HSLS Staff News

The HSLS Staff News section includes recent HSLS presentations, publications, staff changes, staff promotions, degrees earned, and more.

Publications

Sri Chaparala, Lead Bioinformatics Specialist, and Ansuman Chattopadhyay, Director for Molecular Biology Information Services, co-authored the article:

Wood JA, Chaparala S, Bantang C, Chattopadhyay A, Wesesky MA, Kinchington PR, Nimgaonkar VL, Bloom DC, D’Aiuto L. RNA-Seq time-course analysis of neural precursor cell transcriptome in response to herpes simplex Virus-1 infection. J Neurovirol. 2024 Mar 13. doi: 10.1007/s13365-024-01198-8. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38478163.

Kelsey Cowles, Research and Instruction Librarian, co-authored the book chapter:

Health Misinformation Instruction for Medical Professionals and Students. 2024. Ian Roberts, Stacy Brody, Rachel Brill, and Kelsey Cowles. In Health Literacy and Libraries, Eds. Emily Vardell and Deborah Charbonneau. MLA Books.

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Building R Skills Using All of Us Data

Diving into the world of data analytics and R programming, especially when exploring the rich datasets of the All of Us Research Program, can be both exciting and daunting. To facilitate this learning journey, HSLS has designed the “Applying Probability and Data with R to All of Us Datasets” self-paced learning module* to act as a perfect complement to the “Introduction to Probability and Data with R” course on Coursera, created by Duke University’s Professor Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel. This module is not just about bridging the gap between foundational R programming and statistical concepts; it’s tailored to specifically illuminate the All of Us coding templates, ensuring that the concepts covered are directly applicable to the real-world data challenges of the database. With the flexibility to engage with just the Duke course, solely our HSLS module, or a combination of both, you can tailor a learning experience that perfectly suits your educational needs and aspirations.

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Featured Class: Graphic Design with Canva

Join us for this class:
Wednesday, April 10, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Online
Taught by Rachel Suppok
Register for Graphic Design with Canva*

Learn how to make attention-getting posters, presentation graphics, and social media posts with Canva, a free online graphic design platform. This hands-on class will show you how to create an account, find free templates and stock photos, upload your own images, and download or print your finished product. Basic elements of design will also be discussed.

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Therapy Dog Visit and More During Finals Week at Falk Library

Blue the therapy dog returns for pets and snuggles at Falk Library on Monday, April 22, from 1 to 2 p.m. When you stop by the library to see Blue, grab some snacks for yourself as well! Granola bars, cookies, and other sweets will be available throughout the week as you finish up semester projects and study for final exams.

If you are coming to the library to study with friends, remember to reserve a group study room up to seven days in advance. Rooms are available with valid Pitt ID for four hours at a time. With your Pitt ID, you are also able to borrow portable power outlets, charging cords, and other technology from the Main Desk.

During finals week, Falk Library will be open regular hours, staying open until midnight from Sunday, April 21 through Thursday, April 25.

A white golden retriever is being petted by three young women in a classroom.
Students visiting with Blue during finals week in December 2023.

Treasures from the Rare Book Room: Welcome back. You belong here!

A book’s subject matter and significance to a medical historical collection are sometimes outshone by the fascinating provenance or story of the material object, the physical copy itself. And such is the case with the work of Edward Stanley, the well-respected surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.

The first American edition of Stanley’s “A Treatise on Diseases of the Bones” (Philadelphia, 1849) is a cornerstone of our rheumatism collection. The systematic treatise on bone diseases was anticipated and well received by its 19th-century audience. Falk Library previously owned two copies of this important book. However, in the process of managing collections, one sometimes has to make tough choices. And so, in the late 1970s, the library deduplicated its holdings to make room for new acquisitions. How was it decided which copy should be deaccessioned? Both books had an interesting local provenance. Both were owned and donated to the library by Pitt professors who were instrumental in creating the seed book collection for the School of Medicine in the 19th century. It is difficult now to judge why the selection was made, but at the time, it was the copy from the Dr. Albert G. Walter collection that was chosen for removal from the library. The book then entered the private collectors’ market.

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HSLS Staff News

The HSLS Staff News section includes recent HSLS presentations, publications, staff changes, staff promotions, degrees earned, and more.

News

Michele Klein-Fedyshin, Research and Clinical Instruction Librarian, and Andrea Ketchum, Research and Instruction Librarian Emerita, won the 2024 Ida and George Eliot Prize from the Medical Library Association. Read more about the authors’ award-winning publication in this issue of the HSLS Update.

Sera Thornton, HSLS Instructional Design Lead, was featured in a University Times article representing the Provost’s Standing Committee on Open Educational Resources, which she chairs. The article discusses the various initiatives at Pitt aimed at increasing textbook affordability.

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Introducing Learn @ HSLS

This past month, we launched a new way for you to find learning opportunities at HSLS!  

Learn @ HSLS lists: 

  1. HSLS live classes – the classes and workshops you already know and love, taught by HSLS instructors, either on Zoom or in person; 
  2. HSLS self-paced learning modules – online lessons, created by HSLS instructors, that you can complete anytime and anywhere that is convenient for you; 
  3. Third-party learning links – learning options taught by the rest of the world, recommended by HSLS instructors. 

Interested in learning about a specific subject? For example, how to use EndNote citation management software? Simply browse Learn @ HSLS. The category Citation Management contains the topic “EndNote.” Click on that topic and you see that we offer both HSLS live classes and an HSLS self-paced learning module – choose whichever you prefer! 

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HSLS Self-Paced Learning Now Available

HSLS is now offering self-paced learning modules on many of the topics we regularly teach. Don’t worry, we’re not getting rid of our HSLS live classes – you’ll still be able to learn from your favorite HSLS instructors over Zoom and in person. We’re simply adding an additional option. We hope you’ll check out our new modules and let us know what you think! 

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The Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge

The Health Sciences Library System is excited to announce the Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge! This asynchronous course on Canvas, developed in partnership with the University Library System, will guide you through a wide range of topics that focus on how to make your research openly available. Making your articles and related research outputs open can help increase the transparency and reproducibility of your work, as well as help maximize your research impact.

The overarching benefit of making your work open is that your research is likely to get more exposure than from behind a paywall. If you’re unsure about how to get started, this course is a great place to learn the basics about openly sharing your articles, books, preprints, protocols, data, and code. You can expect to learn about the different open access publishing models, copyright and licensing essentials, open access repositories for all types of research outputs, and other best practices for sharing your scholarship.

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Panel Event Shares Local and Global Perspectives on Impact of Lead

In February, experts and activists in Pittsburgh came together for a panel discussion on the local and global impacts of lead in the community. The panel event was held in conjunction with the national exhibit This Lead is Killing Us: A History of Citizens Fighting Lead Poisoning in Their Communities, on display at Falk Library through March 22, 2024. HSLS co-hosted the event with the School of Public Health.

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Pitt Day of Giving

The eighth annual Pitt Day of Giving (PDoG) took place on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. HSLS received gifts from 14 unique donors, a 75% increase from 2023, for a total of $885 raised.

HSLS ran four fundraising campaigns for PDoG 2024:

  • HSLS General Fund
  • Student Experience at HSLS
  • Research and Faculty Support at HSLS
  • Nancy Tannery Memorial Fund

The HSLS General Fund received the most donations, totaling $485, with the Nancy Tannery Memorial Fund coming in second with $295.

We are sincerely thankful for the generosity of our donors and their support in ensuring that our resources serve as a beacon of knowledge for the health sciences community!

Ithaka S+R/CZI Survey of Generative AI and Biomedical Research

Ithaka S+R, a not-for-profit research organization, has been engaged by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Open Science Program to conduct an international survey of generative artificial intelligence usage among biomedical researchers. This survey will provide landscape-level benchmarking data crucial to inform decision-making by institutions, scholarly societies, and funders about how to encourage the development of ethical research norms and practices governing the use of generative AI across the biomedical sciences.

Take the Survey

To provide important cross-disciplinary comparative data, the survey is open to researchers regardless of disciplinary affiliation and to individuals working in research capacities across the globe. All responses will be fully anonymous.

Learn @ HSLS: Infographics – Sharing Information Visually

Enjoy this online, self-paced module at a time and place that works best for you.
Access the module for Infographics: Sharing Information Visually*

Knowing how and when to use visuals to convey information can improve your ability to communicate and connect with your audience. This module will give you a brief overview of visualization, focusing on using infographics to tell visual stories. Included is a brief demonstration of the online tool Piktochart, so that you can hit the ground running and create your own visuals. Not sure if this module is right for you? Explore Piktochart templates to see examples of the infographics we will create.

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