Category Archives: eresources

Commencement Forum | Care & Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health

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Join the Brown University Library and the Warren Alpert Medical School for “Care & Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health,” a Commencement Forum on Saturday, May 27 from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. in the Willis Reading Room at the John Hay Library.

Free and open to the public.

Hybrid event: in-person and live streamed at http://bit.ly/library-forum-23-care-and-custody.

Commencement Forum

In this panel discussion sponsored by the Brown University Library and the Warren Alpert Medical School’s celebration of 50 Years of Medicine, Brown faculty will discuss the history of psychiatry in Rhode Island and the work they have done in this field, including the history and politics of mental health systems, representations of mental health in society, and mental health issues related to the carceral state. Discussion will explore how and whether society has moved away from custodial forms of treatment for people with mental health conditions. Attendees will be invited to view the corresponding exhibit at the Rockefeller Library.

Speakers:

  • Christine Montross, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
  • Jennifer Lambe, Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History
  • Josiah “Jody” Rich, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
  • Moderator: Leo Lovemore, Librarian for History, Society, and Culture

Care & Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health
A traveling exhibition from the National Library of Medicine, hosted at the Warren Alpert Medical School, May 8 – June 17 2023

This traveling banner exhibition and companion website explores the treatment of people with mental health conditions throughout history, especially in the United States, bringing to light the tension that has existed between care and custody. Physicians, advocates, families, and government agencies have all contributed to the shaping of mental health policies. Care and Custody examines this history to understand how the country has moved away from custodial forms of treatment, toward more inclusive approaches, and worked to protect the rights of people with mental health conditions.

Visit the Brown University Library Guide to the exhibit for more information and exploration.

The National Library of Medicine produced this exhibition and companion website, in conjunction with Public Health Historian and Educator, Anne E. Parsons, PhD (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)

Exhibit l Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict

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Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict text with images of a judges gavel and uterus in the background.

John Hay Library Exhibit Reflects on Two Centuries of Debate over Abortion

Created in response to the Dobbs decision, Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict draws on Brown’s special collections to present open-ended observations on the commonality, history, and debate surrounding abortion in the United States and Rhode Island.

Whether in a court of law, at a protest, or over the kitchen table, abortion rivals any other subject for its capacity to elicit intense emotions and fervent arguments on both sides of the issue. Contemporary society’s shorthand terms for each side — “pro-life” and “pro-choice” — are themselves loaded with the political and moral beliefs that have fueled two centuries of debate over a procedure that dates back millennia.

Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict

In the John Hay Library’s exhibit, Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict, a curatorial team consisting of Brown faculty, graduate students, and medical practitioners of different genders, backgrounds, religions, and ages, as well as different ideological beliefs on abortion, offer original scholarly commentary on artifacts drawn from the Hay Library’s outstanding trove of special collections. With particularly strong holdings in the history of medicine, feminism, political extremism, and collections specific to Rhode Island, the Hay Library is well suited to produce an exhibit on the topic of abortion. According to Amanda E. Strauss, Associate University Librarian and Director of the John Hay Library:

Our strong history of medicine collections and our collecting focus on the interplay between ideology and social and political power provide unique insight into this universal topic. Exhibitions like this are one of the ways in which the Hay Library’s extraordinary collections can be drawn upon to contextualize and deepen understanding of history and current events as well as to put forth new knowledge that we hope will lead to further scholarship.

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn nearly five decades of the constitutional right to obtain an abortion, previously protected by law through the 1973 court decision Roe v. Wade. A vast number of people have been deeply impacted by the decision and its subsequent, ongoing outcomes. Many Brown students and faculty members immersed themselves in thought, conversation, and research about reproductive rights and the widespread role abortion has played in the human experience, including academic exploration of the topic in the Hay Library’s special collections. In response to this interest, the curatorial staff altered its exhibition schedule to make room for an installation in the main gallery that would provide space for scholarly considerations of abortion’s history, controversy, and, in particular, its role in the lives of countless ordinary people, especially women.

Exhibit Artifacts

Exhibit viewers will see artifacts like a set of wrought iron forceps made in Rhode Island in the early 1800s when cesarean section was generally too risky to consider; photographs of pro-life and pro-choice protestors at public rallies; documents from organizations like “Guidelines for Picketing” by Citizens Concerned For Human Life and a Planned Parenthood flier entitled, “A Closer Look at the Violent Opposition”; poetry, editorial letters, and newspaper articles; the 1868 influential publication, Criminal Abortion; Its Nature, Its Evidence, and Its Law by Dr. Horatio R. Storer; and the 1970s booklet Women vs. Rhode Island: Repeal Abortion Laws from the Rhode Island Coalition to Repeal Abortion Laws, a Brown University feminist group.

All of the objects on display are part of the historical record from two centuries of the lived experiences of both prominent and ordinary people in the U.S. and Rhode Island, who were associated with abortion in myriad ways, and who held differing beliefs. While the curatorial team’s focus has been to objectively present the issue of abortion legalization, they acknowledge that with a subject that impacts the lives of so many, complete objectivity is a difficult task. By foregrounding the long and often unacknowledged history of abortion that led up to the Dobbs ruling and the diverse, powerful emotions that fueled this history, the team’s intention with Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict is to provoke thought, discussion, and inquiry rather than present definitive truths. 

Content Warning and Support

Please note: This exhibit includes information and images related to birthing and abortion.

For Brown University Students who need support, please contact Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) at 401-863-3476; help is available 24/7 and 365 days/year. 

Exhibit Dates

Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict will run in the John Hay Library’s main exhibition gallery from May 11 to August 24, 2023. 

Accessing the Exhibit

Building hours and more information about Brown University Special Collections can be found on the John Hay Library’s website.

Related Events

Exhibit Opening Reception
Date and Time: Thursday, May 11, 2023 from 4 – 5:30 p.m.
Location: John Hay Library

Commencement Forum: “Ordinary Circumstances, Extraordinary Conflict” Exhibition Panel Discussion
Date & Time: Saturday, May 27, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: John Hay Library, Willis Reading Room

Brown University Library Supports Nelson Memo through Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation Letter

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three students look at laptops

An open letter from the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation (IPLC), consisting of the directors from thirteen libraries including the Brown University Library, was sent to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in support of the Nelson Memo, which aims to expand equitable access to federally-funded publications and data. The letter also communicates the directors’ concerns about potential journal expense increases for libraries and other stakeholders.

Read the letter

OSTP

The Congressionally-established (OSTP) and its Senate-confirmed Director provide advice to the U.S. President and the Executive Office of the President and Executive branch on all matters related to science and technology. In August of 2022, current OSTP Director Dr. Alondra Nelson released an important memorandum to the directors of federal agencies funding scientific research and development, now referred to as the “Nelson Memo.” 

More agencies to require free access

The memo outlines significant updates to policies that provide public access to federally-funded publications and data to be made by 2025. One of the major directives within the memo that impacts faculty is the expansion of the OSTP’s former public access directive to cover more federal agencies, including those with $100 million or more or $100 million or less in scientific research and development expenditures. These agencies will now be required to develop plans for grantees to make the published results of federally-funded research freely available to the public and manage and share the digital data resulting from that research.

Eliminating 12-month embargo

Another of the memo’s groundbreaking advances that will impact faculty is that final peer-reviewed manuscripts will be required to be made immediately available, ending the historical practice of permitting a 12-month embargo. The 12-month embargo, required by many publishers, delayed the public’s access to the final peer-reviewed manuscripts, allowing their journals one year of being the sole venue to disseminate the article to their subscribers.

Faculty impact

In general, libraries, including the Brown University Library, are very much in support of the public’s free, equitable, and immediate access to federally-funded research. We want to emphasize that the Nelson Memo does not require that faculty publish in an open access journal, and it does not require faculty to publish in a journal that requires authors to pay a fee or article processing charge (APC) for immediate access. It is expected that faculty compliance will be facilitated via deposit of final peer-reviewed manuscripts in agencies’ specific public access repositories, such as NIH’s PMC, NSF-PAR, or DOE PAGES, among others. 

Concerns about cost

Over the years the increase in the annual costs to the University’s budget for paying for subscriptions to scholarly journals has severely outpaced inflation; today roughly half of the Library’s collection budget is dedicated to the acquisition of journal databases and other resources to support STEM. Thus, there are serious concerns shared by libraries about how publishers might respond and adapt their business models in advance of losing this 12-month embargo, potentially impacting the cost of already expensive subscriptions and limiting and bundling of titles within packages made available to institutions. Libraries also have significant concerns about some publishers’ APC-based publication models and worry that the industry might take advantage of these changes promoted by the Nelson Memo to promote its expansion.

Digitization and Special Collections: Access, Equity, and Preservation

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Virtual reality view of the Garibaldi Panorama

Providing digital access to distinctive scholarly materials in our collections continues to grow in importance as part of the Library’s mission. For example, as reported previously, recent grants are enabling us to digitize a significant portion of the vast Hall-Hoag Collection of Extremist and Dissenting Propaganda, which provides critical insights for understanding our times. Indeed, this may be the largest digitization project of contemporary Archival materials; when it is finished, we will have scanned around 900,000 pages of materials from 1950 to 1999.

Digitization allows students and scholars working in any location to view rare materials without incurring the financial and other burdens of traveling to consult them on-site. Moreover, where digital access to materials is available, it also helps reduce handling of the original objects and contributes to their preservation. In the last three years, scanning activity at the Hay has generated around a terabyte of data.

Patrons who need scans of particular collection items that are not already digitized may submit requests through the Hay’s Aeon system. (Any researcher can do this — as a Carnegie Library, the Hay is open to the public.) Generally, we try to limit scan requests to a maximum of five folders or 300 to 400 pages so that we can be equitable among patrons. Depending on the material, a consultation with the Library’s Collections Care staff may take place to determine if there are preservation or handling concerns that may limit what is possible. 

The staff members who complete the image capture of the physical object in order to create the digital files possess a wide range of specialized skills including building custom supports for fragile materials and three dimensional objects as well as operating complex software and equipment in the Library’s camera room and on location. Lindsay Elgin, Senior Library Technologist, wrote “A more typical look at the camera room” about photographing an album of watercolor prints from the Anne S. K. Brown Military Gallery. Lindsay also photographed the narwhal tusk from the 2015 The Unicorn Found: Science, Literature, and the Arts exhibit at the John Hay Library (photo above). You can read more about that shoot in Lindsay’s blog post, “The Unicorn of the Sea Comes to Brown.”

To facilitate greater access to our materials, we have removed any fees associated with digitization or scanning.

We ask patrons to allow four to six weeks for scanning requests to be completed, but we often turn them around quicker than that. Material requested by Brown instructors for their courses are given priority. To facilitate greater access to our materials, we have removed any fees associated with digitization or scanning. This allows researchers of all backgrounds to begin their research without having to incur costs and also allows researchers to start doing preliminary research without needing to travel to Providence. Over the past 12 months, the Hay has scanned over 50,000 pages for patrons. The Martha Dickinson Bianchi papers (Ms. 2010.046) collection and the Hortense J. Spillers papers, 1966-1995 are examples of collections from which numerous researchers have requested a significant amount of scanned material over the past couple of years.  

The Hay also digitizes material at high resolution to meet preservation needs or in response to requests for exhibitions. Such requests have generated about 3.5 terabytes of digital files. In both cases, high-quality scans provide substitutes for original materials that are too fragile to be handled directly or displayed. 

High resolution scans also serve the needs of scholars creating digital projects requiring the display and study of collection items. For example, Hay staff are currently assisting with the “Sounding Spirit” project being developed at Emory University. Approximately 200 items from the Hay’s collection are being digitized, and the scans will ultimately be hosted on the project’s website and will also be available through Brown’s own digital repository. Scanning is not simply a mechanical process. The Library’s staff experts process and review all of the digital files for quality and edit them to create master files of all of the images. 

Indeed, staff members at the John Hay Library are involved at every step of the digitization process, lending their expertise to researchers in need of consultation about the materials to transporting material to be digitized from the Library Annex to photographing fragile materials and non-print objects and scanning print materials to reviewing and delivering digital files to our patrons. We are dedicated to supporting scholarship at Brown and beyond and recognize the importance of extending the reach of Brown’s incredible special collections materials and look forward to continuing our work to make these items digitally available to researchers around the world.

Best Bets for Full Text Access to Journal Articles in the Health and Biomedical Sciences

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Brown has thousands of online journals, but sometimes it’s hard to know the best route for quick access to the articles you need. Streamline your research workflow with these tips for quickly accessing full text:

  • Using PubMed? Use the Brown-specific URL, then click on the “Find It” icon in the abstracts to ensure you’ll see all available subscriptions or interlibrary loan options.
  • LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that allows users to seamlessly authenticate and download PDFs when a journal article is detected. The LibKey icon shows across different platforms, from subscription library databases like JSTOR, to open databases like PubMed and Google Scholar, publisher journal pages, and even Wikipedia references. 
  • Have a PMID or DOI? Go to Libkey.io, enter it into the search box, and LibKey will show you our access options. 
  • Configure Google Scholar to connect to Brown. Set Brown as your default library by going to Settings→ Library Links→ search for Brown→ select Brown University Library→ Save.
  • Want to keep up with professional reading? Create a bookshelf of your top journals with BrowZine. With BrowZine, you can easily follow titles of interest, be notified when new articles are published, and save/read articles on your device of choice.

For more detailed guidance, see Full-text article access.

Library Data Management and Publishing Support Services

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The University Library’s research data management and publishing support services are available to all Brown-affiliated faculty, staff, and students, including clinical faculty with Brown credentials. Learn about our full array of research support services at https://library.brown.edu/info/research-support-services/.

Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs)

In 2022 the University renewed its license for LabArchives electronic lab notebooks. LabArchives has no limit on file storage and is 21 CFR part 11 compliant. Principal investigators can create project notebooks for themselves and each lab member, and share them with external collaborators. In compliance with Brown’s Research Data and Research Materials Management, Sharing, and Retention Policy, the PI will retain ownership and access to all members’ notebooks and may retain and share a copy with any departing team member. 

LabArchives Education

Brown’s license also includes LabArchives Education, for use in lab courses. LabArchives Education allows instructors to create a course lab notebook containing protocols and assignments; students and TAs may be given different levels of access, and both individual and group work are supported. Contact the Library for support at [email protected] or sign up for training on research or educational ELN use.

Preparing for NIH’s new Data Management and Sharing Policy (DMSP)

The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) new Data Management and Sharing Policy goes into effect on January 25, 2023, and the Library is ready to support its new requirements. Our Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMP) consulting service can connect researchers with funder templates and Brown resources for managing and sharing data. Contact the Library for support at [email protected] or access Brown’s guidance and submit a draft DMP for library review by logging into and using the DMPTool and following the prompts.

Support for Brown’s Faculty Open Access Policy

In 2021, the Brown faculty adopted a Faculty Open Access Policy, which calls upon faculty to deposit either a copy of a working paper (pre-print), a final peer-reviewed manuscript, or an open-access publication in a not-for-profit repository such as Brown’s branded-space within BioRxiv or MedRxiv; a funder’s publication repository such as PubMed Central (PMC) or NSF-PAR; or the Brown Digital Repository (BDR). Contact us for support at [email protected].

Support for Public Access Compliance

On August 25, 2022, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) released a memo requiring federal funding agencies to develop plans to make publicly-funded publications and data available to the public without an embargo period. Agencies will be developing these updated public access policies over the coming years. As always, if researchers need help complying with current National Institutes of Health (NIH) or National Science Foundation (NSF) public access mandates, like depositing a non-compliant paper in PubMed Central, contact the Library for support at [email protected].

New Resources: McGraw Hill Medical Suite plus Expanded DEI Titles, More

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Full McGraw-Hill Access Medical Suite 

The Library recently upgraded our subscription to the full McGraw-Hill Medical Suite. In addition to AccessMedicine, we now provide access to 16 McGraw-Hill Medical and specialty collections, including AccessPediatrics, AccessPharmacy, AccessEmergencyMedicine, and JAMAEvidence. These collections include critical textbooks, test prep materials, procedures videos, calculators, and more. You can find all of these resources through our access to McGraw-Hill Medical, or read more about them on our McGraw-Hill handout.

New DEI collection and enhanced ebook access

In addition, the Library purchased access to new ebook collections. From Lippincott-Williams we have added the Ovid Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) collection, along with the 2022 Core Collection from Doody Enterprises, expert reviewers of biomedical publications. These additions will provide access to top rated publications in biomedical fields ranging from allergy/clinical immunology to vascular surgery. The easiest way to access these titles is via [email protected].

Even more science titles

We were also able to add hundreds of recent medical, biomedical, and life sciences titles from Springer Publishing. All of these are now available through BruKnow, the Library’s online catalog. If you would like a detailed list of titles, please contact the HBLS team. 

Brown Library publishes five new volumes in the “Race & … in America” digital book series

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Open access publication expands series delving into comparative perspectives on the roots and effects of racism in the U.S.

For the second year running, the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown partnered with the Office of the Provost on the pioneering Race & … in America webinar series, a systematic investigation of the foundational and enduring effects of anti-Black racism in America. Over the course of the 2021-22 academic year, the series again served as a virtual platform for the Brown community to think through the myriad, complex ways that race defines American society and to share these insights with each other and the public at large. Exploring the arts more fully, five new panels featuring Brown faculty continued to generate critical engagements with society’s most fundamental and urgent questions. The informed and illuminating discussions deepened knowledge and awareness in the service of promoting a more just and inclusive community and world. The Race & … in America digital publication series, now complete with 13 volumes, amplifies the impact and extends the reach of this important and timely panel series.

Developed by Brown University Digital Publications in close coordination with Tricia Rose, Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies, Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives, and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, the Race & … in America digital publication series re-presents the compelling original panel discussions with expanded content and resources in an innovative, interactive format, designed to heighten understanding and broaden critical conversations.

“As the Brown community continues to tackle the contentious and important subject of anti-Black racism, the Race & in America series allows us to increase awareness of the factors fueling racial injustice through the expertise of Brown’s faculty,” said Provost Richard M. Locke. “We recognize that all members of our community need the courage, dedication and willingness to work on transformational change. We fully support the digital delivery of this critical content for greater access and broader community reach.”

As an open access publication, the digital series provides enduring, barrier-free access to knowledge, and has been developed with universal design principles for equitable use by all persons, including those with disabilities. In addition, the series features responsive design — readable on all digital devices, from smartphones to desktops — and robust highlighting, annotation, and sharing tools that encourage deep reader engagement and allow users to interact with one another.

“Brown’s long-standing leadership in the study of race in American society is matched by its pathbreaking history in the use of technology to convey innovative scholarship in new and newly powerful ways,” said University Librarian Joseph Meisel. “Like the initial volumes in the digital series, this new set of topics adds more penetrating insights by leading scholars that can continue to be studied and discussed, shaping how we think about some of the most challenging questions in our society and culture.”

The digital series consists of 13 volumes:

Each of the thirteen volumes in the series includes:

  • A recording of one of the 90-minute panel discussions that took place throughout the 2021-2022 academic year
  • Student Voices podcast episodes in which Brown University students engage the panelists in follow-up discussion 
  • Recommendations for entry-point materials on the subject
  • Multimedia resource collections of readings, online exhibitions, podcasts, and other materials referenced during the panel discussions
  • Suggestions for further exploration

Brown University Digital Publications — a collaboration between the University Library and the Dean of the Faculty, generously launched with support from the Mellon Foundation with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities — creates exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge. Widely recognized as accessible, intentional, and inclusive, Brown’s novel, university-based approach to digital content development is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship in the digital age. 

Questions about the Race & … in America digital publication series can be addressed to Allison Levy, Director of Brown University Digital Publications ([email protected]). 

Exhibit / Akan Gold Weights: Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology Collection

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On View: John Hay Library, Willis Reading Room (May 26 – December 16, 2022)

Mrammuo depicting a sawfish (HMA 98-38-50)  Gift of Mr. Peter Klaus and Dr. Anita Klaus.

For centuries the Akan people of West Africa used gold dust as a primary form of currency in everyday transactions and as part of an extensive trade with the North African Muslim states. To measure precise amounts of gold dust, an elaborate system of weights was devised. Akan Gold weights called abrammuo (singular, mrammuo) are closely linked with the Akan verbal arts of proverbs and are visual expressions of Akan culture and values. For the Akan, gold (sika) symbolizes the embodiment of life force (kra) and is considered the partner of the sun on earth.

Dates: May 26 – December 16, 2022
Time: John Hay Library Hours
Location: Willis Reading Room, John Hay Library, 20 Prospect Street, Providence

Exhibit l Artistic Impressions of Brown University

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The John Hay Library by Jill Armstrong, n.d.

“Artistic Impressions of Brown University,” features a collection of over 30 drawings, watercolors, etchings, and architectural plans depicting the Brown campus and East Side of Providence created by local architects, students, and international artists. 

Curated by Ray Butti, Senior Library Expert

Dates: May 26 – August 15, 2022
Time: John Hay Library Hours
Location: Exhibition Gallery, John Hay Library, 20 Prospect Street, Providence