research. Over the last two years, a variety of organizations and initiatives have begun to develop new alternative publishing models to providing free access to original, high quality research articles. Two such initiatives have recently been launched in the biomedical sciences: BioMed Central and PLoS (Public Library of Science).

BioMed Central is an independent publishing organization committed to providing immediate and free access to peer reviewed biomedical research. They currently publish over 100 online journals, ranging in subject scope from general interest to specialty topics. In addition to publishing their own journals, Biomed Central also assists groups of scientists wishing to run their own open access journals by making their online submission and peer-review technology available free of charge.

All articles published by BioMed Central are included in PubMed and are also immediately archived in PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine’s digital archive of journal literature in the life sciences. As a result, all articles are easily searchable and permanently accessible to all.

Another key feature of Biomed Central is that authors retain copyright to their work by agreeing to allow free access to their articles.

BioMed Central is based on a business model in which an article processing charge, paid by the author, covers the cost of peer review and electronic publication. This $500 fee, which is in many cases less than that of some commercial publishers, is waived for authors from member institutions. The University Libraries has paid the membership fee for a year in order to support this publishing alternative as well as University researchers.

For further information about BioMed Central, visit their web site at: http://www.biomedcentral.com. To view the University of Iowa’s BioMed Central Gateway, go to http://www.biomedcentral.com/inst/gateway/

Another open access publishing initiative is PLoS, which launched its first online journal PLoS Biology in October. Their second online journal, PLoS Medicine, will follow in spring 2004. PLoS is also planning to expand its subject coverage to other fields as well as to specialty topics.

Headed by Dr. Harold Varmus, PLoS is a non-profit organization of physicians and scientists who are committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature freely available as a public resource. They are further committed to working with scientists, societies, funding agencies, and other publishers to pursue the broader goal of developing open access for every published article.

Like BioMed Central, PLoS articles are searchable in PubMed and are immediately archived in PubMed Central.

PLoS’ business model is also based on a publication charge ($1,500), paid by the author or research sponsor, to cover the peer review and publication expenses. PLoS believes that publication is a fundamental part of the research process and as a result, publications costs are a small but essential part of the cost of research. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a strong supporter of this new model and has promised to cover the costs for their 350 investigators when they publish their articles in open access journals.

For further information about PLoS, visit their web site at: http://www.plos.org/index.html

The Interlibrary Loan department at Hardin Library has many functions. Most of you are familiar with using this service to obtain copies of articles from journals not available locally, or to request loans of books not held on campus. This process of interlibrary loan is referred to as ‘borrowing’. Last fiscal year we obtained 8,305 journal articles and 539 books for our patrons. Through a program called Ariel, 62% of these articles were received via the internet, and of those, 87% were delivered to our patrons desktop.

As a resource library and member of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, it is also our responsibility to provide articles and books to other libraries; referred to as ‘lending’. Last fiscal year we provided 30,040 articles and 751 books to over 2,500 different places within Iowa, the United States and internationally. With the use of Ariel, 65% were sent via the internet within 8 hours of downloading the requests.

In addition to the borrowing and lending of materials with other institutions, the 3 person interlibrary loan staff, with the help of 30 student hours per week, runs the University Libraries’ Article Delivery Service (ADS) program. For the last fiscal year, 5468 articles were copied from materials on campus and sent to faculty, staff and students. An additional 375 requests were delivered to University of Iowa distance education students.

Additional information about interlibrary loan and ADS policies, as well as online order forms, can be found at the department Web site: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/ill.

Eye Surgery in the 16th Century
George Bartisch (1535-ca. 1607). Ophthalmodouleia; das is, Augendienst. [Dresen: Matthes Stoeckel], 1583. [28] 274 [83] ll., illus., port.

The mere thought of eye surgery without benefit of modern anesthesia is enough to evoke severe shuddering. Yet, for hundreds of years, various operations were performed on the eyes in this manner, including the removal of cataracts, the excision of styes and the complete removal of the eyeball. No clearer picture of sixteenth century ophthalmology exists than that presented in George Bartisch’s Ophthalmodouleia. This fascinating book is generally regarded as the first systematic work on any surgical specialty. Bartisch, lacking the financial resources to attend medical school, pursued a career in surgery (then a separate profession) instead. He eventually developed a substantial practice and was appointed oculist to the elector of Saxony in 1588. Tailoring his book to his fellow practitioners he wrote this important treatise in German rather than in Latin. In it, he provides detailed descriptions of eye injuries, diseases, medications, surgery, wound dressing, and appliances. Here he offers advice on preparing a patient for surgery:

…have him sit down in a special place on a stool or chair which has arm rests on both sides. Bind him with a towel around the body. Tie his arms on the rests with appropriate strips of material. Similarly tie his legs to the legs of the stool. Secure him carefully and fully in his body, arms, hands, and feet so that he can not shift, pull out, or move.

Although Bartisch showed great talent for observation and practicality, he remained a product of his age. In the passage below he offers the following advice:

Wearing the precious opal is useful and of value against all witchcraft of the vision and eyes. Further, the precious hyacinth stone worn on the bare skin and looked at often will be good against witchcraft of the eyes. Similarly when one wears angelica root on his body, that will serve well against all witchcraft.

Most striking, however, are the vivid woodcuts that illustrate eye anatomy as well as contemporary techniques and procedures. Some of the illustrations make use of movable flaps to assist in teaching, a novel technique at the time.

[translated passages from Ophthalmodouleia, an English translation by Donald L. Blanchard, 1996]
Click here for larger images.

For more information about the John Martin Rare Book Room please visit the Web site at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/rbr/ or contact Ed Holtum, Assistant Director for Administrative Services and Special Collections, at 319/335-9154 or edwin-holtum@uiowa.edu.

The University Libraries has recently acquired access to this valuable resource that provides comparative health data for OECD countries. One of the databases available through SourceOECD, Health Data 2003 includes information on:

This database requires the installation of software on your computer.

Instructions:

Go to SourceOECD

Scroll down to OECD Databases and select Health Data 2003 from the dropdown box.

Follow the instructions on the page to download the software.