Your Library Welcomes You!

The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) is pleased to welcome you to the 2024-2025 school year! Our faculty and staff are looking forward to serving your research, instruction, and learning needs in the year ahead.

HSLS is the designated library for the six schools of the Health Sciences, and also provides services to UPMC residents and fellows through the Health Sciences Digital Library (HSDL).

The HSLS Update is how we stay connected with the Pitt health sciences community. Through this monthly newsletter we share important updates, relevant news, and how-to articles. This special issue will also highlight HSLS services and resources you should know about as you start the academic year.

Here are more ways to connect with us online:

Visit us on campus in Falk Library, located in Alan Magee Scaife Hall. The Main Desk is your one-stop shop for questions, resources, and technology to borrow. Discover your perfect spot in our study and technology spaces. The library’s complete renovation with expanded spaces will be unveiled in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Pitt Health Sciences Panel on Health Care Reform and Equity

On September 23, 2024, HSLS invites you to join your health sciences colleagues for a panel discussion on health care reform, policy, and health equity. This conversation expands on the historical topics of the exhibit For All The People: A Century of Citizen Action in Health Care Reform, which is currently on display at Falk Library.

Moderating the panel is Tina Batra Hershey, associate professor and co-director of the MPH and MPH/JD programs in the School of Public Health, faculty in Health Policy and Management, and affiliated professor in the School of Law.

Continue reading →

Navigate HSLS Resources and Services with Your Liaison Librarian

Did you know that most schools and departments in the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh are assigned a “personal librarian,” also known as a liaison librarian? In addition to helping people affiliated with certain schools or departments, the library also has liaisons who are experts in topics like scholarly communication, data management, interprofessional education, and bioinformatics.

The HSLS website is a one-stop shop for everything the library offers, but browsing the resources and services we provide may appear overwhelming. As experts in a discipline or domain, liaison librarians can recommend useful resources and connect you to valuable services. Continue reading →

Level Up Your Research Skills with HSLS Instruction

Did you know that HSLS offers you expert instruction on a variety of topics? Our goal in offering instruction is to help you (or your students) to be a more efficient, effective researcher – and this includes getting grants, analyzing your data, publishing papers about your research, and more. Whether you are staff, faculty, postdoc, resident, fellow, or student, read on to learn about what HSLS can teach you how to do.

We offer instruction covering a range of categories, including:

  • Citation Management: Determine which citation manager is best for you and then dive in with basic and advanced EndNote and Zotero classes.
  • Data Science: Organize, use, share, and increase the reproducibility of your research data or code, or learn about using R and Python in data analysis.
  • Finding Literature & Data: Augment your skills to effectively search databases to find the papers or data you need to support your work.
  • Information Literacy: Explore strategies for knowing what information you should trust and for combating misinformation.
  • Molecular Biology: Learn how to use databases and software tools for your molecular biology and bioinformatics research projects.
  • Scholarly Publishing & Communication: Navigate the publishing process and highlight the impact of your research.
  • Visualization & Design: Use simple tools to design reports, flyers, and infographics and to create scientific figures.
  • Research Methods: Get an overview of systematic reviews or learn about study methodology assessment.
  • Other Topics: Explore other topics such as peer review skills, the NIH Policy on Data Management and Sharing, and the All of Us Researcher Workbench.

Continue reading →

Manage and Share Your Data with Help from HSLS Data Services

The HSLS Data Services team can help you manage, publish, and share your data for any type of research project. We offer consultations, classes, and customized trainings in the following areas:

Research data management and sharing

Organizing files, writing documentation, and sharing datasets for reuse are crucial practices for improving the reproducibility of research. We offer personal consultations on data management topics and teach classes throughout the semester. In particular, we offer:

  • Synchronous classes on file-naming best practices, writing data management plans for grant applications, and responsibly reusing data (or making your data available for reuse).
  • Asynchronous self-paced learning modules (including one named “Sharing Data and Code”). Upon completion, you can earn badges to share on social media, LinkedIn, etc.
  • One-on-one consultations on writing and implementing a data management and sharing plan (DMSP) for the NIH’s Data Management and Sharing Policy or Pitt’s Research Data Management Interim Policy.
  • Review of DMSPs prior to submission with grant proposals. If you write your plan using one of the templates at DMPTool, use the “request feedback” tab to get comments and suggestions (please allow us at least five business days for an initial review of your plan).

Continue reading →

Scholarly Publishing Services

Not sure who to ask when you have questions about publishing? Librarians at HSLS are prepared to answer your questions, teach classes in the curriculum or lab journal clubs, and provide individual and group consultations on a variety of publishing topics.

Where to publish?

Whether you’ve published many times before, or if it’s your first time going through the process, there is much to consider when finding a suitable journal for your work. We can provide ideas for how to put your manuscript into a framework to identify relevant journals, as well as how to evaluate the quality of a journal. From understanding the different ways to make your work open access (including the Pitt libraries’ open access publishing agreements), negotiating your author rights, complying with public access policies, or publishing research outputs such as preprints, HSLS librarians are ready to help make this process easier.

Continue reading →

HSLS MolBio: Your Gateway to Cutting-Edge Bioinformatics and Data Science Training and Resources

The HSLS Molecular Biology Information Service is dedicated to providing resources through software procurement, implementation, and training, empowering biomedical scientists to solve their research questions. Known as “HSLS MolBio,” our service has supported Pitt researchers since 2002.

What We Offer

At HSLS MolBio, we operate with a comprehensive four-facet approach:

  1. Software Solutions: We identify and procure institutional licenses for commercial bioinformatics software, providing complimentary access to the Pitt research community. HSLS-licensed software operates through user-friendly graphical interfaces, eliminating the need for prior programming experience.
  2. Hands-On Workshops: Our workshops cover a wide spectrum of emerging bioinformatics and data science-related topics, from bulk and single-cell RNA-Seq data analysis to pathway enrichment and gene expression visualization, from R and Python coding to NIH All of Us biobank data analysis. Whether you’re new to bioinformatics or looking to deepen your skills, our sessions are tailored to meet your specific needs.
  3. Personalized Consultations: Need expert advice on software, databases, or writing R/Python scripts? Our team offers one-on-one consultations, ensuring you get the support necessary to navigate through your research challenges.
  4. Web Tools and Resources: Explore our web portal featuring user-friendly tools like Search.bioPreprint, which scours preprints for the latest unpublished biomedical research. We also offer Search.Databases/Tools and Search.Protocols to streamline your search for molecular biology databases, software tools, and experimental protocols.

Continue reading →

Historical Collections at HSLS

The historical collections at HSLS represent more than half of the library’s print collection and include first or limited editions of medical texts published between the 15th and 20th centuries, as well as manuscripts, scrapbooks, and local pamphlets. Research into the history of medical sciences is also supported by our circulating history of medicine books, which include modern publications examining the development of medicine and medical research, as well as historical accounts of health professionals and hospitals.

All of our rare books and special collections are discoverable through the library’s online catalog, PittCat, and the history of medicine website.

Continue reading →

New HSLS Technology Services Guide

HSLS Technology Services provides resources to meet the needs of today’s academic environment.

The equipment inventory available at Falk Library has recently expanded. Whether you simply forgot to bring the charger for your phone or laptop, you need equipment to virtually connect your study group with someone who couldn’t make it in person, or you need to create an audio or video recording for a class project, we have the equipment and resources you need. Visit the Main Desk at Falk Library in Alan Magee Scaife Hall to find your technology solution.

Explore the new HSLS Technology Guide for information on the technological equipment available at Falk Library. The guide organizes the equipment into user-friendly categories: Self-Service Technology, Power and Adapters, Mobile Computing, Audio, Video, Accessibility & Wellness, and information about our Group Study Rooms’ technology. Continue reading →