A Conversation with Oliver Smithies: The Complete Video

On March 30, 2009, the UNC Health Sciences Library hosted "A Conversation with Dr. Oliver Smithies." The event was moderated by Dr. Tony Waldrop, UNC Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, and featured a conversation with Smithies, 2007 Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology, and a lengthy question-and-answer with the audience, which was composed of numerous students, researchers, staff, and faculty, as well as members of the public. While a previous blog entry included video excerpts of his presentation, the present posting includes the complete video [1:19:28].

For other Smithies-related postings on the Carolina Curator blog, click here; for a collection of Smithies' Nobel-related materials, visit the Highlights section of the HSL Special Collections web site. The text of Smithies' 2002 Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lecture, "Fifty Years as a Bench Scientist," is also available online.

UNC maintains a channel for university-related YouTube videos, which can be accessed at the YouTube site; a playlist for Health & Medicine videos is also available. In addition, UNC Health Care and the School of Medicine maintain a YouTube channel, with playlists for news, grand rounds, and more.

WWW2010 and Web Science 2010 Conferences

WWW2010 Conference
April 26-30, 2010, Raleigh, NC

The World Wide Web Conference is a yearly international conference on the topic of the future direction of the World Wide Web. It began in 1994 at CERN and is organized by the International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee (IW3C2). The Conference aims to provide the world a premier forum for discussion and debate about the evolution of the Web, the standardization of its associated technologies, and the impact of those technologies on society and culture. The conference brings together researchers, developers, users and commercial ventures—indeed all those who are passionate about the Web and what it has to offer. WWW2010 will focus on “openness” in web technologies, standards and practices, and will showcase the best of the region’s technology and culture.

Web Science Conference 2010
April 26-27, 2010, Raleigh, NC

The second Web Science conference will overlap with WWW2010 which is also being held in Raleigh and once again we seek papers that demonstrate the development, scope, and relevance of the emerging field of Web Science.

Web Science is concerned with the full scope of socio-technical relationships that are implicated in the World Wide Web, and is thus inherently interdisciplinary. It is based on the notion that understanding the Web involves not only an analysis of its architecture and applications, but also insight into the people, organizations, policies, and economics that are affected by and subsumed within it.

This conference embraces physical and social science drawing on computer and engineering sciences, sociology, economics, political science, law, management geography and psychology. Web Science 2010 brings these disciplines together in creative and critical dialogue and crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Invited speakers will be Jennifer Chayes (Microsoft Research, Boston) and Melissa Gilbert (Temple University, Philadelphia) and Sir Tim Berners-Lee (MIT).

Bullitt History of Medicine Club Lecture Series Online

The entire 2009-10 lecture series for the Bullitt History of Medicine Club is now accessible online. Lectures have been digitally recorded since September 2008, and are available as mp3s on the Bullitt Club web site and as podcasts via Carolina on iTunes (navigate to School of Medicine section or click direct link). A listing of lectures for 2008-9 and 2009-10 follows below. For further information on the activities of the Bullitt Club, visit the organization's web site.

2009-2010 Bullitt Club Lectures

Dr. Carol Otey, Associate Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology, UNC School of Medicine
Oral Contraception: From Ancient Plant Extracts to the Birth of the Pill
:: April 22, 2010 [download mp3 -- 26 MB -- 52:25]

Dr. Margaret Humphreys, Josiah Charles Trent Professor in the History of Medicine, Duke University
The South's Secret Weapons: Disease, Environment and the Civil War
:: March 30, 2010 [download mp3 -- 30 MB -- 1:03:27]

Dr. Alexander Toledo, Assistant Professor of Surgery, UNC School of Medicine
John Collins Warren: "Gentlemen, This Is No Humbug"
:: February 18, 2010 [download mp3 -- 24 MB -- 51:02]

Chris Dibble, MD/PhD student, UNC School of Medicine
Winner of 2009 McLendon-Thomas Award in the History of Medicine
The Dead Ringer: Medicine, Poe, and the Fear of Premature Burial
:: December 10, 2009 [download mp3 -- 22 MB -- 46:25]

Dr. Michael McVaugh, Professor Emeritus of History, UNC
Arabic into Latin (Or, Why Medical Schools Got Started)
:: November 10, 2009 [download mp3 -- 31 MB -- 1:06:12]

Dr. Janna Dieckmann, Clinical Associate Professor of Nursing, UNC School of Nursing
Home-Visiting by Nurses, Physicians, and Physical Therapists in North Carolina, 1950-1965
:: October 19, 2009 [download mp3 -- 44 MB -- 47:16]

Dr. Barbara Clowse, Historian and Author
Dr. Frances Sage Bradley: Her Biographer's Dilemma
:: September 29, 2009 [download mp3 -- 42 MB -- 44:38]

Dr. Philip Klemmer, Professor of Medicine, UNC School of Medicine
Jack London's Mysterious Malady
:: September 15, 2009 [download mp3 -- 42 MB -- 44:35]


2008-2009 Bullitt Club Lectures

Dr. Sue Estroff, Professor of Social Medicine, UNC School of Medicine
Blemished Bodies and Persons: An Historical Perspective on Stigma
:: April 14, 2009 [download mp3 -- 75 MB -- 1:20:15]

Lisa Wiese, Second-Year Medical Student, UNC School of Medicine
Washington, D.C.: Understanding the Poverty-Health Link from an Historical Lens
:: April 6, 2009 [download mp3 -- 48 MB -- 51:22]

Dr. Todd Savitt, Professor of Medical Humanities, East Carolina University
Entering a "White" Profession: Black Physicians in 19th- and 20th-Century America
:: February 10, 2009 [download mp3 -- 59 MB -- 1:03:22]

Dr. Aldo Rustioni, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, UNC School of Medicine
The Neuron Doctrine of 1891 and the 1906 Nobel Award for Physiology or Medicine
:: January 21, 2009 [download mp3 -- 55 MB -- 59:32]

Dr. Vanessa Northrington Gamble, University Professor of Medical Humanities, George Washington University
"Without Health and Long Life All Else Fails": A History of African-American Efforts to Eliminate Racial Disparities in Health and Health Care
:: December 10, 2008 [download mp3 -- 60 MB -- 1:04:24]

Chris Dibble, MD/PhD Student, UNC School of Medicine
Winner of 2008 McLendon-Thomas Award in the History of Medicine
Edward Livingston Trudeau: The First American Physician-Scientist and the Fight against Tuberculosis
:: November 17, 2008 [download mp3 -- 49 MB -- 52:38]

Dr. Elizabeth Fenn, Associate Professor of History, Duke University
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82
:: October 21, 2008 [download mp3 -- 61 MB -- 1:05:18]

Wendy Moore, Freelance Journalist and Author (England)
The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery
:: September 23, 2008 [download mp3 -- 58 MB -- 1:02:02]

Ansley Herring Wegner, Research Historian, North Carolina Office of Archives and HistoryPhantom Pain: North Carolina's Artificial Limbs Program for Confederate Amputees
:: September 17, 2008 [download mp3 -- 34 MB -- 36:32]

Note: Bullitt Club lecturers maintain individual copyright in online presentations.

Symposium for The First White House Library

The Library of Congress will by hosting a one-day symposium on May 7, 2010 to celebrate the publication of The First White House Library: A History & Annotated Catalogue. [For a detailed program, click here].

At the beginning of the day, visitors may choose one of two optional tours in the Library of Congress. Mark Dimunation, Chief of Rare Book and Special Collections, will give a tour of the new exhibition of Thomas Jefferson’s library [see also the digitized catalog of Jefferson's library; his books on medicine and anatomy are described in volume 1 at pp. 395-455], and John Cole, Director of the Center for the Book, will lead a tour that features the iconography, quotations, and inscriptions of the Library’s Jefferson Building.

The symposium program begins officially at 10:00 a.m. with a plenary address by Catherine M. Parisian, the editor of The First White House Library, followed by the presentation of copies of the book to the National First Ladies’ Library and the White House.

Other conference sessions will focus on books and reading in the White House. Douglas L. Wilson, Co-Director, Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, and Jean Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln’s biographer, will discuss President and Mrs. Lincoln. Other featured speakers on the topic of First Ladies and reading will include the noted first ladies historian Carl Anthony; William G. Allman, Curator of the White House; Nancy Beck Young, biographer of Lou Henry Hoover; and Abigail Fillmore’s biographer Elizabeth Thacker-Estrada. The program will conclude with a plenary address by distinguished historian and author Sean Wilentz. A closing reception will follow.

RSVP: This event is free and open to the public. To assist with preparations, we ask those planning to attend to RSVP to Stacyea Sistare-Anderson, Center for the Book, (202) 707-5221, stsi@loc.gov.

The symposium is sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of America, the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, and the National First Ladies’ Library.

April Is National Minority Health Month

April is National Minority Health Month. Check out the resources offered by the Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HSS), as well as the many health information guides for diverse population groups maintained by MedlinePlus at the National Library of Medicine.

OMH was established in 1986 by the HHS. It advises the Secretary and the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) on public health program activities affecting minority groups within the United States. Resources are available online that recognize diverse heritages: Black History Month; Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month; Hispanic Heritage Month; and American Indian Heritage Month.

The OMH also maintains state offices of Minority and Multicultural Health. Contact information for all the state liaisons is available online, including the North Carolina liaison.

At the University of North Carolina, the Minority Health Project works to eliminate health disparities, and provides a guide to minority health-related activities at the university and elsewhere on its web site. In addition, NC Health Info, a service based at the UNC Health Sciences Library, provides much valuable health and medical information for minority groups, as well as links to local health services.

Special Collections at the Health Sciences Library also maintains a digital collection of Community Diagnosis Papers on public health concerns of diverse populations within the state, and is actively digitizing many historical North Carolina public health materials as part of the North Carolina History of Health Digital Collection, an NC ECHO grant-funded project. Additional resources on minority medical care, health and hygiene, among other topics, are discoverable via the online catalog.

Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine To Close

The Future of Medical History

International Conference Announcement and Call for Papers

The Wellcome Trust and University College London have decided to close the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine and initiate a two year wind down, without a quinquennial peer review. This marks the end of the Centre, and its prior incarnation of the Academic Unit of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.

The academic staff of the Centre will be hosting a three day international conference on the Future of Medical History, to take place on July 15-17, 2010 at Goodenough College in London. In keeping with the research of the Centre and former Institute, contributions will be welcome on all aspects of medical history. Papers will be limited to 20 minutes each.

Please send an abstract and contact details to Lauren Cracknell (l.cracknell@ucl.ac.uk) by June 1, 2010. Due to current circumstances, the Centre will not be able to cover the cost of travel or accommodation.

Further details will be available on the Centre website soon.

JournalTOCs a Useful Current Awareness Tool

JournalTOCs is the largest, free and searchable collection of scholarly journal Tables of Contents (TOCs) in the world. It contains TOCs for over 14,000 journals collected from over 500 publishers. JournalTOCs has taken special care to include all the highest rated journals in their fields, guaranteeing quality results. The content of JournalTOCs is directly collected using the URLs for TOC RSS feeds provided by publishers.

JournalTOCs is for anyone who's looking for the latest or most current papers published in the scholarly literature with international coverage. Academics, librarians, students, researchers, and anyone else should find it useful.

Developers can use the JournalTOCs API (application programming interface) to embed our search functionality within their web applications to make the most of the journal TOC RSS feeds metadata. Anyone with access to RSS Readers can also use the JournalTOCs API.

JournalTOCs is an initiative of the ICBL at Heriot-Watt University and is being managed by Santy Chumbe.

Read more . . .

The Raw and the Cooked – and the Rare

On April 15, 2010 treasures will come out of the stacks at the Rare Book Collection in UNC's Wilson Special Collections Library. In a free public program at 5:45 p.m., Claudia Funke, curator of rare books, will speak about the concept of rarity and the role of libraries in collecting and making rare books available. For her talk, titled "The Raw and the Cooked – and the Rare," Funke will showcase some of the collection's recent gifts and purchases. Participants will have the opportunity during a reception beginning at 5 p.m. to view additions to the Rare Book Collection from the past two years. Items will range in date from the 17th to the 21st centuries. Read more . . .

The reception will be held in the Wilson Lobby, with the book viewing in Rare Book Collection Reading Room; the lecture will be held at in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room.

"Communities Thrive @ Your Library"

That's the theme for this year's National Library Week running from April 11 to 17, 2010. Sponsored annually by the American Libraries Association, National Library Week promotes libraries of all types: school, public, academic, and special. In conjunction with the week's celebration, the ALA released its annual report, The State of America's Libraries, which details many current trends, particularly the impact of the recession on the use and provision of library services across the United States.

Trent Society Lecture: Pathology at Duke

New Prints & Photographs Catalog at Library of Congress

The Library of Congress' extensive Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) now has a new look and exciting new features. A dynamic redesign offers clean and visually inviting pages, with easy-to-use features for searching, browsing and sharing.

PPOC offers access to 1.25 million digital images and to more than 600,000 records describing the collections in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division (P&P).

"The new features are wonderful," said Helena Zinkham, acting chief of P&P. "People seeking specific subjects, or just wanting to explore what’s available, can interact more easily with the picture collections. They now have the tools they’ve come to expect from other websites, like a variety of viewing options and simple sharing of what’s found, plus improved keyword access and more indexes to browse."

PPOC is a heavily used resource, with more than 16 million searches conducted in 2009. The catalog provides access through group or item records to P&P’s holdings, which consist of more than 14 million pictures, including the 1.25 million digitized images.

For more information about the Prints and Photographs Division, visit the division's web site; the division's catalog is also accessible online.

Read more . . .

World Health Day 2010

Today, April 7th, is World Health Day. With the campaign 1000 Cities, 1000 Lives, events will be organized worldwide during the week of April 7-11, 2010. Sponsored by the World Health Organization, the global goals of the campaign are:

:: 1000 Cities: to open up public spaces to health, whether it be activities in parks, town hall meetings, clean-up campaigns, or closing off portions of streets to motorized vehicles.

:: 1000 Lives: to collect 1000 stories of urban health champions who have taken action and had a significant impact on health in their cities.

In 1948, the First World Health Assembly called for the creation of a "World Health Day" to mark the founding of the World Health Organization. Since 1950, World Health Day has been celebrated on the 7th of April annually. Each year a theme is selected for World Health Day that highlights a priority area of concern for WHO.

World Health Day is a worldwide opportunity to focus on key public health issues that affect the international community. World Health Day launches longer-term advocacy programmes that continue well beyond 7 April.

The following links provide an overview of the past World Health Days:

2009: Make hospitals safe in emergencies
2008: Protecting health from climate change
2007: International health security
2006: Working together for health
2005: Make every mother and child count
2004: Road safety
2003: Healthy environments for children
2002: Move for health
2001: Mental health: stop exclusion--dare to care

For more on the history of the World Health Organization, visit the WHO web site:

:: WHO 60th Anniversary
:: WHO Historical Collection
:: Archives of the WHO
:: Global Health Histories
:: Posters from Public Health Campaigns

2010 North Carolina History Day Contest

North Carolina History Day is a program designed to promote interest in history among students and to assist teachers in teaching history more effectively. The program will help students develop skills in historical research, analysis, critical thinking, organization, and presentation, as well as improve reading and writing skills. Students use these skills to design an exhibit, write a paper, produce a documentary, create a performance, or develop a web site centered around the annual theme. The History Day program also provides teachers with curriculum materials and training opportunities.

At district, state, and national history competitions judges review the students' work and provide constructive comments. In North Carolina, the state contest is administered by the Office of Archives and History with substantial assistance from the Federation of North Carolina Historical Societies. National History Day in North Carolina is affiliated with National History Day.

The State History Day Contest will be held on April 24, 2010 in Raleigh. The National Contest will be held June 13-17, 2010 in College Park, Maryland. For more information, visit the North Carolina History Day web site.

Michigan to Create Digital Collection of 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine a two-year $314,688 grant to create an original, open access digital collection of archival, primary, and interpretive materials related to the history of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic in the United States. The University of Michigan Library, through its Scholarly Publishing Office, is contributing digital conversion, hosting, and archiving services to the project.

The project, which the NEH has given a prestigious We the People designation for its efforts to strengthen the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture, will include approximately 50,000 pages of original materials that document the experiences of 50 diverse communities in the United States in fall 1918 and winter 1919 when influenza took the lives of an estimated 675,000 Americans. The collection’s primary resources comprise letters and correspondence, minutes of organizations and groups, reports from agencies and charities, newspaper accounts, military records, diaries, photographs and more.

Read more . . .

Related Resources

:: Influenza 1918-1919: North Carolina Statistics and Commentary, a project of the State Library of North Carolina

:: The Health Bulletin (North Carolina State Board of Health) [1913-1973], a project of HSL Special Collections

:: Biennial Report of the North Carolina State Board of Health [1909-1972], a project of HSL Special Collections

Conference on Poetry and Caregiving at Duke

Life Lines: Poetry for Our Patients, Our Communities, Our Selves
A Conference Examining the Place of Poetry in Caregiving

May 21-23, 2010
Duke University
Sponsored by Duke Medicine

Program and Schedule
Speakers and Panelists
Registration

What are the challenges and benefits of offering poetry to patients? Can the sharing of poetry expand the vision of practitioners and students in healthcare professions? What is the role of poetry in community treatment programs? In shelters? In prisons? What can caregivers gain from writing and reading poetry?

This conference is designed for those who have an interest in examining the place of poetry in caregiving. Three panels of poets and health practitioners will present perspectives on the ways poetry can play a part in caring for our patients, our communities and our selves. Through discussion sessions, participants will have an opportunity to share experiences, to dialogue, to develop techniques, and to gain a deeper appreciation for poetry in the art of healing. Highlights of the conference include Friday and Saturday evening talks by poets David Whyte and Jane Hirshfield. Ms. Hirshfield will also offer a master class in poetry writing on Sunday morning. Join us as we hear from physicians, therapists, and poets and discuss the practicalities and possibilities of poetry in health care.

Registration is limited to 150, to allow lots of time for conversation and dialogue amongst those attending. Those who cannot make the whole conference might well be interested in the evening lectures by David Whyte on Friday ($20/$10 students) and Jane Hirshfield (free to public).

For more information about LIFE LINES: Poetry for Our Patients, Our Communities, Our Selves please contact: Grey Brown, Literary Arts Director, Health Arts Network at Duke, Duke University Medical Center (brown097@mc.duke.edu), or Dr. Frank Neelon of the Conference Planning Committee (919-618-1757).

Bullitt Club Lecture on History of Oral Contraception

The last meeting of the Bullitt History of Medicine Club for 2009-10 will be Thursday, April 22, 2010 at the UNC Health Sciences Library in the 5th Floor Conference Room (527). Please join us from 12-1pm for light refreshments and lecture. Meetings are free and open to the public.

Dr. Carol Otey, Associate Professor of Cell and and Molecular Biology at UNC, will be presenting a lecture entitled, "Oral Contraception: From Ancient Plant Extracts to the Birth of the Pill."

The evolution of contraceptive practices from ancient times to the present will be discussed, within the context of the legal and social forces at work in human populations during different historical periods. The emphasis will be on plant-based contraception, including ancient herbal medicines, the development of rubber-based barrier methods (starting from raw plant sap), and the genesis of birth control pills in plant-based organic compounds.

Dr. Otey earned degrees in cell biology at Trinity University (BS) and UCLA (PhD), before pursuing post-doctoral work at UNC. She worked as Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia from 1993-1998, and joined the UNC faculty in 1998.

For further information about the Bullitt Club, including mp3 recordings of past lectures, please visit the organization's web site.

Social History of Medicine Journal Seeks New Co-Editor

Social History of Medicine seeks a new co-editor to join Graham Mooney (co-editor), Anna Crozier (book reviews editor), and Ruth Biddiss (assistant editor). The new co-editor will succeed Bill Luckin, who will retire at the beginning of 2011.

Social History of Medicine is the leading international journal in itsf ield and covers all aspects of the social, cultural and economic history of medicine. It is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. The journal appears three times annually but we are currently exploring options toexpand to four issues per year.

We are looking for a experienced, competent and well established medical historians who will ensure editorial cohesion. Expertise in all areas of history of medicine and/or time-periods will be considered but we are in particular looking for candidates with a background in pre-1800 and/ornon-Western history of medicine.

Applicants are asked to send a C.V. and statement of interest to the Chair of the Society, Dr Lutz Sauerteig, Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease, Wolfson Research Institute, Durham University,Queen's Campus, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6BH, UK (l.d.sauerteig@durham.ac.uk).

The application should provide a brief account of why the candidate is attracted to the post, an outline of what they would contribute to SHM, and a synopsis of their relevant experience. Informal enquiries about the nature of the post can be made by e-mail to Graham Mooney (gmooney3@jhmi.edu) or Bill Luckin (billluckin@googlemail.com).

Further details about the journal and the Society for the Social History of Medicine can be found at the Society's web site. The search is open until the position has been filled.

Fine Books & Collections Back in Print

Fine Books & Collections has now returned to print with the publication of its Spring 2010 issue. Among the items in the latest issue are:

:: Dard Hunter's passion for paper;
:: Biblio 360, a comprehensive guide to book-related events;
:: Edward Stratemeyer's life in New York;
:: Nicholas Basbanes interviews the new archivist of the United States;
:: A look into Baldwin's diary.

Subscription and other information is available on the magazine's web site.

See related post: Fine Books & Collections Returning to Print.

Book Event for New Biography on Hugh Williamson [1735-1819]

The Bullitt History of Medicine Club will be hosting a book event for Dr. George Sheldon, author of the first full-length biography of Hugh Williamson [1735-1819], an illustrious figure in both American and North Carolina history. Entitled Hugh Williamson: Physician, Patriot, and Founding Father, the book recounts the remarkable life of Williamson, who among many other accomplishments was a signer of the U.S. Constitution.

The event will begin at 5:30pm on Thursday, April 15, 2010 in the 5th Floor Conference Room (527) at the UNC Health Sciences Library. Dr. Sheldon will make a brief presentation and entertain questions on Williamson's place in history. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. Light refreshments will be served and all are welcome. In addition, a small display will be on view in the exhibition cases on the first floor of HSL.

Dr. Sheldon is the Zack D. Owens Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also the Director of the Health Policy Research Institute of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Editor-in-Chief of e-FACS.org, the web portal of ACS. From 1984-2001 he served as Chair of the Department of Surgery at UNC.

See related post: New Biography on Hugh Williamson, Physician and Patriot.

Keys To Communication: Speech & Hearing Sciences Exhibit

The Health Sciences Library (HSL), in collaboration with the UNC Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences (DSHS), is hosting an exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Division from March 1 - August 31, 2010. The “Keys to Communication” exhibit highlights the activities of all speech and hearing professionals, and places special emphasis on the specialty areas of UNC Faculty.

"This is a wonderful addition to our 40th anniversary events and one that will live on after the exhibition through the virtual exhibit," said Dr. Jack Roush, Director of the DSHS. "We're very proud of the display and the detail with which it addresses our areas of research and practice. The HSL staff has been wonderful partners in this endeavor and continues to be a tremendous resource for our department and this campus."

The exhibit covers the various activities of speech-language pathologists and audiologists, as well as brief histories of the speech and hearing professions. Also included is an overview and history of the Division, which is part of Allied Health Sciences in the School of Medicine, with commentary from Robert Peters, the first Division Director, to help celebrate the anniversary.

Among the highlights of the exhibit is the display of selected items from Roush’s antique hearing aid collection. These items help show the development of hearing instruments over time from early ear trumpets to modern digital hearing aids and cochlear implants. The audiology portion of the exhibit also includes various hearing devices from special phones to Bluetooth devices and other modern hearing aids.

“Keys to Communication” offers insights from patients as well as professionals to provide a deeper understanding of how essential communication is to our everyday lives, and how the services of speech and hearing professionals help make that communication possible. Descriptions of the DSHS programs also include commentary from current students as well as alumni.

Each section of the exhibit highlights examples of the activities of the DSHS faculty’s research, teaching and practice. This includes researching best practices for teaching autistic children, establishing bilingual language development programs, and participating in international programs, including teaching in Guatemala and offering hearing screenings at the Special Olympics.

Visitors from Tajikistan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Latvia enjoyed the exhibit on March 9 as part of an effort to learn more about serving preschool children with disabilities. The international visitors are directors of each of their nations Open Society Institute foundations and Step-by-Step programs, which help families prepare their children for school and is similar to the United State’s Head Start program.

The exhibit is on display in the South Columbia Street entrance foyer of the HSL. An enhanced, online version of the exhibit includes videotaped interviews and links to related resources. The exhibit is a collaborative effort of HSL staff, DSHS faculty, and Anne Wood Humphries of RiverRunDesign.net, designer and curator.

The DSHS was established in 1969 and is internationally recognized for excellence in education, research, and professional service. It is one of seven divisions in the Department of Allied Health Sciences, UNC School of Medicine. The Division’s academic degree programs include a master’s (M.S.) in speech-language pathology and doctoral degrees in audiology (Au.D.) and speech and hearing sciences (Ph.D.). The audiology and speech-language pathology programs at UNC are among the nation’s top-ranked graduate programs.