Health Sciences Libraries

Culture plays an important role in how individuals wish to experience healthcare — and culturally appropriate care makes a difference. While the practice of culturally appropriate care can be complex, our University Libraries provide resources to help providers build and enhance their cultural care skills.

When we move into the new Health Sciences Education Center, you can expect to find some familiar spaces such as our service desk and study areas. You will also see new and enhanced spaces that will support the exploration of emerging technologies in healthcare, including a Makerspace, a Data + Visualization Lab, a Faculty Commons, and a Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab.

As with any move, our move into the Health Sciences Education Center offers us a chance to reassess all of the things we have accumulated over time. For our three health sciences libraries, this includes a reassessment of our websites, with a redesign planned in the next year.  

Record setting snowfalls in February, combined with heavy rains and quickly warming temperatures, have set the stage for major flooding in Minnesota this spring. We’re here to share trusted information compiled by librarians at the Bio-Medical Library and the National Library of Medicine to help prepare for flood events.

Our new library spaces in the Health Sciences Education Center will be full of new furniture. We're excited about the variety of seating options that will be available to our users, and are happy that we can offer some of our current faves. 

Duluth’s forecast called for a wintry mix the morning of January 7 - leading to a two hour weather delay at University of Minnesota Duluth. But bad weather did not stop a team of six librarians from the Twin Cities campus from traveling 160 miles to teach a half-day course on data management, nor did it stop a group of over thirty participants from trekking through snow and ice to attend the workshop.

We live in a world where both an overabundance and a paucity of data coexist, and members of vulnerable populations (such as undocumented immigrants, prisoners, and transgender folks) can be at risk from either end of this spectrum. Too much data can dangerously reveal someone’s status or identity, and an absence of data can undercut the creation of infrastructure required to support a group’s needs.

Color will mark the different areas within the Health Sciences Education Center. Both the Health Sciences Library and the Wangensteen Historical Library will be recognizable because of their earthy orange color palette.  

Dawn Hackman is the new Medical School Liaison at the Bio-Medical Library. In her role, Hackman will work closely with librarians Caitlin Bakker and Sarah Jane Brown as liaisons to the Medical School.

The research of the Libraries’ Emily Beck — garnered from historical materials at the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine — serves as the foundation for an interactive publication and two upcoming and unique events at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Tattersall Distilling.

The Bio-Medical Library is pleased to host Holistic Practice: A Nurse and Her Art by multidisciplinary artist Martha Bird as the next installment in its rotating Art@Bio-Med exhibition series. In this exhibit, Bird uses her art to represent the resilience found in the body, mind, and soul.

When we move into our new home in the Health Sciences Education Center, the Bio-Medical Library will become the Health Sciences Library to better reflect our work to support teaching and learning across all the schools and colleges of the Academic Health Center.  

Take a look at the great GIFs created by the library student employees, Kaylee Morlan and Katie Minarsich, who selected several GIF-able images from the archives for the National Archives monthly hashtag party on Twitter. December's theme was #ArchivesGIFGiving — and the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine joined in the fun.  

Finals can be an especially stressful time of the semester. Take good care of yourself by using our hand-picked online tools and services that are available to students on campus. Brought to you with love by the Bio-Medical Library - now open 24/7 through finals.

The University Libraries offers "distraction-free" studying for finals that includes extended hours in our buildings, as well as stress-reducing activities. Use our spaces, our computers, our coffee shops, Chat 24/7 with a librarian and take a break with our awesome activities.