Beginning this month, construction will begin in Hardin Library that will transform the space into one that we hope will be more welcoming and more relevant to your needs. By the end of the project, which will take two years:
quiet study space on the 4th floor will be expanded,
3rd floor study space will be upgraded, and
Hardin staff offices will all be located in a central area on the 3rd floor (except for the Curator of the John Martin Rare Book Room).
Among the anticipated improvements include the addition of more group studies on the 2nd and 3rd floors and updating of the individual study rooms on the 4th floor. The 4th floor improvements are thanks to a grant funded by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust.
The first activity you will notice at Hardin will be on the 4th floor. Beginning August 8, most of the print books published before 2010 will be removed and sent to the Library Annex to accommodate the expansion of study space on the that floor. The book move will take place in two stages, each lasting about a week, in August and in December. Most of the current books in Hardin’s collection are electronic and so will continue to be easily accessible from anywhere. If you need an older print item, books at the Annex can be requested and delivered to Hardin for pick-up or even sent to your office or home (although not to dorm rooms). Older books with high use can be permanently returned to Hardin.
Later in the month, beginning approximately August 22, work will begin on the 1st floor to build offices for the Vice President for Research’s Environmental Health and Safety group. Also this fall, public restrooms on the 3rd and 4th floor will be enlarged and improved. Restrooms on the 1st and 2nd floor are scheduled for upgrades next year.
We know that construction will be disruptive, but Hardin will remain open and metered parking will continue to be available in our lot. We have asked that the noisiest work be done overnight, when it will disturb the fewest number of people. Earplugs are available at the 3rd floor service desk and in the 24-hour study. We will keep you updated through signage and blog posts.
Louis was born to a military surgeon family. His father was a surgeon-major, the senior surgeon of a regiment, at a military hospital. Louis apprenticed under his father and by 1743 had joined another regiment as a surgeon himself. He soon went to Paris, though, to further his education at the Salpêtrière hospital, which you may remember from such JMRBR newsletters as “Volume 2, Issue 4.” In 1750 he was appointed professor of physiology, holding that position for 40 years.
Louis was at the head of a movement to push back against the negative perception of surgeons driven by physicians. He wrote often, and effectively, to argue for equal status for surgeons.
And he was not afraid to put his money where his mouth was. Upon the completion of his stint at Salpêtrière, he could have slid right into a position at the college of Surgery, but instead, he wrote and defended his thesis, Positiones anatomicae et chirurgicae(1749). Both of which he accomplished in Latin, thereby demonstrating that surgeons were as liberally educated as their physician colleagues.
While also performing surgeries, writing, and maintaining a busy administrative calendar, Louis found time to invent and improve surgical instruments. His renown eventually led to an association with the most infamous period in French history. A physician opposed to capital punishment petitioned the National Assembly (formed shortly after the French Revolution) to advocate for a more “humane” way to execute criminals.
This would be accomplished by using a machine designed to quickly decapitate them. The Assembly eventually petitioned Louis to design and build it. Originally referred to as the Louisette, it eventually adopted the name synonymous with the Reign of Terror – the Guillotine, named after the physician who originally proposed its use, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin.
Louis wrote and published throughout his life, including several biographies of other surgeons, Encyclopédie entries, and pioneering works on medical jurisprudence. Two boxes of unpublished works were found while cataloging his belongings after his death. These are two of his earlier books. The second is an interesting piece on cancerous growths and remedies, in which Louis refers to cancer as a virus. We now know of several viruses that can lead to cancer.
Our copy is an adorable little book with beautiful marbled endpapers. The contemporary sheepskin cover shows that the book has lived a busy life. It’s a deep, rich brown color with several gilt flowers along the spine. The paper is in excellent condition, showing few signs of age or damage.
Contact curator damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu or 319-335-9154 to arrange a visit in person or over Zoom.
Hardin Librarians are active in the Medical Library Association. The annual conference is in New Orleans, May 3-6, 2022.
Jennifer Deberg, a 2022 RTI (Research Training Institute) Fellow is presenting a poster: Exploring DNP (Doctorate Nurse Practitioner) Student Information Literacy Competence for Evidence-Based Practice
Hardin Library Director Janna Lawrence will be attending the in-person Board meeting on Tuesday, May 3. Ms. Lawrence is also co-facilitator of a session, “Staying Ahead of the Future: Developing Your Library’s Collection Philosophy and Policy,” which is part of an in-conference symposium called “The Big Not-So-Easy: a Symposium on 21st Century Health Sciences Collection Development and Resource Sharing.”
I like to say we left at first light
with Chairman Mao himself chasing us in a police car,
my father fighting him off with firecrackers,
even though Mao was already over a decade
dead, & my mother says all my father did
during the Cultural Revolution was teach math,
she says & it’s the first time the word doesn’t hurt. I respond by citing something age-inappropriate from Aristotle, drawing mostly from his idea that hands are what make us
It is essential that Summer be grafted
to bones marrow earth clouds blood the eyes of our ancestors. It is essential to smell the beginning words where Washington, Madison,
Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson assembled amid cries
of:
“The people lack of
information” “We grow more and
more skeptical” “This Constitution is a
triple-headed monster” “Blacks are property”
It is essential to remember how cold
the sun how warm the snow snapping around the ragged feet of soldiers and
slaves. It is essential to string the sky with the saliva of Slavs and Germans and Anglos and French and Italians and Scandinavians, and Spaniards and Mexicans and Poles and Africans and Native Americans. It is essential that we always repeat: we the people, we the people, we the people.
Taped to the wall of my cell are 47 pictures: 47 black faces: my father, mother, grandmothers (1 dead), grand- fathers (both dead), brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins (1st and 2nd), nieces, and nephews. They stare across the space at me sprawling on my bunk. I know their dark eyes, they know mine. I know their style, they know mine. I am all of them, they are all of me; they are farmers, I am a thief, I am me, they are thee.
I have at one time or another been in love with my mother, 1 grandmother, 2 sisters, 2 aunts (1 went to the asylum), and 5 cousins. I am now in love with a 7-yr-old niece (she sends me letters in large block print, and her picture is the only one that smiles at me).
I have the same name as 1 grandfather, 3 cousins, 3 nephews, and 1 uncle. The uncle disappeared when he was 15, just took off and caught a freight (they say). He’s discussed each year when the family has a reunion, he causes uneasiness in the clan, he is an empty space. My father’s mother, who is 93 and who keeps the Family Bible with everbody’s birth dates (and death dates) in it, always mentions him. There is no place in her Bible for “whereabouts unknown.”
my father is a retired magician which accounts for my irregular
behavior everythin comes outta magic hats or bottles wit no bottoms & parakeets are as easy to get as a couple a rabbits or 3 fifty cent pieces/ 1958
once, while on a coke binge, and away from my mother, my father drove his car across the sand and into the pacific ocean. before he had done that, he had given away all of his possessions, and eaten a steak dinner. he survived.
Selections by Bushra Moghram
This Bridge Across by Christopher Gilbert (entire poem) A moment comes to me and it’s a lot like the dead who get in the way sometimes hanging around, with their ranks growing bigger by the second and the game of tag they play claiming whoever happens by.
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don’t mind happiness
not always being
so very much fun
if you don’t mind a touch of hell
now and then
just when everything is fine
because even in heaven
they don’t sing
all the time
Comparison by Paul Laurence Dunbar (entire poem) The sky of brightest gray seems dark To one whose sky was ever white. To one who never knew a spark, Thro’ all his life, of love or light, The grayest cloud seems over-bright.
Visit the John Martin Rare Book Room at Hardin Library for the annual open house,
Wednesday, April 20, from 4pm-7pm.
All are welcome/family friendly! Masks encouraged. This is an in-person event.
The following books will be on display:
BLEULAND, JAN (1756-1838). Otium academicum. Trajecti ad Rhenum: Ex Officina Joh. Altheer, academiae typographi, 1828.
SABUCO de NANTES y BARRERA, OLIVA (1562-1646) Nueva filosofia de la naturaleza del hombre, no conocida, ni alcanzada de los grandes filosofos antiguos, la qual mejora la vida y salud humana, con las adicciones de la segunda impression. Madrid: Printed by Domingo Fernandez for Francisco Lopez Fernandez, 1728.
de PORRAS, MANUEL. Anatomia Galenico-moderna / Compuesta Por El Doctor Don Manuel De Porras, Cirujano De Su Magestad, Y De Los Reales Hospitales De La Corte, Y Examinador Del Real Protomedicato. En Madrid : En la Imprenta de Musica, por Bernardo Peralta, 1716.
SCHWANN, THEODOR (1810-1882). Mikroskopische Untersuchungen über die Uebereinstimmung in der Struktur und dem Wachsthum der Thiere und Pflanzen. [Microscopical researches into the accordance in the structure and growth of animals and plants]. Berlin : Verlag der Sander’schen Buchhandlung G.E. Reimer, 1839.
Medicinal Plants Scroll from Japan’s Mid-Edo Period. Japan, 1727.
PARACELSUS (ca. 1493-1541). Des hochgelerten vn[d] hocherfarnen Herren Theophrasti Paracelsi von Hohenheim, beider Artzney Doctoris, etliche Tractaten vor in Truck nie ausskommen. [From the highly educated and high ranking Theophrastus Paracelsus of Hohenheim, doctor of both medicines, a number of never before seen tracts] Printed by Arnold Birckmann’s print shop (the “Heirs of Arnold Birckmann”) in Cologne in 1564.
Aristotle (pseudo). Aristotle’s Compleat Master-piece : In Three Parts : Displaying the Secrets of Nature in the Generation of Man … To Which Is Added, A Treasure of Health ; Or, The Family Physician : Being Choice and Approved Remedies for All the Several Distempers Incident to Humane Bodies. The Fifteenth ed. London: Printed and Sold by the Booksellers, 1723. **note**this book is currently being conserved and may not be available for the open house but is in our permanent collection
NIGHTINGALE, FLORENCE (1820-1910). Notes on nursing: what it is, and what it is not. Printed by Harrison, 1860.
NICANDER, OF COLOPHON (flourished 138-130 BCE) Theriaka; Tou autou Alexipharmaka [Greek title transliterated]. Theriaca; Eiusdem Alexipharmaca. Printed by John Soteris in 1530.
TAGLIACOZZI, GASPARE(1545-1599). De curtorum chirurgia per insitionem. Apud Gasparem Bindonum iuniorem, 1597.
BOURGEOIS BOURSIER, LOUISE (1563-1636) Obseruations diuerses sur la sterilité, perte de fruict, fœcondité, accouchements, et maladies des femmes, et enfants nouueaux naiz / amplement traictees et heureusement praticquees par L. Bourgeois, dite Boursier, sage femme de la Roine; œuure vtil et necessaire a toutes personnes. [Diverse Observations on Sterility, Miscarriage, Fertility, Childbirth, and Diseases of Women and Newborn Children. Discussed in Detail and Successfully Practiced by L. Bourgeois, called Boursier, Midwife to the Queen. A Work Useful and Necessary for All]. Printed by Chez A. Saugrain. 1609.
LONICER, ADAM (1528-1586) Kreuterbuch, kunstliche Conterfeytunge der Bäume, Stauden, Hecken, Kreuter, Getreyde, Gewürtze. Bey Christian Egenolffs seligen Erben, 1587.
MOTONORI, TAKI (1732-1801) Kokei saikyuho [Emergency remedies for the benefit of the people], 1789.
WILLIAM COWPER (1666-1709) The anatomy of humane bodies : with figures drawn after the life by some of the best masters in Europe, and curiously engraven in one hundred and fourteen copper plates, illustrated with large explications, containing many new anatomical discoveries, and chirurgical observations : to which is added an introduction explaining the animal oeconomy, with a copious index. Oxford: Printed at the Theater, for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford…, 1698.
SCHEDEL, HARTMANN (1440-1514). [Nuremberg Chronicle] Liber chronicarum. 1493.
GALVANI, LUIGI. De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentarius cum Joannis Aldini dissertatione et notis. Accesserunt epistolae ad animalis electricitatis theoriam pertinentes. Modena: apud Societatem Typographicam, 1792.
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 Damien Ihrig in advance at 319-335-9154 or damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu.
All loans due in June, 2022 should be returned or renewed (re-loaned). Materials due in June 2022 must be renewed or returned by October 1 to avoid being billed a replacement charge.
You may return any University of Iowa Libraries books by shipping them to Hardin Library.
Ship books to Hardin Library, 600 Newton Road, Iowa City, IA 52242 USA
Please use shipping with tracking such as USPS Priority Mail or UPS.
Hardin Library has a low-barrier book return at the Newton Road entrance. Come inside the first set of doors and you will see a wooden book return with a slot (nothing to pull) for returns. You may return any University of Iowa books here. This door is near parking and is handicapped-accessible.