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Many of you will recognize me from my previous position as one of the Reference Assistant Librarians at the Dykes Library. I have been an employee of the University of Kansas Medical Center since 1992 when I changed careers. Although I have not participated in the practice of dental hygiene since I started my library career, I maintain 2 state licenses and attend numerous medical and dental continuing education programs.
Since joining the History and Philosophy of Medicine Department in the summer of 2001, I have been making the transition from working with patrons who need current medical and nursing literature to assisting patrons who need to explore the historical medical, nursing, and scientific literature. Patron interactions at the Clendening are usually extended and can vary from 15 minutes to an all day appointment arranged by a visiting scholar. It is energizing, exciting, and always a learning opportunity.
Various groups make appointments to tour the written and museum treasures of the Clendening Library. Most people never have the opportunity to see and actually read the sentence in the first edition of Robert Hooke’s 1665 Micrographia where he actually uses the word “cell” for the first time. It’s an electric moment each time the sentence is pointed out to visitors, and they personally read the defining words. The Clendening Library’s collection of caricatures, Touch Pieces, surgical sets and microscopes also elicit enthusiastic responses from visitors. In addition to seeing rare books and museum artifacts, the Clendening guests express interest in the Digital Clendening, http://clendening.kumc.edu/dc. Future plans are to digitize more of the collection for our website.
The Clendening Library will continue to focus on enhancing the access of the collection to students, faculty, and visiting scholars. I am thrilled to be associated with one of the top libraries in the field of the History of Medicine, and I will continue the previous librarian’s tradition of using technology to increase the availability of our special collections to interested patrons worldwide
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