Category Archives: Chronicle

For your reading pleasure: CAHSLA Chronicle, March 2025 No. 167

Please enjoy the latest issue of the CAHSLA Chronicle. Please don’t hesitate to send news, updates, or articles on projects, presentations, etc. for inclusion in the Chronicle to Jim or Emily at any time throughout the year.

In this issue:

President’s Page, Secretary and Treasurer Reports
RSVP now open – CAHSLA Annual Business Meeting
Pharmacognosy and Farnsworth – a Project Update from the Lloyd Library
Medical Illustration & Comics to Graphic Medicine Display at University of Cincinnati

President’s Page

Hello CAHSLA! I hope you have all been enjoying the warmer weather we’ve had lately. It’s been wonderful to get out of the office and see the sun for bit. 

We had a great time at our February outing, touring the UC Surgical Theatre and the new Anatomy Learning Lab at UC’s Health Science Library. If you missed it and are interested in seeing the Anatomy Learning Lab, please let me know – I’d be happy to show it off. The library has been full of students in the Lab recently, using the plastinates to study, which is great to see.

I have been busy doing the usual health sciences librarian stuff – instruction sessions, answering lots of reference questions, and assisting on evidence synthesis projects, among many other things. It’s been hectic but so much fun. I hope everyone’s 2025 is also off to a great start – I’m looking forward to our next CAHSLA meeting and catching up on what everyone is working on. (And big thank you to Jennifer Pettigrew for organizing our next meeting!) 

Lynn Warner, CAHSLA President 

Secretary’s Report

February Workshop Meeting

Wednesday, February 20, 2025, 5:30pm

In attendance: Matthew Cooper, Cincinnati Children’s; Emily Kean, Unaffiliated; Jim DaMico, Cincinnati Children’s; Lauren Darpel, Cincinnati Children’s; Christine Jankowski, Lloyd LIbrary; Jennifer Pettigrew, The Christ Hospital; Lynn Warner, University of Cincinnati; Karen Whyte,  Cincinnati Children’s

CAHSLA members toured the historic Surgical Amphitheater at University of Cincinnati’s Surgical Department. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, surgical amphitheaters played an important role in teaching new surgeons. Christian R. Holmes set out in 1915 to create a medical center in Cincinnati based on the Johns Hopkins University teaching hospital model. As a result of Holme’s work, the Cincinnati General Hospital was opened, including the surgical amphitheater we toured. 

It was restored and rededicated in August 2005 after a 5-year project to repair the original skylight, update audio-visual equipment, and add new seating and windows, in addition to other upgrades. 

As of 2025, the amphitheater serves as a non-surgical classroom, conference, and meeting space and hosts visitors from around the country.

After a tour of the amphitheater, members traveled over to the Health Science Library to view and discuss the new plastinated body specimens in the recently opened Anatomy Learning Lab. The current collection features 10 specimens including torsos, kidneys, hands, and other body systems. The Anatomy Learning Lab is located on the E level of the library and open to students and faculty during library hours. Thank you, Lynn, for hosting us and providing fascinating information about the new specimen collection!

After a brief discussion of holding our next meeting at the newly renovated Mercantile Library, the meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted, Karen Whyte 

RSVP now open – CAHSLA Annual Business Meeting

We hope you are able to join us for the April CAHSLA Business Meeting on Wednesday, April 16th as we tour the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati, eat dinner, and then hold a business meeting.

RSVP:   https://forms.gle/HXuoJxGgsMiHHQ5h8

Location:

Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati

4870 Gray Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45232

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZaoTpvJbRAnnD2nu9

Date:   Wednesday, April 16th

Time:   5:30-7:30pm

Details:

  • Arrive between 5:30pm and 5:45pm
  • 5:45pm estimated tour start time
  • Park in the parking lot behind the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati (also called the Weavers Guild Fiber Arts Center)
  • We will be meeting Weaver’s Guild President, Amber Ostaszewski, who will give us a tour of the Fiber Arts Center. The tour will be on 2 floors (Stairs Only)
  • Dinner provided by CAHLSA following the tour
  • Business Meeting following dinner

Treasurer’s Report

CHECKING BALANCEas of 12/18/2024:$1,931.11
CHECKING DEPOSITS3 Memberships$75.18
CHECKING DEPOSIT TOTALS $75.18
CHECKING WITHDRAWALS $0.00
CHECKING WITHDRAWAL TOTALS $0.00
CHECKING BALANCEas of 03/18/2025:$2,006.29
CASH BALANCEas of 12/18/2024$210.00
CASH DEPOSITS $0.00
CASH WITHDRAWALS $0.00
CASH BALANCEas of 03/18/2025:$210.00
TOTAL ASSETSas of 03/18/2025:$2,216.29

MEMBERS

15 Regular (Paid)

0 Student (Paid)

12 Life Members

27 TOTAL

Respectfully submitted by Emily Kean, Treasurer

Pharmacognosy and Farnsworth – a Project Update from the Lloyd Library

Greetings from the Lloyd Library & Museum! This is Christine Jankowski, Archivist and Records Coordinator, reporting on an ongoing project that interns and I have been working on. The project is part of the never-ending processing of the Norman R. Farnsworth Papers and his work in the field of pharmacognosy. Pharmacognosy is a branch of pharmacology concerned with the physical characteristics and natural sources of medicine (per Steadman’s Concise Medical Dictionary) and Farnsworth was a renowned pharmacognosist who taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) during the 1970s and was involved with the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) until his death in 2011.

One project Farnsworth was deeply involved with of was NAPRAlert or NAtural PRoduct Alert. It was an online database of natural products, ethnomedicine, pharmacology, and botany. Its sources include ethnomedical information, pharmacological/biochemical information of extracts of organisms, case reports, clinical and non-clinical studies. Farnsworth first began work on NAPRAlert when he was assigned to the Botanical Codex Committee of the ASP. This research was based on work by Dr. Eldin V. Lynn, who compiled monographs on the phytochemical components of various botanicals. Farnsworth served as an editor for some of Lynn’s publications and from 1975-1980, Farnsworth amassed hundreds and thousands of research articles, papers, and book chapters. Some of these were then organized into Volume 8 of Lynn’s Index, but the remaining lead to the creation of NAPRAlert. 

The database amassed over 200,000 articles and scientific papers. With the bulk dates from 1975-2005, there are far older articles that were photocopied out of books – some dating to the 1800s! Users included graduate and doctoral students at UIC and members of the ASP. Eventually, online access to this research had a paywall attached to it. Unfortunately, due to lack of resources, the database went offline around 2020. Due to budget and the frequency of papers released online, they estimated they only had 20% of all published papers fitting NAPRAlerts criteria from 2005-2020.

Although NAPRAlert.org is offline, the physical articles still live on in the basement of the Lloyd. Well over 100 double banker boxes house the thousands of physical copies of the articles, each with its own unique identifiable code written on them and a bonus of occasional notes made by Farnsworth or his students or peers. Some of the original IBM cards used to identify each article remain in the collection too! Aside from Farnsworth’s book collection, this was the largest portion of his papers that remained to be processed. Because of NAPRAlert’s offline status, some unique research requests we’ve received, and the need to rehouse all these papers, I had a crazy idea: recreate NAPRAlert for our researchers. 

Organizing thousands of articles at essentially item level is an outstanding task to perform. Thankfully, I’ve had a number of interns to keep the project moving. They continually review and rehouse the paper materials of the Farnsworth collection. I always hope for the day that everything Farnsworth is organized and processed and properly ready for researchers because it all has been, admittedly, chaos. I know that this is a slight setback. However, I believe that this will be a tool essential for remote researchers and members of the ASP and will be a huge payoff by ultimately garnering more interest in the Farnsworth papers.


Farnsworth speaking at the ASP Annual Meeting, 2006. From the American Society of Pharmacognosy Records, courtesy of the Lloyd Library and Museum, Cincinnati.


Examples of the double banker boxes in the Lloyd archives, c.2012. From the American Society of Pharmacognosy Records, courtesy of the Lloyd Library and Museum, Cincinnati.



An example of some of the papers being rehoused in the NAPRAlert series of the Norman R. Farnsworth Papers. Note its identifying number in the bottom right margin. From the American Society of Pharmacognosy Records, courtesy of the Lloyd Library and Museum, Cincinnati.

Medical Illustration & Comics to Graphic Medicine Display at University of Cincinnati

We also have a new display put together by librarian Melissa Previtera: From Medical Illustration & Comics to Graphic Medicine, which highlights our new collection of Graphic Medicine books and medical illustration through the years. Stop by and check it out, and there is even a creation station where you make your own graphic medicine comic! 

Trump’s Trying to Gut Libraries: Fight Back with ALA

From the American Library Association:

Late on Friday, March 14, President Trump issued an executive order attempting to dismantle the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Millions of people rely every day on library services and programs supported by IMLS. Now we need YOU to show up for our libraries.

If you are so inclined, the ALA has provided a convenient online form to contact your representatives about the proposed cuts to IMLS.

For additional information, you can read the ALA statement on White House assault on the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Clarivate/ProQuest announce changes to subscription models

In late February, Clarivate (parent company of ProQuest and eBook Central, among others) announced a transition away from offering one-time perpetual licenses for its ebooks and digital collections in favor of a new subscription-based content access strategy. Library Journal has been providing extensive coverage since the initial announcement.

The displeased reaction from the library community has been swift, resulting in Clarivate announcing an extensive of the original timeline, again covered by Library Journal.

For a thoughtful and comprehensive response from a librarian, Siobhan Haimé’s (University of London) opinion piece is highly recommended reading.

For your reading pleasure: CAHSLA Chronicle, December 2024 No. 166

Please enjoy the latest issue of the CAHSLA Chronicle. Please don’t hesitate to send news, updates, or articles on projects, presentations, etc. for inclusion in the Chronicle to Jim or Emily at any time throughout the year.

In this issue:

President’s Page, Secretary and Treasurer Reports
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital – Preserving Our Collections