University Libraries

EMBASE is a biomedical and pharmaceutical database containing bibliographic records with abstracts. Although there is overlap with records from PubMed, there are also many unique records.

This hands-on session will show you how to conduct basic searches using EMBASE’s quick search box, how to conduct searches using EMTREE subject headings, and how to use subheadings for drug and disease topics.

Our next session:
Wednesday, April 13th, 10-11a – West Commons, 2nd Floor, Hardin Library

Register online.

Open Data From NOAA and Its Grantees

The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) generates many terabytes of data every day. Data comes from hundreds of sensors on satellites, radar, aircraft, ships, buoys, and from numerical models.

With rare exceptions, all of this data should be made publicly accessible in a timely and usable fashion. NOAA has long been both an advocate and a practitioner of Open Data. Recent White House mandates are expanding public access to the results of federally funded research. In addition, NOAA has initiated research and development agreements with several cloud computing providers to explore new methods for data access and use.

Jeff will address these NOAA policies and activities during his presentation.

Jeff de La Beaujardière has been the NOAA Data Management Architect since May 2011 and Chair of the Environmental Data Management Committee since 2012. He also serves on inter-agency and international groups aimed at enhancing data sharing and interoperability, including the international Group on Earth Observations Data Management Principles Task Force, the US Group on Earth Observations Data Management Working Group, and the Open Geospatial Consortium. In these roles he works toward the vision that NOAA’s rich and unique data holdings shall be discoverable, accessible, well-documented, compatible, and preserved for future use.

Previously, Jeff was Senior Systems Architect for the US Integrated Ocean Observing System Program Office at NOAA, where he guided the implementation of interoperability standards by IOOS partners for data access and discovery. Prior to joining NOAA, Jeff spent 13 years at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in such roles as Geospatial One-Stop Portal Manager; web services developer for the Modeling, Analysis and Prediction 2005 project, the GLOBE Program, and the Public Use of Remote Sensing Data Program; and NASA’s representative to OGC and to the Unidata Policy Committee. He participated in the first OGC Web Mapping Testbed in 1998, implemented the first Web Map Server at NASA, and was Editor of the WMS specification for OGC and the International Organization for Standardization.Jeff de La Beaujardière has been the NOAA Data Management Architect since May 2011 and Chair of the Environmental Data Management Committee since 2012. He also serves on inter-agency and international groups aimed at enhancing data sharing and interoperability, including the international Group on Earth Observations Data Management Principles Task Force, the US Group on Earth Observations Data Management Working Group, and the Open Geospatial Consortium. In these roles he works toward the vision that NOAA’s rich and unique data holdings shall be discoverable, accessible, well-documented, compatible, and preserved for future use.

Dr. de La Beaujardière holds a BA in Physics (1985) from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD in Astrophysics (1990) from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

This presentation is sponsored by the University of Iowa Libraries. The Libraries’ Research Data Services, in collaboration with other campus offices, including the Division Sponsored Programs, Information Technology Services and Iowa Informatics Initiative, support the data management and publishing needs of researchers.

Please RSVP at https://goo.gl/JLYEb4

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. if you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Sara Sheib in advance at 319-335-3024.

Jack’s postcard to Dorothy, on her 20th Birthday in 1935.

“Schöner Bruder,” “Ma Chère Petite,” “Sonny Boy,” Honey Child,” these are just a few of the salutations used by Dorothy and Warren “Jack” Wirtz in their letters to each other. Although their greetings may have been somewhat tongue in cheek, Dorothy and Jack’s correspondence reveals a relationship full of common interests, good humor, and affection. What helps make this so immediately apparent is that Wirtz kept her family correspondence separate from the rest. Additionally, she transcribed over 1000 pages of it, ensuring its legibility. In fact, the order of and attention Dorothy paid to her correspondence gives insight into how she prioritized her relationships and organized her life.

When I began to process this collection, I conducted a quick survey of its boxes and determined that Wirtz’s correspondence and diaries comprised over half of it. Normally, processing these portions of collections for use would involve a straightforward, chronological order. But, Wirtz was a little more complicated than that. She kept letters from her parents and her brother separate from her letters from friends and colleagues, and kept correspondence with students in a box on its own. Additionally, she kept postcards from her family distinct from all other correspondence.

Although the original letters remained, Wirtz also transcribed many of them, occasionally editorializing. After Jack’s “Hello. Hawaii?” she explained, “This must have been a greeting heard frequently on radio.” In a 1934 letter she had written to her brother about the notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd, “At last you are in no immediate danger. ‘Pretty

Dorothy’s birthday card to her brother. The pianist in the sketch is probably Jack, a composer.

Boy’ Floyd has been killed.” Next to her transcription of that letter she wrote in red pen “Mother worried about him being at large while Jack hitchhiked to various places.”

Recognizing Wirtz’s arrangement of her letters as intentional, I chose not reorganize them, but instead followed the archival principle of original order. Except in cases where letters are misfiled, I maintained Wirtz’s order rather than imposing an artificial one. Not only is this simpler for me as a processor, but it gives future researchers the benefit of seeing Wirtz’s correspondence as she did, with the spheres of her life distinct from each other. Dr. Wirtz, professor of French is stern, incisive, and businesslike. But the letters of “Dot” to her family are more playful. It’s a delight to see her brother play right along without interruption. The siblings sprinkled their letters with French and German, closed them with phrases like “all agog” and “d’amour,” and generally infused their prose with a mock formality.

Dorothy (left) and Warren “Jack” Wirtz (right) as children.

“Would it derange you at all if we drop in on Sunday?” Dorothy asked her brother one September while he was living in Grinnell.

“Derange me?” he responded the next day, “Why I should say not. I’ll be tickled to have you come.”

Born one year apart, the siblings were as close in age as they were in everything else. Both pursued higher education, wrote poetry, spoke multiple languages, and traveled abroad. Dorothy outlived her brother by over 40 years. But you can conjure up parts of their relationship by traversing their correspondence, just as Dorothy might have each time she sat down to transcribe one of their letters.

Darlene Kaskie
Technology and Communications Librarian, NN/LM, Greater Midwest Region

Please welcome Darlene Kaskie, our first Regional Medical Library (RML) librarian to join the team. Darlene will be serving as the Technology and Communications Librarian for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Greater Midwest Region (GMR) program office.

In her new role, Darlene will be managing the GMR website and social media, and handling communication for members in the ten state region. Darlene will be permanently located in the GMR offices, for which construction is still underway. Until that time, Darlene is in a temporary location at Hardin Library.

Previously, Darlene served as the Student Computer Services Librarian for the Law Library at the University of Iowa. In this role, Darlene assisted with technology and network services and served as the editor for the Law Library’s website.  Darlene also worked as a temporary  librarian for the University of Iowa Engineering Library, helping with marketing and educational outreach using social media.

Darlene received her MLS from Indiana University, Bloomington. Prior to joining the University of Iowa, Darlene worked as a managing research librarian for the law firms of Latham & Watkins in Chicago, McCutchen, Doyle Brown & Enersen (now known as Bingham McCutchen) in Los Angeles, and Beveridge & Diamond in San Francisco.  Darlene researched corporate healthcare client information as a law firm librarian.  Darlene is looking forward to discovering healthcare from the academic perspective in her new position. 

Darlene’s husband teaches health policy for the College of Public Health, and their two daughters keep them busy with soccer, volleyball, and all things tween.

Last week Special Collections the Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professors Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Felicia Rice stopped by Special Collections for a performance and their collaborative work Doc/Undoc is now […]