This post was written by Emily Bowden, Historical Collections Specialist.
A new traveling exhibition produced by the National Library of Medicine is on display at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. “Confronting Violence: Improving Women’s Lives” explores the work of 20th century activists and reformers in the United States who worked towards the prevention of domestic violence and sought to improve the lives of women subjected to acts of violence.
Though early women’s rights advocates had long called attention to family violence and agitated for reform, society as a whole largely ignored the issue of domestic violence until the activism of feminists and survivors of domestic violence during the 1970s. Another group that became closely involved with these efforts was nurses, who saw firsthand the epidemic of violence in women’s lives. Nurses stood at the forefront of a movement that pushed the larger medical community to address domestic violence as a pressing health crisis. By the 1990s, all the major medical organizations recognized domestic violence as a significant health issue and urged their members to take action.
The “Confronting Violence” exhibit follows these historical events and tells the stories of activists, nurses, and other allies in the struggle against domestic violence. While significant reforms have helped to save and improve lives, the work of ending violence in American homes continues to this day. The six-banner exhibit will be on display in the lobby of the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library through June 22, 2019. A companion web-exhibition features a digital gallery of historical photographs and documents and a range of resources for educators and students. Our thanks to the National Library of Medicine, which produced this exhibition.
This post was written by Bart Ragon, and edited by Kimberley R. Barker.
Occasionally I am asked if it’s possible for a librarian to attend a departmental meeting in order to share information about the services that the library staff provides. The answer is always an enthusiastic “YES!”
While our liaison librarians are always delighted to present this and other information at department meetings, I have developed a list which provides departments with an à la carte style menu of services from which they can choose. The menu contains the traditional library services you might expect such as literature searching assistance, citation management, and a journal section; these services are core to the missions of libraries. Others services that we provide which might surprise you include quality improvement information, virtual reality, research data, reputation management, and video production. The breadth of library services that we provide is what makes my job so interesting and is why I love working here. Quite often the response from departments after perusing the list is, ‘I didn’t know that the library did all of this’.
The bedrock for all library services is its dedicated liaisons and specialists who support the entire Health System. If you would like to learn more about library services or how our expertise can serve you, visit https://at.virginia.edu/2vUBLcX. You might be surprised to learn just how varied are our services.
If you have questions, or you’d like a copy of the menu, please email me at bart@virginia.edu .
Bart Ragon, MLIS, Ed.D
Claude Moore Health Sciences Library
Associate Director Knowledge Integration, Research, and Technology