I have not posted here since October! This is because my job has become very, very busy. I’m my library’s trainer for EndNote, Zotero, and Reference Manager (although people here only seem to want to learn about EndNote), which takes up some time. I’m also training nursing students on CINAHL, and learning a lot about genetics. The most interesting thing I’m doing these days is answering clinical questions for various physicians and researchers–this involves doing a thorough search of the medical literature and summarizing the most relevant and important articles. In order to do this well, I’ve been reading about what goes into making really solid experiments and how to tell when articles are leaving out important details when reporting the results of those experiments. To be clear, I don’t think that the authors are being dishonest! I think it is sometimes hard to tell what your own project may be missing, or how you *should* have set it up in an ideal world versus how you actually did set it up in the real world. It’s interesting, seeing research in action.
I’m also spending a fair amount of time learning about our Special Collections, which is fantastic fun. The history of medicine is so strange and fascinating, especially the local history here in the south and in Nashville in particular. I’m looking forward to designing an exhibit later this spring, as well. In the meantime, I’m spending time familiarizing myself with the collection, which includes all manner of medical texts from the 1500s onward. I’m particularly fond of our copy of Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica, which is a second edition.