University Libraries

By Eric Rumsey and Janna Lawrence

[Check out additional articles on PubMed & Plant-Based Foods]

Olive oil as a healthy food is a highly popular topic among consumers. It’s also popular among researchers, as shown in a list of the 100 most popular research articles of 2013, by the Altmetric site, in which the number two ranking article is a comparison of olive oil and nuts for prevention of cardiovascular disease, in NEJM. This article shows a major problem with the MeSH indexing of olive oil. Even with its trending popularity, olive oil does not have its own MeSH term. In the NEJM article, and in most articles on olive oil, the only MeSH term that corresponds with olive oil is Plant Oils. This is a problem because Plant Oils is not in any food-diet-nutrition (FDN) explosion, and is therefore not retrieved by broad searches for FDN.

Fortunately, articles on olive oil are often picked up by broad FDN searches because they have other FDN-related MeSH terms. But in many cases, they are not. Here are some examples of articles with olive oil in the title that are not retrieved using our broad FDN hedge because they contain no MeSH terms or text words relating to food, diet or nutrition:

• Olive oil may reduce coronary artery disease risk.
  Journal: Mayo Clin Womens Healthsource.
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15891678
• A case report of possible health benefits of extra virgin olive oil.
  Journal: ScientificWorldJournal
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14665740
• Olive oil and colon cancer.
  Journal: Health News
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11100684
• Olive oil: more than just oleic acid.
  Journal: Am J Clin Nutr
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10966910
• Fish oil versus olive oil.
  Journal: Lancet
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1978131

As we’ve discussed previously, most plant-based foods are difficult to search in PubMed because the MeSH terms for them are in the Plants explosion and not in any FDN explosion. Notably, olive oil has a different problem. It’s like other plant-based foods in not having a MeSH term that’s in an FDN explosion. But instead of being in Plants, its MeSH term, Plant Oils, is in the Chemicals and Drugs explosion.

There’s another baffling quirk in the MeSH indexing of olive oil. Although it doesn’t have its own MeSH term, there are MeSH terms for several other dietary oils in the Dietary Fats explosion (which, of course, is retrieved in broad FDN searches). These other dietary fats are Cod Liver Oil, Corn Oil, Cottonseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Sesame Oil, and Soybean Oil. None of these has close to the number of citations as there are on olive oil. We searched for each of these oils as a phrase in the title, and compared this with olive oil, and found, remarkably, that the total of all of these other oils combined is about the same as the number for olive oil by itself. So why is there not a MeSH term for olive oil?!

Are grandparents, aunts & uncles and friends stumped as to what to purchase for your graduation gift? Let an engineering librarian research and suggest a few ideas including wall-frame patent art, stylish pens & pencils and interesting magazines and books.

This post was originally written by Jen Wolfe, Digital Scholarship Librarian, for the UI Libraries Digital Research & Publishing Blog. It is re-posted here with minor modifications.

University of Iowa faculty, students, and staff discussed a curriculum project that combines historic documents with digital tools and methods as part of the Irving B. Weber Days local history celebration. The one-hour presentation “Archives Alive!: Teaching with WWII Correspondence” took place on Wednesday, May 7 at the Iowa City Public Library.

Iowa Women’s Archives Curator Kären Mason provided background on the IWA and its mission to chronicle the history of Iowa women, their families, and their communities by collecting personal papers, organizational records, and oral histories. IWA artifacts on display at the event included a World War II correspondence scrapbook, donated by author and radio personality Evelyn Birkby, upon which the Archives Alive! project was based.

Matt Gilchrist and Tom Keegan, Rhetoric faculty and co-directors of the Iowa Digital Engagement and Learning (IDEAL) initiative, spoke about using digital humanities methods to engage undergraduates through hands-on learning and technologically innovative assignments. For Archives Alive!, they developed a four-week curriculum module that required their Rhetoric students to participate in DIY History, the UI Libraries’ transcription crowdsourcing project. After transcribing, researching, and analyzing digitized correspondence from the Birkby scrapbook, students conveyed their findings in a variety of ways; this includes three-minute video screencasts uploaded to YouTube that form a collection of open-access works of original digital scholarship based on primary sources.

The event also featured presentations by Rhetoric students James Burke, Jessica Graff, and Zach Stark. For those who couldn’t make it in person, “Archives Alive!: Teaching with WWII Correspondence” will be archived at the Iowa City Public Library web site.

The Archives Alive! spring 2014 student works are available on the IDEAL website, and a letter from Evelyn Birkby to the students is included in the IWA Tumblr post about the project.

The Cecil Papers are a privately held archive, consisting principally of the correspondence of William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-1598) and his son, Robert, the 1st Earl of Salisbury (1563-1612). The database offers full-colour images digitised directly from the original Cecil Papers manuscripts at Hatfield House Archives.

Please send additional comments to Stephen Sturgeon.

A few months ago, I saw a photograph (not in our collection) taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life magazine of students drawing a live nude model. The photo is undated other than 1961. Looking through the Daily Iowan archive, it was easy to determine that he visited campus in May 1961. DI reporter Anne Stearns, wrote in the May 12, 1961 issue:

A pleasant surprise for a journalist during the Wednesday morning presentation was photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt of Life Magazine, who commandeered ladders, tree branches and people (notable or students) and arranged them for his pictures. Named Photographer of the Year in 1950, Eisenstaedt noted his 25th anniversary as a photographer in 1954, and is known for his superb portraits and for his sensitive news pictures. The voice of authority was speaking when he ordered Paul Engle and Donald Justice to move their class to another spot on the riverbank for a shot.

The May 16 issue has a much longer piece by Dianne Grossett and Jerry Parker.

Eisenstaedt, 63, left the SUI campus Saturday after a two-week stay on assignment with Life reporter Elizabeth Baker. The team was here “to re-create in pictures the life of graduate students in the creative arts at SUI,” Miss Baker explained.

Their interest is in more than the conventional classroom situation, she added — in how students relax, where they live, their work, pasttimes, parties. They have visited several students’ homes, browsed about the Art, Theatre and Music Buildings, and have even been to Kenney’s.

Eisenstaedt pointed out that they do not know the publication date of the story — or even that it will be published. SUI was chosen for the possible feature, Miss Baker said, “because of its varied and active creative arts program which has national reputation.” She mentioned outstanding persons such as Mauricio Lasansky and Paul Engle.

The full text of both articles can be read in the links above and has been excepted here. Kenney’s was a bar on the west side of Clinton St. which was popular with the Writer’s Workshop participants. The Iowa City Public Library Digital History Project has a picture of Kenney’s which is posted in the Iowa City Past Tumblr. As far as I know, the article was never published. I also have not seen any other pictures from Eisenstaedt’s time on campus.

During the time Eisenstaedt was on campus, the Gibson A Danes, Dean of the School of Art and Architecture, Yale University, spoke at the opening of the annual Festival of the Arts and the dedication of the expanded art gallery (May 9, 1961) . The text of his speech as well as pictures from the festival are also available in our collection.

Free Coffee and Lemonade

Mon, May 12 – Thurs, May 15: 8:30am – Midnight

Fri, May 16: 8:30am – 5pm

Until supplies last

 

Open ’til Midnight FINAL WEEK HOURS

Sun, May 11: 2pm—Midnight Mon, May 12 —Thursday, May 15: 8:30 am–Midnight

Friday, May 16: 8:30 am — 5 pm

May 17 & 18: CLOSED

Hd. Qurs., Co. “A” 129th Ills.
In the Field Near Tunnel Hill¹
May 9th 1864
My Dear Wife

Yours of May [sic] 30th has just come to hand.² I am very happy to learn that your health is good. That dream of yours was doubtless very agreeable yet very far from the reality. I am glad to learn that Sis & Bro. Johnson are better. I hope you may have many opportunities to ride out during the summer months.

I have never heard of any of Co. “G” dying of Small Pox. It is certainly a mistake.³ The 4th Corps to which Bro. Johnie belongs is in our rear, or was yesterday.⁴

The cannon are booming in our front this morning. The fight has commenced.⁵ We were called into line yesterday to move out and support a column in our advance, but our services were not needed.⁶ We may go to-day. We are lying here in readiness. The rumors from the Army of the Potomac and also from our front are glorious but too good to believe.⁷

We are all well but [Cpt. Erastus] Nelson, he has a slight attack of ague. Mrs. Smith [the wife of Lt. John W. Smith] is at Felicity, Clearmont County, Ohio. Tell Bro. Thomas [Murphy] when you write to him that I have no opportunity to write. My health is most excellent for which I feel thankful.

Yesterday was a blessed day [Sunday]. I felt very happy all day and do this morning. God has been very bountiful in blessings. May he bless you likewise.

Did you write to Dehlia Shellenburger and send your photograph? I did not have an opportunity to answer her letter. Capt. Hoskins is not very well but has a horse. The horse purchased for Col. Case was presented in presence of the Regt. yesterday evening. It is a very fine animal. Capt. Perry made the presentation Speech. It was good. Col’s. response was very fine. The Regt. is in good health and spirits.

I have written nearly every day since we left Wauhatchie. I think it’s doubtful whether any mail has gone North for the past few weeks. I think of you very, very many times during each day but am consoled by Faith in God. I know he will care for you and our child if anything befalls me. Be cheerful. We have a “Home in Heaven.” This life is but short, and Heaven is an “Eternal Home.” I have no presentiments of the approaching battle and feel perfectly willing to suffer God’s will. What I most desire is Wisdom and understanding to perform my duty well. I feel that God will help me and take care of me.

Kiss Mother and Maggie for me and remember me kindly to all. Enclosed find a kiss for my Wife, my love. May our Heavenly Father deal kindly with you and take care of you, and, if consistent with his will, spare our lives that I may again enjoy the happiness your presence and society affords and for which my heart is thankful. My past life spent with you has been so happy and full of joy that I feel God has specially cared for me. (Kiss)

In thinking over all this morning, I can recall no hour since our lives have been so intimately associated together that my heart did not feel grateful for God’s blessing. You may feel satisfied with your performance of the vow you voluntarily assumed. It has been most faithfully performed, and I feel a consciousness this morning that I have tried to perform mine. I still “love and cherish” if possible more than ever. My only regret is that my time was so much preoccupied that I could not devote more of it to your comfort and happiness. Trust still in God and praise him for all his mercies and blessings, and, under whatever circumstances we may be placed, praise Him ever. With much Love, I remain until it is God’s will to call me away,

Your Affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

1. The XX Corps broke camp shortly after daybreak on the 7th and, marching by way of Gordon’s Gap, crossed Taylor’s Ridge, and took position in front of Buzzard Roost. The First Division was posted at Trickum’s Post Office; Butterfield’s Third Division on the Dalton and Gordon’s Springs road; and the Second Division on the Ringgold and Villanow roads about three miles from Trickum’s, with its picket line connecting with the right of Butterfield’s division. O. R., Ser. I, Vol. XXXVIII, pt.IV, pp. 45, 61. Private Grunert recalled the day’s march as an unpleasant one, “over narrow, dusty or rocky roads.” The weather was terribly hot. When the regiment took a break during the afternoon in a field, the troops quenched their thirst “in a milky, dirty creek, in which higher up some were bathing, others washing their feet.” The sun was setting when the 129th, after a 20-mile march, went into camp near Mrs. Swain’s. Grunert, History of the 129th Illinois, p. 55.
2. Mary Culver’s letter of April 30 is missing from the Culver Collection.
3. Mary Culver had mistakenly assumed that the two soldiers (Private Phillips and Corporal Scott) who had died of smallpox in March were members of Company G, 129th Illinois.
4. Troops from General Howard’s IV Corps on the 7th occupied Tunnel Hill, four miles north of the position held by the 129th Illinois. On the night of the 8th, cannoneers of Company M, 1st Illinois Light Artillery, manhandled two guns into battery atop Rocky Face, where the Rebels “thought no gun could be put.” Adjutant General’s Report, State of Illinois, Vol. VIII, p. 666.
5. On May 9 General Butterfield made a forced reconnaissance of the Confederate lines on Rocky Face. Mill Creek was bridged and crossed. Soon thereafter his skirmish line was shelled and orders were received from General Thomas to return to camp. O. R., Ser. I, Vol. XXXVIII, pt. II, pp. 320-321.
6. General Hooker’s Second Division led by Brig. Gen. John W. Geary on May 8 attempted to force its way through Dug Gap. Confederate cavalry, reinforced by units from Maj. Gen. Pat Cleburne’s division, held their ground in face of slashing attacks. After suffering 357 casualties, Geary recalled his brigades and retired to the foot of Rocky Face. The attack at Dug Gap was made to divert the Confederates’ attention from General McPherson’s Army of the Tennessee which was advancing through Snake Creek Gap with the goal of capturing Resaca. Ibid., pp. 114-117; O. R., Ser. I, Vol. XXXVIII, pt. III, p. 721.
7. The Army of the Potomac on May 4 had advanced against General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. A terrible battle had been fought in the wilderness, south of the Rappahannock, on the 5th and 6th. Although Meade’s army suffered more than 18,000 casualties, General Grant did not turn back. The Army of the Potomac broke contact with Lee’s troops on May 6 and advanced to the southeast. A forced march was made by Lee, and he intercepted the Federals at Spotsylvania. From May 7 to 18 the two armies battled in front of Spotsylvania.