September 2026 Issue

Welcome to the 2026-2027 school year! The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) serves the students, faculty, and staff of the Pitt health sciences community, and we are excited to support your research and educational endeavors in the upcoming year.

The HSLS Update is our monthly newsletter that connects us to the Pitt health sciences community. Each month we will deliver important updates, relevant news, and informative articles directly to your inbox. In this and next month’s issue, we will be introducing you to HSLS services and resources that can help you succeed in this academic year.

Here are more ways to connect with us online:

• Visit the HSLS website
• Ask a Librarian your questions or find answers to FAQs
• Follow us on X, Instagram, and Facebook
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel

HSLS has developed five AI-native tools to help researchers find evidence, understand content, assess manuscripts, verify citations, and plan scientific visuals. Built with Claude Sonnet 5 through the University of Pittsburgh’s licensed Claude for Education platform.  The tools are available to Pitt faculty, staff, and students through Pitt Passport single sign-on.

Research Query Answering Engine

Accepts research questions written in plain English and after searching and reviewing relevant literature, provides evidence-based answers. Claude expands each question using related terminology and searches sources such as PubMed, PubMed Central, ClinicalTrials.gov, the FDA, and the World Health Organization. References are verified before they are displayed, helping prevent fabricated or hallucinated citations from appearing in the report.

For example, one could ask, “Does IL-17 blockade affect cardiovascular risk in patients with psoriasis?” and receive a structured answer supported by verified references, along with an evidence summary, confidence rating, and discussion of limitations. The tool supports rapid exploration of a topic but does not replace a systematic or librarian-assisted literature search. Continue reading →

You can access information about our resources and services at any time on the HSLS website, but if you’re looking for something specific, the amount of content may be overwhelming. As a member of the Pitt health sciences community, you have access to a liaison librarian, a “personal librarian” who can help you navigate the library’s offerings.

Liaisons are librarians who are familiar with your school or department and the library’s resources, so they can help bridge the gap by finding you exactly what you need. In addition to helping people affiliated with designated schools or departments, the library also has liaisons who are experts in topics like scholarly communication, data management, interprofessional education, and bioinformatics. Liaisons also provide instruction on library-related topics within courses or groups at their school. Continue reading →

Unsure what the differences between public access and open access are? Ever wondered why open access is diamond, gold, or green? What is my h-index and why is it different in Google Scholar and Web of Science? HSLS librarians can answer your questions on a variety of publishing topics, teach classes in the curriculum, lab, and journal club, and provide individual and group consultations.

NIH Public Access and Publishing Open Access?

Whether you’re an experienced researcher who has published many times, or a new author, there is much to consider when selecting a journal for your work. One factor to consider is compliance with the NIH and other funders’ public access mandates. One strategy is to target journals at publishers that allow you to comply with the public access mandate without the payment of fees, either because they allow you to comply with the public access requirement by depositing the author accepted manuscript without embargo, or they publish open access (OA) without author fees. Another option is to publish OA through one of Pitt’s OA publishing agreements. 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 and discuss other options for sharing your work, such as preprints. HSLS librarians are ready to help make this process easier. Continue reading →

The University of Pittsburgh’s Open Access Agreement with Wiley is nearing its annual limit on the number of articles eligible for APC-free (article processing charge-free) open access publishing. Eligibility is based on the date an article is accepted for publication, not the date it is submitted. Once the annual limit is reached, articles that are subsequently accepted for publication will NOT be covered under the agreement, even if they were submitted before the limit was reached. In these cases, the corresponding author will be responsible for any invoice received from the publisher. The library’s Open Access Publishing Agreements page has noted the annual limit since the announcement of our agreement in 2024.

We apologize for any inconvenience, but we must operate within the limitations of Wiley’s internal processes. APC coverage cannot be reserved for articles still under peer/editorial review.

We will routinely update the Wiley section of the Open Access Publishing Agreements page with the number of articles remaining. Continue reading →

Falk Library is unique for being a hub for all six schools of the health sciences. Though you may have a home base in another building, Falk Library is designed to meet many of your curricular and extracurricular needs in one place.

How do I get to Falk Library?

We’re located at M722 Alan Magee Scaife Hall. If you are on Lothrop St, look for the side of the building with Health Sciences Library in large lettering. Or, follow our directions page for details on using one of three building entrances to find our front door – you’ll see our large Falk Library Hours screen and a double glass door at our entrance.

Where do I go inside the library?

Stop at the Main Desk if you are checking in for a consultation or group study room, borrowing a charging cord or other technology accessory, or asking a question about library resources. If you are looking for a study space, you can continue through the main floor of the library to tables, booths, and study carrels – which is what we call our three-sided desks with a cushioned bench. Much of the same kind of seating is on the lower floor, which you can reach by the central stairs near the main entrance. Quiet study rooms – if you need absolute silence – are also on the lower floor. If you’re not sure which area to go to, check out library maps from our website or on big display at the kiosk in the entrance. Continue reading →

Looking to learn more about a new topic, brush up on research skills, or connect with the health sciences community in a live class? HSLS offers a wide variety of live instructional sessions and self-paced modules, developed in response to the learning needs of health sciences faculty, staff, and students. This fall, you can learn more about the library’s resources and services by taking our Know Your Library modules, learn how to use Proofig AI to assess image integrity in a live class, or update your Scholars@Pitt profile with other Pitt faculty.

To browse our current classes by topic, use the Learn @ HSLS page. Click on a topic to see what options are available. This page lists all of our instruction, so you’ll find a mix of both synchronous and asynchronous learning. Live classes are typically offered via Zoom, while you’ll find our Self-Paced Learning hosted on our Canvas site. Continue reading →

What made modern medicine? Is medicine still modern? In The New Modern Medicine: Disease, Evidence, and Epidemiological Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2025), Jonathan Fuller attempts to answer these questions through historical and philosophical analysis. He argues that modern medicine was born of an intimate relationship between clinical practice and modern research sciences. However, clinical medicine has been molded in the image of different sciences over time. Historians and sociologists used to write of a “laboratory medicine,” in which experimental laboratory sciences shaped modern medicine in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the Second World War, modern epidemiology has profoundly influenced medical concepts, reasoning, and goals in ways that are often hiding in plain sight. The result is an epidemiological medicine that characterizes medicine’s recent past, and what may be considered a new modern medicine.  

In the inaugural lecture of the 43rd Annual C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society Lecture Series, Professor Fuller will illustrate the rise and characteristics of epidemiological medicine using examples from one of the diseases of the “epidemiologic transition”: cancer. From its multifactorial etiology to its evidence-based management and even – perhaps, surprisingly – its precision diagnosis and treatment, cancer medicine is epidemiological medicine. The History of Health Sciences collection has many books on the study of cancer and the evolution of epidemiology. A rare item in the collection is a summary report of the Evaluation of the 1954 Poliomyelitis Vaccine Trials, which is an early example of the use of the double-blind test methodology.  Continue reading →

Visitors to Falk Library, located in Alan Magee Scaife Hall, are encouraged to check out these opportunities and displays:

Fall Crafts ‘n Snacks: Button Making

Wednesday, September 16

Lunchtime session: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Evening session: 4-6 p.m.

Fall is in the air, and we’re feeling leaves, pumpkins, and cozy drink vibes. Stop by Falk Library to make your own button featuring your fall favorites, or any design you choose – get creative!

A make-your-own-trail-mix station will be offered at the same time for a healthy lunchtime or evening snack. Pack your own tight-seal bag with your favorite goodies to take with you to enjoy throughout the day. Look for the Guess-the-Candy game at the trail mix table. Whoever has the closest guess to the number of candy pieces wins a prize!

Continue reading →

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

 

News

HSLS welcomes Sa’ad Laws, MA, MLIS, who serves as the Evidence Synthesis Coordinator. Sa’ad brings over a decade of academic library experience in a medical setting to our team, most recently as the Systematic Review Services Coordinator and Reference and Instruction Librarian at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar. We’re pleased he’s joined HSLS in this new role supporting and further developing HSLS’s Evidence Synthesis Services.

Alyssa Young, Research and Instruction Librarian, was named a 2026 PAM Award Winner by the Special Libraries Association’s Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division for her work on the STEM Librarians Collaborative’s (STEMLibCo) original planning committee. STEMLibCo received the division award for adding to the substance of STEM librarianship through excellent professional development programming and furthering the conversation around critical library issues.

Continue reading →