Water will be shut off at the library tomorrow from approximately 8am-3pm in order to repair a damaged pipe. Restrooms will be closed.
Free Conference for Instructors | Teaching with the Library: From Data to Knowledge | Friday, January 12
Teaching with the Library: From Data to Knowledge
In order to succeed as scholars in a world of fake news and information overload, it is more important than ever for our students to learn how to critically evaluate, analyze, and utilize the information they consume every day in their academic and personal lives. You’ve seen the need in your classroom and the University Libraries can help. In this free, one-day conference for instructors, you will learn innovative and creative strategies to leverage library resources and librarian expertise to teach students the information literacy skills they need to transform data into knowledge.
Friday, January 12, 2018 at 9:30am to 3:00pm
University of Iowa Main Library, Learning Commons
125 West Washington St. Iowa City, IA 52242-1420
We hope you can join us. You can register for all or just some of the sessions at https://uiowa.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0MS7cNajPlmURDv.
Schedule of Events:
9:30 AM – Registration/ Breakfast
10:00 AM – Keynote: “Calling BS in an Age of Misinformation” by Dr. Jevin West 
11:00 AM – Break
11:15 AM – 1st Concurrent Sessions
12:00 PM – Lunch (provided)
1:00 PM – 2nd Concurrent Sessions
1:45 PM – Break
2:00 PM – Workshop: “Make Them Think: Library Research Assignment Design”
Full schedule with session descriptions is available here.
Keynote Speaker: Jevin D. West is an Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington and co-founder of the DataLab. Broadly, he works in the area of data science and data reasoning. With his colleague, Carl Bergstrom, he developed a new course: Calling BS in the Age of Big Data. His core research asks questions about the origins of scientific disciplines, the biases within science that drive these disciplines, and the impact the current publication system has on the health of science. To explore these questions, he develops machine learning techniques for mining scientific text, citations and figures. Example projects include Eigenfactor.org and Viziometric.org. More details on his research and teaching can be found at: jevinwest.org.
Keynote Description: The digital revolution has democratized the consumption and production of news and information. This has created a platform for voices unheard, but among these benefits, there has been an increase in false news stories, memes and outright lies. This comes from all sides of the political spectrum, industry, society and even science. Democracy and collective decision making depends on an informed citizenry. This talk will explore some of the reasons behind this onslaught of misinformation and the ways to combat it. This includes a new-age kind of BS cloaked in the authority of data, statistics and algorithms.
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 Scheib in advance at sara-scheib@uiowa.edu or (319) 335-3024.
Brittney Thomas, MLIS | All of Us Manager
Meet Brittney Thomas, Manager for the NNLM All of Us Coordinating Center. Brittney joined the Greater Midwest Region of the National Network of the Libraries of Medicine in November and has spent the last few weeks learning as much as she can about health librarianship.
In her new role, Brittney will be coordinating outreach and engagement efforts to targeted communities in collaboration with the 8 Regional Medial Libraries on genetics and precision medicine. She’s currently using Jacqueline’s workspace while she waits for her own to be created.
Prior to joining the All of Us National project Brittney worked at the Main Library as the Learning Commons Coordinator where she oversaw programming and outreach, facilities and technology maintenance, marketing, faculty and student support, and much, much more!
Brittney received a Masters in Library and Information Science from The University of Iowa and has a B.A. in Art & Design from Iowa State University. Welcome Brittney!
Winter Break Hours @Hardin Library
Hardin Library has a 24-hour study available when the library is closed but you must apply for access at the library in advance.
| Saturday, Dec. 16 | CLOSED |
| Sunday, Dec. 17 | CLOSED |
| Monday, Dec. 18-Friday, Dec. 22 | 7:30am-6pm |
| Saturday, Dec. 23 | CLOSED |
| Sunday, Dec. 24 | CLOSED |
| Monday, Dec. 25 | CLOSED Christmas holiday |
| Tuesday, Dec. 26 | CLOSED University holiday |
| Wednesday, Dec. 27-Friday, Dec. 29 | 7:30am-6pm |
| Saturday, Dec. 30 | CLOSED |
| Sunday, Dec. 31 | CLOSED |
| Monday, Jan. 1 | CLOSED New Years Day holiday |
| Tuesday, Jan. 2-Friday, Jan. 5 | 7:30am-9pm |
| Saturday, Jan. 6 | 10am-6pm |
| Sunday, Jan. 7 | Noon-9pm |
| Monday, Jan. 8- Thursday, Jan. 11 | 7:30am-9pm |
| Friday, Jan. 12 | 7:30am-6pm |
| Saturday, Jan. 13 | 10am-6pm |
| Sunday, Jan. 14 | Noon-9pm |
| Monday, Jan. 15 | CLOSED MLK Day |
Therapy Dogs @Hardin Library | Friday, Dec. 8 | 4:00-5:30pm
Relax and pet a dog. Therapy dogs visit Hardin Library on Friday from 4-5:30.
Stay and drink free coffee, eat trail mix, and study. We are open until Midnight Friday and Saturday and offer lots of quiet space to study.
UI awarded $3.6M NIH Grant for “All of Us” personal medicine initiative
Originally published in IowaNow online.
UI to lead national campaign educating Americans, health care professionals about precision medicine
$3.6 million NIH grant will make the UI a national hub for creating and distributing educational information for the ‘All of Us’ initiative
By: Richard C. Lewis | 2017.11.29 | 09:45 am
The University of Iowa is poised to lead a new national campaign to educate Americans and health care professionals about personalized medicine.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), through its National Library of Medicine, awarded the UI $3.6 million over three years to create and distribute educational information for the All of Us Research Program, an NIH-led effort “to gather data over many years from one million or more people living in the United States, with the ultimate goal of accelerating research and improving health,” according to the program’s website.
The UI will be a national coordinating center charged with creating content to prompt people to enroll in the All of Us initiative and to help health care providers—such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and genetic counselors—understand the promise of precision medicine.
The Hardin Library for the Health Sciences will partner with the National Library of Medicine on the funding award, which supplements a $6.5 million award to the Hardin Library in the spring of 2016 to support the National Library of Medicine’s goal to provide U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information and to improve the public’s access to information so citizens can make informed decisions about their health.
“We are excited that the University of Iowa will be part of this very important NIH precision-medicine
initiative that may ultimately improve the health of all,” says Linda Walton, associate university librarian and director of the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. “We have put together a strong team to develop the educational component for the All of Us research program, keeping in mind the many different biological, environmental, and behavioral influences that affect our citizenry.”
A primary focus of the new award is to demystify personalized medicine through educational materials, online courses, and seminars for the public and health care professionals. Among the ideas being considered are a traveling photographic exhibit, interactive online games, and various apps for mobile devices.
“We look forward to the opportunity to educate and empower all Americans on precision medicine topics,” says Colleen Campbell, assistant director at the Iowa Institute of Human Genetics based in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and a co-principal investigator on the grant. “And, we are very excited to put into action the educational materials and activities we have proposed to help make personalized medicine easy to understand and accessible for the public and health care professionals.”
Campbell, Walton, and Rema Afifi, professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health in the UI College of Public Health, are the supplemental grant’s three co-principal investigators.
Other participants are Liz Hollingworth, professor in the College of Education; Elizabeth Kiscaden, associate director of the regional medical library at the Hardin Library; Edith Parker, professor and chair in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health in the College of Public Health; and Richard Smith, director of the Iowa Institute of Human Genetics.
Workshop: Lit Searching for a Systematic Review | Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2-3pm
This class will focus on tips and techniques for carrying out a successful literature search in support of a systematic review. Topics will include techniques for developing search strategies, deciding which databases to search and how to seek out grey literature for a given topic. There will also be discussion on selecting journals for hand searching, documenting search strategies, and saving and organizing references.
NOTE: We suggest that “Nuts and Bolts of a Systematic Review” be taken before “Literature Searching for a Systematic Review.”
Tuesday, November 28, 2017 Time:2:00pm – 3:00pm Hardin Library – Information Commons East 2nd Floor
November 2017 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room | Ars moriendi = The Art of Dying
Ars moriendi. [Cologne, Heinrich Quentell, c. 1495]
Although the author of Ars moriendi is not known, the book is believed to have been written in Southern Germany at the time of the Council of Constance (1414-1418).
Ars moriendi, or The art of dying, was intended to instruct the reader on the proper modes of behavior when facing death. The book was one result of the Church’s effort to educate the laity in the fundamentals of Christianity during the late medieval period. Gerson’s Opus tripartitum is the source of much of the work, with other material being drawn from the Bible, liturgies, and devotional and doctrinal literature of the period.
Ars moriendi is divided into six parts:
- a selection of quotations on death from authoritative Christian sources;
- advice to the dying on how to overcome faithlessness, despair, impatience, pride, worldliness, and other temptations;
- a series of catechetical questions whose correct answers lead to salvation;
- instructions and prayers for imitating the dying Christ;
- practical advice for the dying individual; and,
- prayers to be said by those attending the dying.
The title page scene is a well known and frequently studied woodcut. Designed by Heinrich Quentell, Cologne’s most successful and prolific printer of the late fifteenth century, it depicts St. Thomas instructing two children who are seated before him.
You may view this book in the John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. Make a gift to the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences by donating online or setting up a recurring gift with The University of Iowa Foundation.
Meet The Expert: Jen DeBerg, Reference Services Librarian
Jen DeBerg, Reference Services Librarian
Master of Library Science, Emporia State University
Bachelor of Science, Occupational Therapy, Elizabethtown College
Areas of expertise:
- Adjunct Lecturer, College of Nursing
- Health sciences literature searching
- Systematic reviews
- EndNote
- Teaching and training users
- Finding evidence-based resources
- Arthur Benton Excellence in Reference Services award winner
Outside the library:
Jen lives in Iowa City with her family: husband and 2 sons, aged 12 and 9. She enjoys music, reading, swimming, hiking, ice skating, snowboarding and watching all sports.
Better genetic information searching | NCBI Gene, Nucleotide Sequences & Protein | workshop Wednesday, Nov. 8, 11a-12pm
Overwhelmed by the number of databases that the National Center for Biotechnology Information has to offer on nucleotide sequences, genes and proteins? Wondering which database you should always start with? Would you like to learn how to set up an NCBI account to link articles in PubMed to records in other databases? Do you know about PubMed’s Gene Sensor? Are you familiar with the concept of linear navigation? Learn all of these tips and more in this session that is designed for anyone who needs to search the NCBI databases for genetic information.
Wednesday, November 8th, 11:00am-12:00pm, East Information Commons, 2nd Floor
Register online or by calling 319-335-9151.
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 call Janna Lawrence at 319-335-9871.
