HSLIC News

Due to limited operations while the Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center building remains closed, print materials on Course Reserves will not circulate. To assist faculty in making course reserves material available to students, we will provide a new Scanning & Permanent Link service starting Wednesday, July 1, 2020. Faculty members can now submit requests for course reserves material to be scanned for use in their course by filling out the Scanning & Permanent Link Request Form here.

• If the library has electronic access to the requested items, library staff will provide you with a permanent URL (web link) to the material. If we don’t have electronic access to a title, but we do have the item in print, requests compliant with fair use copyright law will be scanned as a PDF and sent to the requestor via email.

• Faculty may then share the PDFs or links with students via their learning management system, syllabus, or other platform.

Please see our Course Reserves guide for more information.

Many people probably already know that June is Pride Month because that is when the Stonewall Uprising happened. Less people may know that a key figure in the Stonewall Uprising was Marsha P. Johnson, a Black self-identified drag queen whose community activism extended well beyond the events of the Uprising. Marsha fought for the community every day and worked to make those who had been disenfranchised feel proud and safe.

Though I have seen great strides to gain rights for my LGBTQ+ community in my years, including the most recent Supreme Court victory ruling that federal law prohibits discrimination against gay and transgender persons, there is still so much that needs to be done. Black, Latinx, and Indigenous trans women are still being violently attacked and murdered at a high rate. Police brutality against the LGBTQ+ community is still ongoing, including arrests and pepper spraying at a NYC Pride/Black Lives Matter protest just yesterday, the anniversary of Stonewall. So, I know there is still much work to be done, but I also know that there is much pride to be found in the community. I am proud of the people who have gone out to shed light on these ongoing injustices, I am proud of the New Mexico participants of We're Here from Shiprock and Farmington (Episode 4), I am proud of the work that so many UNM students and employees do to make sure LGBTQ+ voices are heard here, I am proud of the practitioners that have dedicated themselves to making sure health care inequalities are addressed at UNMH and in the New Mexico community, and I am proud of the ongoing advocacy we and our allies will continue to do. Just like Marsha P. Johnson, we must continue this work beyond a month, beyond a moment.

Ongoing work we are doing here in the Library includes updating our LGBTQ+ Guide to include more critical review and comprehensive resources and Safe Zone training for all Library employees (unfortunately we had to postpone this due to COVID-19 but we are working to reschedule). Work we can all do and resources we can all use to extend Pride past the month of June include:

• See this search thread to find all the e-books we have at UNM regarding LGBTQ+ health
• Review and assist the Marsha P. Johnson Institute ("protects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people")
• Find Albuquerque Area Resources through the UNM LGBTQ Resource Center
• Utilize the We Here Pride Month Resource List to "better advocate for and support queer & trans BIPOC"
• Check out Pride Study to find how you can help with the "first long-term national health study of LGBTQ+ people today"

Happy Pride now and always - I look forward to continuing the work here at the UNM Health Sciences Library and in the Albuquerque community with you all!

The Library is excited to announce 2 opportunities to attend a workshop on Zotero. Zotero is a free citation management tool that allows you to keep track of all your resources in one place, organize materials to meet your needs, and it creates citations for you. Come to this online class to learn how to use Zotero to it's fullest capacity.

We have a class on July 1st from 3-4pm and July 6th from 12-1pm. Registration is required. Find details and register on our HSLIC Events calendar. To get more familiar with Zotero be sure to check out our Zotero Guide and if you have questions please reach out to Kelleen Maluski.

Today is Juneteenth - a holiday that celebrates the date that Major General Gordon Granger released an order to Texas ending slavery in the confederacy under the Emancipation Proclamation. The order came two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed and Texans did not immediately comply, continuing to enslave Black Americans. Not only was this order met with resistance, but the act of enslaving Black Americans continued under different names and with the creation of new laws (see readings below for more information).

Juneteenth is not just a historical event, it is a celebration of Black culture and a date that shines light on the white supremacy that is built systematically into our country to this day. As the National Museum of African American History & Culture states, "Juneteenth marks our country’s second independence day. Though it has long been celebrated among the African American community, it is a history that has been marginalized and still remains largely unknown to the wider public. The legacy of Juneteenth shows the value of deep hope and urgent organizing in uncertain times." 

For celebrations and learning opportunities happening this weekend, see:

• Albuquerque Juneteenth 2020, in person at Roosevelt Park, Saturday the 20th 5-10pm
• The Kujichagulia Madison Center for Self Determination Juneteenth Virtual Celebration, Monday the 15th - Saturday the 20th
• Juneteenth 2020 from The Eureka NAACP chapter & Black Humboldt, virtual event, Friday the 19th 1pm-12:30am
• Food for the Body, Food for the Soul 2020 Juneteenth Celebration, virtual event, Thursday the 18th - Saturday the 20th

Image of the flyer for The Strength of our Resilience: Black Voices Matter - Addressing COVID-19 in Our Community via The Kujichagulia Madison Center for Self Determination

To learn more about Juneteenth, celebrate the ways in which Black communities survive and thrive (including establishing health care practices), and the history of and contemporary ways in which white supremacy is integrated into our society, see:

• Celebrating Juneteenth from the National Museum of African American History & Culture
• What is Juneteenth by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for PBS (originally posted on The Root)
• Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South by Talitha L. LeFlouria
  "LeFlouria argues that African American women's presence within the convict lease and chain-gang systems of Georgia helped to modernize the South by creating a new and dynamic set of skills for Black women. At the same time, female inmates struggled to resist physical and sexual exploitation and to preserve their human dignity within a hostile climate of terror. This revealing history redefines the social context of Black women’s lives and labor in the New South and allows their stories to be told for the first time."
• Doctoring Freedom: The Politics of African American Medical Care in Slavery and Emancipation by Gretchen Long
  "Even before emancipation, African Americans recognized that control of their bodies was a critical battleground in their struggle for autonomy, and they devised strategies to retain at least some of that control. In Doctoring Freedom, Gretchen Long tells the stories of African Americans who fought for access to both medical care and medical education, showing the important relationship between medical practice and political identity."
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarnation in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander 
  "Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status - much like their grandparents before them. In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it."

I am delighted to announce that Ingrid Hendrix, MILS has been named Head of HSLIC’s Education, Consultation, and Reference Services Division. Ingrid brings to her new position 19 years of experience as HSLIC’s Nursing Services Librarian. She holds appointments in the College of Nursing, the School of Medicine, and the Occupational Therapy Graduate Program. Ingrid has published widely, taught extensively, and is well known to HSC and professional colleagues.

In 2016, she received the Friend of Nursing Award from the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence. This year, she was tapped to be a member of the New Mexico Governor’s Medical Advisory Team. Ingrid is an effective advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, and has educated health professionals about their particular needs.

We look forward to Ingrid’s leadership in continuing to develop services that meet the information needs of the HSC community.

We know that you are juggling a lot. Part of your success is understanding that and allowing yourself to get the help you need to succeed. That is why we wanted to highlight the fact that HSC has arranged access to childcare for faculty and students for the summer. If you are still in need of childcare, please directly contact Jessica Kelly, jeskelly@salud.unm.edu, in the Chancellor’s Office for assistance.

Lying face down, arms shackled and our wrists behind our backs with invisible handcuffs. Five minutes into the die-in protest we wondered, “How did George Floyd feel?”

Our experiences bore only the vaguest resemblance to Mr. Floyd’s. We were lying on a lawn in front of the Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center (HSLIC) below a blue sky with over 200 others. Bearing down on Mr. Floyd were three Minneapolis police officers. One officer, Derek Chauvin, jammed his knee directly on Mr. Floyd’s neck. While we could breathe on that lawn, Mr. Floyd could only gasp for his life, “I can’t breathe!”

On Thursday, June 4^th at 12:00 p.m. the UNM White Coats for Black & Indigenous Lives sponsored a Die In Protest on the lawn in front of HSLIC. The event was catalyzed by the recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Tayler in Kentucky, and George Floyd in Minnesota. In addition to a sobering and powerful 8 minutes and 45 seconds, organizers and speakers took turns detailing a series of demands for HSC administration, including:

• Addressing underrepresentation of Indigenous people and African Americans in the medical field
• Withdrawing funding (if any) to the ABQ Police Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and NM correctional institutions
• Supporting "racial-based" data collection to show how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Indigenous and Black communities

The authors of this blog post were on hand to not only observe and take photos, but to also participate in the protest. We are both cisgender, white males with significantly more privilege than those at the heart of this protest. We wish to share what, for us, was a profoundly moving event.

Jon Eldredge & Jonathan Pringle

Protest Looking Northeast. Jon Eldredge, June 4, 2020.

Protest Event Signs. Jonathan Pringle, June 4, 2020.

Protest Looking West. Jonathan Pringle, June 4, 2020.

Protest Looking Northeast. Jon Eldredge, June 4, 2020.

Protesters Lying Down Looking Southwest. Jon Eldredge, June 4, 2020.

Protest Looking Northeast. Jonathan Pringle, June 4, 2020.

Protest Looking Southwest. Jon Eldredge, June 4, 2020. 

In keeping with the messages from President Stokes,  HSC Core Leadership, the UNM Division for Equity & Inclusion, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center wants our community to know that we condemn acts of racism, police brutality, racial terror, and injustice. We know that racism impacts every facet of life and especially that of the health of our communities.

We are horrified by acts of violence against the Black community and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, Indigenous and underserved communities that has further shed light on injustices that have been persistent for many of our students, faculty, and staff.

The staff and faculty of the Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center are here to listen and to learn. We are committed every day to end racism and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion and understand that systemic oppression cannot be met with silence.

For those looking for resources to educate themselves and engage in this important conversation we suggest starting with Anti-Racism Resources (compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein, May 2020), Anti-Racism Resources for All Ages (curated by Nicole Cooke, the Augusta Baker Chair in Childhood Literacy at the School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina), and 10 Books About Race to Read Instead of Asking a Person of Color to Explain Things to You (article in Bustle by Sadie Trombetta).

Links to selected readings at UNM are:

• An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz
• Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy
• The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson
• Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-First Century by Dorothy E. Roberts
• Gender, Race, Class, and Health: Intersectional Approaches edited by Amy J. Schulz and Leith Mullings
• The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
• How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care by Dayna Bowen Matthew
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum

If you would like to suggest further resources for us to highlight and/or review ourselves, please share with us at AskOMT.