The National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce the launch of two new exhibitions; “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine,” and “Everyday Miracles: Medical Imagery in Ex-Votos.”

“Harry Potter’s World” explores the plants, animals, and magic featured in the Harry Potter book series and their roots in Renaissance traditions that played an important role in the development of Western science. The exhibition incorporates the works of several 15- and 16th-century thinkers mentioned in Harry Potter and looks at topics such as alchemy, astrology, and natural philosophy, as well as the ethical issues faced by both the fictitious characters from the novels and the historical figures that influenced them. This exhibition runs through December 31, 2008.

“Everyday Miracles” examines the relationship between faith and healing as expressed in personal devotional painting from Italy and Mexico called ex-votos. These small religious paintings that were commissioned by the faithful for perceived “healing miracles” were hung in community churches as testimony to their devotion and gratitude. The exhibition also showcases Spanish colonial medical texts, which are displayed in the History of Medicine Division Reading Room. This exhibition runs through January 31, 2009.

Both exhibitions, as well as accompanying texts from the History of Medicine Division’s collections, can be viewed in the History of Medicine Division Reading Room and the lobby of Building 38. For more information about the new exhibitions, please call 301-594-1947 or email nlmExhibition@mail.nih.gov, or visit their websites at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/harrypottersworld and http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/exvotos/.

Sign language interpreters will be provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate should contact Erika Mills by phone at 301-594-1947 or by email at millser@mail.nih.gov, and/or the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched an improved and more accessible version of healthfinder.gov. Healthfinder.gov’s features include links to over 6,000 government and nonprofit health information resources on hundreds of health topics. Information is presented in English and Spanish. The improvements will help users find what they want on those sites. Another new tool offered on the site is myhealthfinder, which provides personalized recommendations for clinical preventive services specific to the user’s age, gender, and pregnancy status.

News Release: http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2008/healthfinderpr.htm

The Maternal and Child Health Library has released three new resource briefs that provide information on electronic resources for public health professionals, health care providers, and families.

Genetics: Resource Brief is a guide to current resources on genetics and genomics, genetic testing, genetic counseling, genetic disorders, and newborn screening. This brief is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/guides/genetics.html.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and Families: Resource Brief focuses on psychological and social impacts of ART on children conceived via ART and on their families, as well as ethical and legal issues associated with ART.  It is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/guides/ART.html.

Environmental Health: Resource Brief focuses on environmental issues that affect the health of pregnant women and children. This brief is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/guides/environmentalhealth.html.

Maternal and Child Health Library resources on other maternal and child health topics are available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/guides.html.

In late October 2008, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) will discontinue using the American Hospital Association directory on MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus Go Local. NLM staff will develop a replacement page linking to selected resources for areas beyond the Go Local service area. The following alternative resources for hospital directory and service information are available: the American Hospital Directory, http://www.ahd.com/freesearch.php3; the US News Hospital Directory Search, http://health.usnews.com/directories/hospital-directory/; and UCompareHealthCare, http://www.ucomparehealthcare.com/hospital/.

Hello everyone!

I’m Jonathan Hartmann, the new Public Health Outreach Coordinator for the NN/LM South Central Region. I will teach Public Health classes and coordinate the SCR’s national and regional exhibits, regional public health information program, health information literacy program, health disparities program, and refugee health information program. I will also be the state liaison for Texas.

Prior to this position, I was AHEC Librarian at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL; Reference & Instruction Librarian at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston, MA; and Outreach Librarian at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, OH. I received both my Master of Library Science degree and my Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Kent State University.

In my spare time, I like to travel, read, and listen to music.

I’m happy to be here and I’m looking forward to working with all of you and serving your needs. Please contact me if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Here is my contact information:

Email: jonathan.hartmann@exch.library.tmc.edu
Phone: 713-799-7107

Last year, several librarians from across the United States generously shared their personal stories about disaster or emergency situations that affected library operations with National Library of Medicine Associate Fellow Robin Featherstone. As was originally planned, a Web site has been created to provide a platform for sharing these stories. The site includes an individual link for each of the stories, the ability for others to comment on posted stories, and a Google map, which will help visualization of the diversity among the stories. By clicking on each of the individual icons on the Google Map, you will be linked to the individual stories. The Library Disaster Stories site is a part of the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit and can be found here: http://nnlm.gov/ep/lessons-learnedstories-told/

A “Submit Your Own Story” function will be added shortly which will open up the possibilities of this site. The National Library of Medicine is very appreciative of the librarians who have shared their stories and hope that this site will encourage others to share their experiences.

If you have questions about the site or the submission of stories, you may contact Dan Wilson (editor of the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit) at dtw2t@eservices.virginia.edu or Susan Yowell (project assistant) at ssy2n@virginia.edu.

A request for applications has recently been posted for the Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration (EUREKA) grant. This R01 grant is designed to fund exceptionally innovative research on novel hypotheses or difficult problems, solutions to which would have an extremely high impact on biomedical or biobehavioral research that is germane to the mission of the National Library of Medicine.

NLM is seeking applications in the following two areas

1. Integrated discovery mining for biology and medicine:
2. Integrated hypothesis testing for biology and medicine

More information on this grant is available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ep/eureka.html

Deadlines:
Letter of Intent: September 29, 2008
Application: October 28, 2008

The Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, http://phpartners.org, has released two new topic pages: Nutrition and Workforce Development.

The Nutrition topic page includes links to government, professional and research organizations that focus on nutrition issues; grants and funding opportunities; legislation and health policy issues related to nutrition; published literature and research reports; and nutrition promotion, education and information resources.

The Workforce Development page provides links on public health workforce development activities and resources including education and training opportunities; legislative action; professional meetings, summits, councils, and conferences; new workers development programs; tools and resources on public health workforce issues; and workforce projects and research reports.

To keep up-to-date on new PHPartners resources, sign up for the weekly email update or subscribe to the PHPartners RSS feed.

The exhibition “Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health” opened at the National Library of Medicine on April 17, 2008. This exhibition documents community partnerships throughout the world to prevent disease and improve quality of life. Using historical photos, first-person accounts, and examples of successful interventions, the exhibition traces a remarkable story of achievement against great odds.

To visit the exhibition online, go to: http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/againsttheodds/exhibit/index.cfm.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced a new clinical research program that will aim to provide answers to patients with mysterious conditions that have long eluded diagnosis. Called the Undiagnosed Diseases Program, the trans-NIH initiative will focus on the most puzzling medical cases referred to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD, by physicians across the nation.

The program is ready to accept patients, the first of which is expected to be seen in July 2008. To be considered for this NIH pilot program, a patient must be referred by a physician and provide all medical records and diagnostic test results requested by NIH. Patients who meet the program’s criteria — as many as 100 each year — will then be asked to undergo additional evaluation during a visit to the NIH Clinical Center that may take up to a week.

For more information about the Undiagnosed Diseases Program, go to: http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/Undiagnosed. Physicians and patients with specific inquiries may call the NIH Clinical Center clinical information research line, at 1-866-444-8806.