HSLIC News

In honor of Transgender Day of Visibility, HSLIC welcomes guest blog contributors Dr. Cameron Crandall, Dr. Molly McClain, and Fabián Armijo. This day is dedicated to celebrating the transgender community and helps bring awareness to the continuing fight for trans equality. Our guest authors will discuss inclusive actions at HSC and the importance of visibility for the trans community.    

On Friday, March 31, we celebrate this year’s International Transgender Day of Visibility. On this day, we recognize the important work that gender-expansive people have done to raise awareness and fight for basic human rights that should (and must) be afforded to all persons, regardless of gender identity. We celebrate these achievements and will continue to work against misinformation, discrimination, and hate impacting our communities.

Gender-expansive people, including those who are transgender and gender non-binary, continue to face significant barriers in accessing and obtaining appropriate and knowledgeable health care. To address these concerns, UNM Health and the Health Sciences Center have made numerous enhancements and changes to our system so that we can provide the best possible care for our patients. Some of the changes we have made include:

• Inviting all patients to share their gender identity, affirmed name, and pronouns and recording/displaying this information in the electronic health record
• Developed a comprehensive service line for adult gender diverse at Truman Health Services
• Developing comprehensive services for gender-expansive youth at Deseo Clinic at Southeast Heights Clinic and in pediatric specialty care.
• Training over 1,000 staff members in how to work with sexually and gender-diverse patients
• Training staff and providers about the critical importance of using the correct pronouns and affirmed names for patients
• Buttons and badge buddies with pronouns for providers and staff
• Improved signage for universal restrooms
• Access to menstrual products in some HSC bathrooms, regardless of gender
• Removed sex from arm bands and labels

Access to basic health care is a significant barrier for many transgender patients. Since 2017, at UNM we have invited patients to share their gender identity and affirmed name and have placed this information in the electronic health record. This process lets patients know we see them and reinforces our commitment to providing the best care possible. As a result of these changes and the steady march of increasing visibility of gender-expansive people in recent years helped us recognize the size of the community and the importance of addressing their specific needs to improve health for all.

The changes we have made to date are only the beginning. Similar to the concept of visibility, there is power in what we have started and the recognition that there is much more to do. New Mexico has a growing number of healthcare professionals who provide high-quality services to gender-expansive communities. However, we also recognize that New Mexico does not have enough providers, particularly surgical providers, as many transgender patients need to seek care outside of New Mexico.

Over the years, we have seen tremendous advances in equity and inclusion for LGBTQ persons. The rapid acceptance is due, in part, to the visibility of LGBTQ people in our communities, families, and work lives. The changes we have made are small steps that lead to increased visibility of transgender and non-binary people.

How can you contribute to increasing the visibility and celebration of this important community?

• Address individuals using the names and pronouns that they use
• Trust that individuals know what gendered spaces they belong in (bathrooms, change rooms)
• Avoid gendered language (e.g., sir, ma’am. etc.)
• Provide all the same care you would give to your family members and loved ones
• UNM Health and Health Sciences providers and staff can obtain a pronoun badge buddy from hospital security

While we are proud of our efforts to improve the recognition, safety, and dignity of transgender and gender-diverse staff and patients, we know there is much left to do to honor those who are gender expansive. We are committed to continuing this work alongside our trans and non-binary friends, colleagues, loved ones, and patients.

Fabián Armijo, MHA, Executive Director DEI, UNM Hospital (he)

Cameron Crandall, MD, Associate Vice President for LGBTQ DEI, UNM HSC (he)

Molly McClain, MD MPH MS, Medical Director, Deseo Clinic, UNM HSC (she)

You are invited to join us on Thursday, April 6th, from 10 A.M - 11 A.M. for a virtual seminar by Lewis Worley, BE, and Robyn Gleasner, MLIS.

Topic: HSC Citation Analysis Project

Description: The HSC Citation Analysis Project set out to answer the following questions: where are faculty at the HSC publishing, does HSLIC/UNM provide access to these journals, what journals are the authors citing, and does HSLIC/UNM provide access to those journals. The answers to the questions would assist in the evaluation of HSLIC’s journal collection and determine potential gaps.  This session will show how we went about attempting to answer these questions from pulling data from Web of Science, analyzing it, and wrangling and parsing it using a number of programs and scripts including excel, open refine, SQL, and python. 

Learning Objectives: 

We will discuss: 

• What citation analysis is and why it is beneficial for collection evaluation 
• Our process of pulling, cleaning, wrangling, and parsing the data to meet our needs 
• Next steps to analyze the data and how to apply the analysis to future collection development decisions 

Please email BLCarroll@salud.unm.edu to request Zoom info.

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. Brain injuries are a public health issue that impacts more than 5 million people in the U.S. living with a permanent brain injury-related disability, according to the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA). With such a large number of Americans living with a brain injury, caregivers and family members are also impacted, and we would like to recognize them as well. 

 An Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) occurs after birth and can be either traumatic or non-traumatic. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is an alteration in brain function caused by trauma or some external force. They can range from mild to severe. A TBI is usually caused by a fall, a firearm-related injury, a motor vehicle crash, or an assault.

According to the CDC:

• Falls lead to nearly half of the TBI-related hospitalizations
• Motor vehicle crashes and assaults are other common ways a person may get a TBI

We recognize the importance of those living with disabilities sharing their own experiences and would like to share the following link with personal stories.

If you are a member of the UNM community who may have experienced a brain injury, the Accessibility Resource Center can help you with support and resources.

Two faculty members at HSLIC have received recognition from the Medical Library Association (MLA) for their work in research and contributions to health sciences librarianship. Research Professor Gale Hannigan, PhD, MPH, MLS, AHIP, has been named an MLA Fellow and will be inducted at this year's MLA annual meeting. Lisa Acuff, MSIS, MPH, AHIP, has won a Research, Development, and Demonstration Project award for her work in the Diabetes Language Project. The project aims to promote the usage of empowering language in online patient education materials for those with Type 1 diabetes.

Hannigan joined HSLIC in 2011 with a career spanning more than 30 years in academic health science libraries. She has additionally received two of MLA's other highest honors, the Estelle Brodman Award for Academic Medical Librarian of the Year (1996) and the Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award (2011). Acuff joined HSLIC in February 2022 with a long list of accomplishments, including managing a school library, instructing in several universities, creating community library programs, coordinating the Smithsonian Institution's volunteer research program, and directing the National Geographic Society's corporate learning program.

Read the full article at the UNM Health Sciences Newsroom.

The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center is excited to welcome our newest faculty member, Deirdre Caparoso, as our Outreach and Community Engagement Librarian!  She will take a leadership role in revitalizing and strengthening our outreach efforts and programming throughout the state of New Mexico.

Ms. Caparoso received her Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Denver. Most recently she worked at the Rio Rancho Public Library System as a Youth Services Supervisor and Interim Branch Manager.  She has worked at other public libraries in Colorado and brings a wealth of expertise with community engagement.

 Ms. Caparoso has an interest in the intersection of intellectual freedom and libraries and is chair of the New Mexico Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee. 

Please join me in welcoming Deirdre Caparoso to the UNM Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center!

HSLIC’s south side elevator, on your left as you face the center stairwell, will be closed for renovations starting March 13th. The elevator car will receive new wall and door panels, flooring, lighting, and all new electronics as part of this project. 

The elevator will also be brought into compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. Button panels will be lowered inside and outside of the car. An up/down arrow light will be mounted above the elevator doorway on each floor, and sounds will be added to notify people with visual impairments when the elevator arrives. 

The project is expected to last 6 weeks. The north side elevator will be available for library users during that time. If you have any questions, please contact Sally Bowler-Hill (sbowler-hill@salud.unm.edu).

Just a reminder that while most of UNM will be closed for spring break, HSLIC and its front desk services will remain open during normal business hours to students looking for somewhere to study or relax during the break.

Whether you're busy studying or on vacation, we hope everyone has a safe and wonderful break next week.

Give your research, scholarly & creative works enhanced visibility by taking two important steps: create an ORCID iD if you don’t have one, and if you do, connect it to UNM through your NET ID login. UNM is an institutional member of ORCID and has provided the ability to connect personal ORCID iDs; UNM also supports faculty and staff in creating and maintaining their ORCID iD presence. Learn more: https://libguides.unm.edu/orcid.  

ORCID iDs, or Open Researcher and Contributor Identifiers, are unique IDs that you can use as a researcher to identify scholarly and creative works. The IDs help funders, publishers, scholarly societies, and other researchers to quickly find and distinguish your work from materials created by other researchers with similar names. There is a special urgency behind this drive to have UNM researchers establish ORCID iDs: as of January 2023, all U.S. federal agencies will require researchers to have a digital persistent identifier, and an ORCID iD is the only one that meets all criteria established by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  

Support for UNM’s institutional ORCID is provided as a collaboration between University Libraries and the UNM-HSC Health Sciences Library & Informatics Center. For questions related to getting your ORCID iD set up and/or connected to UNM, please contact: 

• Jonathan Pringle, HSLIC Scholarly Communications & Digital Librarian; jpringle@salud.unm.edu  

• Lori Sloane, HSLIC Data Manager; lsloane@salud.unm.edu

Come to HSLIC's 2nd floor to cuddle a canine on Tuesday, March 7 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Take a few minutes out of your busy day to visit with one of the therapy dogs from High Desert Therapy Dogs. Melt away that midterm stress and put a smile on your face (and a pup's face too)!

Come learn about how bullet journaling and habit tracking can work for you, get creative, and have some snacks! In this session we will cover what bullet journaling and habit tracking are, how to start thinking of ways you can use them to accomplish your goals, and concrete possibilities of how to start or continue your own tracking. There will be time for you to begin mapping your own goals to techniques and to ask questions specific to your needs. Snacks and supplies will be provided (including notebooks for the first 24 attendees) but quantities will be limited so please RSVP to help us better understand what’s needed.

When: Wednesday, March 8th from 12-1pm

Where: 428 in the Health Sciences Library

Register now