McGoogan News

By Erin Torell 

A new exhibit is open on Level 8 of the Leon S. McGoogan Health Sciences Library. “Finding a Voice: Poetry, Prose, and Stories of Neurodiversity from the Wolfensberger Collection” showcases three books from the Wolf P. Wolfensberger, PhD, collection held in the library’s Robert S. Wigton Department of Special Collections and Archives:  

• Gretchen Josephson, born in Denver, Colorado (1954-2017) used poetry to interact with the world around her and to deal with events, people, and issues in her life. She did not let Down syndrome or society’s expectations about those with Down syndrome stop her from sharing her voice through poetry in her book Bus Girl: Poems by Gretchen Josephson (1997). 
• Poet Robert (Bob) Williams devoted his life to political activism to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities. Born with cerebral palsy, Williams held several positions in state and federal government and in the private sector. In A Struggling Voice: The Selected Poems of Robert Williams (1989), gave Williams an opportunity to advocate, through poetry, for those with disabilities to express their observations of the world. 

• Know Me As I Am: An Anthology of Prose, Poetry and Art by People With Learning Difficulties, edited by Dorothy Atkinson and Fiona Williams (1990), contains many autobiographical interviews, narratives handwritten and typed, poetry, and artwork from individuals with a variety of disabilities. The works cover issues of the self, memories, relationships, transitions, creativity and imagination, daily life, experiences of oppression, struggles, and self-determination.  

Dr. Wolfensberger (1934-2011) concentrated his life on psychiatry and community advocacy for individuals with mental and physical disabilities. From 1964-1971, he worked at the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute (NPI) at UNMC. He dedicated his work to the principle of normalization, which advocates for the integration of persons with disabilities into the larger societal community. Wolfensberger also developed community-based support programs. The McGoogan Library’s Robert S. Wigton Department of Special Collections and Archives holds his collection of books, research, teaching materials, and artifacts.  https://www.unmc.edu/library/special-collections/archives.html 

Access the exhibit in the elevator lobby on Level 8 of the McGoogan Health Sciences Library through September 18, 2023. 

Do you have a topic of interest that you want to stay current on? Or working on a literature search that you want to ensure is updated monthly? That’s easy to do with the literature databases.

A search alert automatically notifies you when new articles or content meeting your search (keywords, subject search, authors, etc.) are available. This is useful when you are working on a long-term research project, want to monitor the literature in the field, or keeping up with researchers in your field.

See the attached guide below for PubMed and Google Scholar alerts. Contact your liaison librarian for assistance in setting alerts for the other literature databases.

Update: Access to these journals has been restored.

Access to some of our journal content from Taylor & Francis has been interrupted. We are working with them to restore access.

Jaipreet Virdi, PhD, will present the 14th annual Richard B. Davis, MD, PhD, History of Medicine Lecture on April 14 from noon to 1 p.m. The lecture, titled “Negotiating Normalcy: Deafness Cures in American History,” will be a hybrid event located at the College of Public Health auditorium, room 3013 and via Zoom (registration required).  An American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter will be present and Zoom captioning will be available.  

During the late nineteenth century, entrepreneurs began to glut the direct-to-consumer medical market with a plethora of remedies they professed could miraculously cure deafness. They claimed their medicines and machines fostered a world of unbridled optimism for providing “hope” to deaf ears. Even as medical specialists denounced these “cure-all” treatments as quackery in its finest form, the messages of restoring hearing would transfer over to the hearing aid industry.  

Focusing on the marketing of cures for deafness—hearing trumpets, electrotherapy apparatuses, and hearing aids—this presentation unravels the many ways deaf people sought to restore or gain hearing. This history provides a broad context for understanding the lived experiences of deaf people and how cultural pressures of normalcy significantly stigmatized deafness. 

Dr. Virdi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Delaware. A historian of medicine, technology, and disability, her research focuses on the ways medicine and technology impact people with disability. She is author of Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History (University of Chicago Press, 2020), co-editor of Disability and the Victorians: Attitudes, Legacies, Interventions (Manchester University Press, 2020), and has published articles on diagnostic technologies, audiometry, and the medicalization of deafness. 

The library will hold a drawing for Dr. Virdi’s book, Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History. Entries can be made online.  

The Richard B. Davis, MD, PhD, History of Medicine Lectureship brings national experts to the UNMC campus to discuss the history of medicine, in support of special collections at the McGoogan Library, including rare books and works on the history of medicine. The lectureship is supported through an endowed fund given by the late Richard B. Davis (1926-2010), MD, PhD, who was a UNMC faculty member from 1969 to 1994 and professor emeritus of internal medicine at UNMC. Dr. Davis and his wife, Jean, provided support for the lectureship out of his longstanding interest in the history of medicine. 

Boxed lunches will be available to the first 50 in-person attendees. 

Register now for the library’s April and May instructional sessions:

April 

Overview of Fetal images from the McGoogan Library Rare Book Collection  

April 7, noon-1 p.m. 

View illustrations of the fetus from the McGoogan Library Rare Book Collection.  Erin Torell, McGoogan Health Sciences Library Rare Book Librarian, will share books from the 16th-19th centuries. Learn about the artists, anatomists, and the 18th century changes in the roles of men and women in midwifery.  

Writing a Data Management Plan 

April 19, noon-1 p.m.  

This webinar will use the new NIH DMSP 2023 template created with DMPTool to guide you through drafting a Data Management and Sharing Plan. We will address the major components of writing a data management plan, which includes choosing data types, describing the structure of your data, and the challenges and benefits of data sharing.

May 

Preserving Family Treasures: Personal Papers, Photos, Scrapbooks, and More  

May 4, noon-1 p.m.  

What do I do with all this stuff? In this session, you will learn about basic care of your family treasures such as loose photos, letters, scrapbooks and photo albums. DiAnna Hemsath, McGoogan Health Sciences Library Archivist, will provide practical tips and solutions for organization and safe storage of your family history for future generations.