Schiavo, Julie

3D Tech in the Library? YES!

The LSUHSC-NO Libraries are now offering free 3D printing and scanning!

A Makerbot Replicator Mini and a Makerbot Digitizer are available at the Isché and Dental Libraries.  The printer and scanner are available for free to all faculty, residents, students, and staff of LSUHSC-NO.

The Libraries received an Emerging Technologies Award from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine / South Central Region to purchase the equipment and make it available to our patrons.  The purpose of the award is to foster the creativity and encourage innovation in the health sciences.  We encourage you to come in and try them out even if you have never used 3D printer or scanner before.  We are happy to introduce the technology to you so you can create on your own.

Come in to the Library or go to our website for more information on the technology and our policies.

Updated 9/1/15: Unfortunately, the 3D printer at the Isché Library has suffered a catastrophic failure and is no longer available. Please contact the Dental Library for your 3D printing needs.

Dental School band playing Saturday night

Our own dental school band, Developmental Groove, will be playing this weekend on Saturday night in Lakeview.  We have been hired to play the Power Mile Road Race after party.  They are headlining this event and are very proud to have been asked to do so.  Please come out, show your support and enjoy the show!

The stage will be set up at Harrison and Argonne near Edward Hynes Charter School.

List of Events:

5:00 – Begin race day registration

6:15 – 1/2 mi Youth Race Start

6:30 – 1 mi Open Race Start

6:30(ish) – Band start set 1

7:00 – RRCA Champ 1mi Start

7:20 – Awards Presentation

7:40 – Band start set 2

9:00 – Event closing

Non-runners who want to come out and enjoy the festivities can also purchase tickets for the after-party which includes music, food and beverages. Abita is a sponsor as well as 4-5 local restaurants.  These tickets are $10 and all tickets can be purchased the day of the race beginning at 5:00pm.

PubMed changes

Recently, PubMed has announced that it has changed a few popular features that you may notice in your search results:

Within the article summary display, two changes have been made.  The term “Related Citations” has been changed to “Similar Articles”.  It was thought that “Related Citations” was ambiguous.,  The algorithm to generate the results of a search on for similar articles has not changed, just the name of the feature.  Also, the status tag line has been removed from the article summary display.  Most users will not notice this change but experienced searchers may.  The status tag line is still included in the Abstract display.

The “Save Search” link for creating My NCBI email alerts has been renamed “Create alert” and the “RSS” link has been renamed “Create RSS”.  Once again, these changes will not affect the functionality of PubMed they are only intended to eliminate ambiguity and to make the process smoother.

Finally, for those who use PubMed Mobile, there have been updates with a number of styling modifications and additional enhancements including a “Trending articles” feature.

For more information about these changes, you can refer to the New and Noteworthy link on the bottom of the PubMed screen or refer to the NLM Technical Bulletin.

Parking at Dental Friday 5/15

On Friday, May 15th, the original Visitors Parking Lot at the Dental School Administration and Clinic Buildings (across Florida Avenue by the railroad tracks) will be closed the entire day. This closure is necessary to allow for the placement of modular buildings for the School of Dentistry Inter-Professional Primary Care Clinic. Please see this illustration highlighting the area of the closure.

Welcome our new dental librarian

Welcome to our newest dental librarian, Wes!

Wesley Lucas started as the dental reference librarian on March 2, 2015. Wes is originally from Pascagoula, MS, and has lived in New Orleans for the past 3 years. He received his Master of Library and Information Sciences from Louisiana State University and his Bachelor of Arts, History, and Anthropology from the University of Mississippi in Oxford.

Wes comes to the Dental Library from Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, where he was a library technician in the microforms, newspapers, and government documents department. He also was the Special Collections Digital Services graduate assistant at the Hill Memorial Library at LSU in Baton Rouge.  He has worked in a variety of academic and public libraries throughout his education and is happy to start his professional librarian career here at LSUHSC-NO.

We are thrilled to have Wes as part of the Dental Library team!

3D printing coming soon!

The LSUHSC-NO Libraries is proud to announce that it has been awarded the first  National Network of Libraries of Medicine South Central Region’s (NN/LM SCR) Emerging Technologies Award.  With the funds provided by this award, the Libraries will purchase two 3 dimensional printers and two 3 dimensional scanners to be placed in the libraries.  This equipment will be available for free to everyone affiliated with LSUHSC-NO.

LSUHSC-NO Libraries’ goal of this project is to provide students with a friendly, welcoming, environment to innovate, create, collaborate, and discover.  The library seeks to give students, staff, and faculty opportunities to explore 3D technology in an accessible location without exorbitant costs.  These scanners and printers will offer the means to build prototypes, create models, improve equipment, and so on, limited only by one’s imagination.

The mission of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) is to advance the progress of medicine and improve the public health by providing all U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information and improving the public’s access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health. The Program is coordinated by the National Library of Medicine and carried out through a nationwide network of health science libraries and information centers.  This year, the South Central Region instituted the Emerging Technology Award to to assist libraries in the integration of new and emerging technologies in their institutions to promote health information services.  

Further developments on this project will be announced as available.

What will you make?

Honor for Dental Faculty Member

Congratulations to Robert Barsley, D.D.S., J.D., Professor and Director of Oral Health Resources, Community and Hospital Dentistry.

Dr. Barsley was recently appointed to the Crime Scene / Death Investigation Scientific Area Committee by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The Crime Scene / Death Investigation Committee is one of five scientific committees that makes up NIST’s Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC). These Committees, with the Forensic Science Standards Board and other discipline-specific committees establish new forensic science standards and guidelines.

Dr. Barsley is a 1977 graduate of LSUSD, a Fellow of the American College of Dentists, a member of the International College of Dentists, a member of the Pierre Fauchard Academy and a member of the Odontology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. He has served as a consultant to a number of coroners’ offices in southern Louisiana and is currently on staff at the Orleans and Jefferson Parish Coroners’ Offices. He has also served as the Acting State Dental Director of the Louisiana Office of Public Health. Dr. Barsley is a Past President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

It Came From the Stacks

In honor of everyone using their time this summer to study for their board exams, this month’s “It Came From the Stacks” post is about a board review text.  However, you might not want to use it for your boards as it was published 107 years ago.

Underwood & Gabell’s Aids to Dental Surgery is one volume in their “Student’s aids series.”  The book is small and as the author states in his preface, “condense(s) into a concise form that department of the science of dental surgery which is capable of such treatment.”  Underwood states that the books concentrates on matters which are likely to be included on examinations.  “If the book smooths the path of any of the large body of dental students, with whose education and welfare my daily work has been and is so largely concerned, I shall feel that its object has been accomplished.”

Within this slim, 126 page book, the authors cover the breadth of dental science including bacteriology, hygiene, injuries and illnesses of the pulp, periosteum, mucous membrane, and jaws, extraction of teeth, and diseases arising from diseases of the teeth and gums.

LSUHSC-NO Libraries is lucky enough to hold one of only 12 copies of this work in the world.  If you’d like to come take a look at this book or any of our more recent board review materials, please contact us or stop in to see us.

It came from the stacks

This month we are highlighting a very interesting find from the Dental Library: Wit Love Frum Cousin Sylveste by Fred J. Wolfe D.D.S.  This collection of original letters documents a small portion of the history of Louisiana dentistry, the Louisiana Dental Association, and Louisiana heritage.

Fred J. Wolfe D.D.S. was a New Orleans dentist who graduated from dental school in 1908 and established a practice on Canal Street.  He served as President of the Louisiana Dental Association from 1927-1928.  Beginning in the Summer of 1931, Dr. Wolfe authored letters published in Impressions, “A Journal of Friendly Relations published quarterly by the Louisiana State Dental Society”.  The regular column, A Letter from Cousin Sylveste, detailed the state of Louisiana dentistry, the events that took place at Louisiana and national dental meetings, and daily life as a Louisiana dentist.  Each letter was written in an irreverent Cajun dialect and pokes fun at the profession, meeting presenters, society leaders, and Louisiana culture.  The last letter was published in the last issue of Impressions (1938 Summer: 7(3): 13-4) but Wit Love Frum Cousin Sylveste contains a special unpublished “Au Revoir frum Sylveste” letter dated May 18, 1939.  The volume is signed by the author and many of the personalities who appear within the letters and was presented as a gift to the Louisiana State University School of Medicine Library in memory of Leo J. Schoeny, D.D.S.. an editor of the journal Impressions.

If you would like to take a look at this or any of the other special holdings in the Dental Library, please contact us.  We are happy to show off our collection!

It came from the stacks

In the continuing series “It came from the stacks”, I present to you three books from the Dental Library that are just fun.  They don’t have any great historical significance and certainly don’t have scientific value to a student of dentistry, but who can resist a tale of the “tooth gremlin”?

How a Tooth Moves, tells the story of “the orthodontist’s friend, the Tooth Gremlin”.  Published in 1973, this picture book tells the story of a naked little gremlin who moves teeth during orthodontic treatment.  He explains to children how the periodontal ligament is stretched on one side of the tooth and squeezed on the other causing the tooth to move and then bone is built up and the tooth stays in the new place.  The book ends with the Tooth Gremlin reminding the reader that their headgear and elastics help move teeth too so “you do your part and I’ll do mine!”  Curiously, a quick WorldCat query found that only two libraries have copies of this book: University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and LSUHSC-NO.

Another fun children’s book in the Dental Library is Hurray!  I went to the Dentist Today by Mark Smoller, DDS.  This picture book starts with this rhyme:

“HURRAY! I went to the dentist today

It was more fun than the games that I play.

We went to the dentist, my mother and me.

There were new things to do.

There were new things to see.”

It might not win any awards for poetry, but it does manage to describe several of the pieces of equipment a child will encounter in a dental office in rhyme.

The last of our historical picture books for children is Our Tooth Story; a tale of twenty teeth by Ethel and Leonard Kessler.  This 1972 book tells of Mrs. Wood’s kindergarten class who start to lose their teeth.  Prompted by this, they read a story, “Our Tooth Story” which describes the students’ dentists’ offices and how to take care of their teeth.

While these books are all older and probably not the books you’d give to a child anymore, they are an interesting look back at pediatric dentists attempt to alleviate children’s fear of visiting the dentist and dental procedures.  If you’d like to come take a look at these books or some of our other children’s books, please contact us or stop in to see us.

It came from the stacks

While moving the dental books and journals we came across several books we’d like to tell everyone about in a series of posts in the continuing saga of “It Came From The Stacks” (insert foreboding music here…)

Our first book is a classic of dentistry from the Dental Library’s Old and Rare Collection.  This over sized book, published in 1844, is by Paul B Goddard and is titled The Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology of the Human Teeth; with the most approved methods of treatment, including operations, and the method of making and setting artifical teeth; with thirty plates, also known as “Goddard on the Teeth”.

Goddard on the Teeth

When “Goodard on the Teeth” was published, it was described in a review in American Journal of Medical Sciences as a “practical treatment on the subject of the teeth”.  It is praised by the reviewer: “… the work is got up in the handsomest manner.  The plates are indeed the best specimens of lithography we have seen executed in this country.”  This book contains some remarkable images head and neck anatomy, microscopic structure of teeth. dental equipment, a four step pictorial description of extracting teeth using a key, and various forms of artificial teeth and plates, among others.

This is a very interesting book that is exemplary of the beginnings of modern dentistry.  If you would like to take a look at it in person, please contact the Dental Library and make arrangements to come see it.  We’d love to share our old and rare treasures with you.

A musical interlude…

Dental school can be stressful but it also can be fun.  Take a look at a video made by some of the LSU Dental Students!

Prepping Caries All Over

(with apologies to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis)

Where’d the books go?

If you’ve been in the Dental Library recently, you’ve no doubt noticed that there aren’t any books on the shelves right now.

We are in the middle of a large project to fix and reinforce our shelving units and in order for that to happen, we had to take everything off the shelves. ?áAlthough the books and journals are stashed everywhere but where they should be right now, we are open and ready to help you find the information you need. ?áIt just might take a little longer than usual.

During this project, we will try to keep the noise to a minimum ?ábut there will be some inevitable disturbances. ?áFree earplugs are available at the circulation desk while we finish this project!

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

It’s AcWriMo 2013!

Inspired by the hugely successful NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), PhD2Published, a blog dedicated to helping academics publish, has announced that November is also AcWriMo (Academic Writing Month).

AcWriMo is a month long academic write-a-thon for academics at all stages of their careers. ?áPhD2Published will support writers with dedicated posts about academic writing and thousands of Tweets to encourage you to keep going throughout the month.

According to their website:

“There are 6 basic rules:

1. Decide on your goal. You might count words, hours put in or projects achieved ÔÇô itÔÇÖs up to you. But try and push yourself a bit. (And if you need help counting our?áPhDometer app?áÔÇô the proceeds from which help fund this month-long writing extravaganza ÔÇô was designed for just that!)

2. Declare it! Basically, just sign up on the?áAcWriMo 2013 Writing Accountability Spreadsheet?áand fill in the sections on what youÔÇÖd like to achieve by the end of the month. Being accountable is key to this working for you. You need to feel a bit of pressure to get the work done. So sign up and add your goals as soon as you can.

3. Draft a strategy. DonÔÇÖt start AcWriMo without doing a bit of planning and preparation. Get some reading done, carve out time slots in your schedule to dedicate to writing, even buy your favorite coffee. Sort out whatever youÔÇÖll need to write, and get it done now, there wonÔÇÖt be time when November comes around.

4. Discuss your progress. OK so being on Twitter and Facebook with us all day isn’t acceptable ÔÇô you’ve got work to do ÔÇô but checking-in at certain times is really important! We want to know how youÔÇÖre getting on? What is working for you and what isn’t? Do you need help? Do you want to share a writing triumph? (YouÔÇÖll find most discussion about AcWriMo on Twitter using the?á#AcWriMo?áhashtag, but if?áFacebook?áis more your thing, go there. Or use your own blog to keep in touch. You can even write little updates you want to share in the?áspreadsheet.)

5. DonÔÇÖt slack off. As participant Bettina said of the first AcWriMo, you must ÔÇÿwrite like thereÔÇÖs no December!ÔÇÖ If you push yourself, youÔÇÖll quickly discover the tips and techniques that work best for YOU and thatÔÇÖll save you even more time in the long-run.

6. Declare your results. ItÔÇÖs great to use the spreadsheet everyday (or as often as you can) to chart how youÔÇÖre getting on, but even if you canÔÇÖt do that, you MUST announce your results at the end of the month. Our writing community benefits not only from sharing in your achievements, but knowing what didn’t work and being reminded that, at the end of the day, weÔÇÖre all human!”

So everyone should go forth and WRITE… That’s what I’ll be doing this month!

Hearing through your teeth?

Recently, a new type of hearing aid was approved for use in Europe. ?áThis new device attaches to a patient’s teeth and conducts sound through the teeth and facial bones.

While this device doesn’t look terribly comfortable for the patient, researchers believe it could open doors to new types of hearing aids. ?áIf you would like more information about the development of this new device, check out these articles.

This new product is a prime example of what interprofessional collaboration in the health sciences can do!