Student Essay Competition – Deadline Jan. 31st – $500 prize
The UT Healthier Youth Recipe and Resource Booklet: A Successful Health Information Literacy Project
Briscoe Library Scores High in Student Satisfaction Survey
Holiday Kisses from Briscoe Library’s Therapy Dogs
Library Exam-Time Refreshments: Thanks to SON and SHP!
An exhibit composed of screen prints created by local area high school students is currently on display in the library. The exhibit will be the focus of attention at an award reception being held in the library art wall area on Thursday, December 13th at 6:00 p.m. The prints resulted from a student program (Quality Air, Quality Life) offered by the Air Quality Academy. The exhibit and reception are made possible by UT Health, The AETNA Foundation, La Printeria, Westside Development Corporation, ImpactSA, and Alamo Colleges District.
Click here for KSAT’s local news report feature about this exhibit.
There’s still plenty of time to enter to win $500!
All UT Health students as well as interns, residents and fellows are eligible to enter the Danny Jones History of the Health Sciences Essay Award competition.
The contest is sponsored by the Friends of the P.I.Nixon Medical Historical Library in memory of Danny Jones, MLS, former Head of Special Collections at the UT Health Briscoe Library and Past President of the Friends.
Previously unpublished essays (up to 2500 words) in broad areas related to the history of the health sciences or the history of any health science profession are eligible for submission.
Entries must be submitted in PDF format no later than 12 midnight on 1/31/19 to Peg Seger (segerp@uthscsa.edu)
For more information, click here.
This summer, UT Health San Antonio Libraries, North East Independent School District (NEISD), the UT Teen Health Youth Leadership Council, and the UT Teen Health Clinic partnered to distribute UT Healthier Youth Recipe and Resource Booklets. This project was developed by librarian Karen Barton and funded with federal dollars through a National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM/SCR) Express Outreach Award. The booklets included nine healthy, kid-friendly recipes and pages listing online health information resources for kids and teens. A primary goal of the project was to increase awareness of NLM K-12 consumer health resources and promote healthy behaviors for youth in grades 3-12 who are at risk for poor health outcomes. Another goal was to motivate youth to actually use the NLM K-12 health information resources and healthy recipes found in the booklet. From June 28-September 29, 2018, a total of 2,663 booklets were distributed directly to youth and to organizations that serve youth. There were over 750 more youth in more areas of the city reached than there were during the library’s NNLM/SCR-funded Youth Health Literacy Challenge project in 2017.
NEISD staff were instrumental in distributing 645 booklets to youth at four San Antonio Public Library (SAPL) branches during feeding times for their Summer Food Service Program. Additionally, 350 booklets were given to library staff at three other SAPL branches to distribute to youth. The UT Teen Health Clinic distributed 149 booklets and the UT Teen Health Youth Leadership Council, which consists of nearly 70 teens from across the city who promote sexual health to their peers, received training on online health information resources and were given 432 booklets to distribute—one each to keep for themselves and five each to distribute to peers. Overall, 19 organizations that serve youth participated in distributing the booklets and also included the YWCA, a middle school, high school, and afterschool and extracurricular programs.
Research by von Hippel, Powell, Downey, & Rowland (as cited in McLaughlin, 2012) shows that many American families lack access to healthy meals for their children during the summer and that children gain weight two to three times faster during summer months in comparison to the school year. Since 2016, NEISD has provided the Summer Feeding Program and chosen feeding sites based on the student family income at the neighboring school. In 2017, they served a total of 7,308 free meals for children and adults in San Antonio Public Library branches near schools that reported high numbers of low income students. Due to NEISD and Bexar County demographics and statistics, it is very likely that this project reached those most at risk for obesity, diabetes, and other diseases and conditions, and those most in need of health information and health literacy.
Project partners received great feedback that indicated that the project was making a difference in communities. A grandmother who is raising grandchildren told UT Health San Antonio Libraries staff that she was happy to have been given more recipe ideas through the booklet since, as she stated in jest, it seems as though all her family eats is rice and beans. NEISD staff at Brookhollow Library reported that several parents who had received a booklet had tried some of the recipes. There were 132 teens and parents or other chaperones trained on online health information resources at the UT Teen Health Youth Leadership Council Summit. All participants indicated on NNLM training session evaluation forms that they either “somewhat agree” or “strongly agree” that the training improved their ability to find useful online health information, indicating an improvement in health information literacy. Nearly all of them also expressed eagerness to use and tell others about the NLM resources. Additionally, Youth Leadership Council teens were surveyed later regarding their outreach and reported that some of their family members and peers had tried the recipes or were happy to receive a booklet due to the content. One teen reported, “All of my friends thought that these booklets were cool and excited to receive them.” Out of 66 teens, 22 responded to the second survey. The majority of the teens surveyed, 63.6% (14), reported that they had visited at least one health information website since their training at the summit and 77.3% (17) indicated that they had tried or planned to try a recipe found in the booklet.
For more information on this and other library outreach initiatives, feel free to contact Karen Barton at bartonkd@uthscsa.edu or Peg Seger at segerp@uthscsa.edu.
In preparation for the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) site visit, the UT Health San Antonio student survey results were reviewed to provide support for Briscoe Library’s commitment to student satisfaction.
In the 2018 AAMC Graduation Questionnaire, 98.8% of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with Briscoe Library, compared to the national average of 86.3%. Briscoe Library is happy to report that this number is an increase from 2017’s 93.7%.
The percentage of students who were satisfied or very satisfied with Briscoe Library’s:
We’d like to thank all of the UT Health San Antonio students and we look forward to working with you to continue to make the library an even better space!
Briscoe Library’s own therapy dogs, Angel and June, paid a visit to the library to hand out a little holiday cheer to students studying for exams on Friday, December 7th. Angel and June have both gone through a therapy dog training program with handlers (and librarians) Andrea Schorr and Dana Whitmire. While we have no hard proof, we suspect that students were a little more relaxed when they finally headed out to take that last exam. June and Angel are working hard to do their part in supporting student success!
Thanks to the School of Nursing Student Success Center, students studying hard in the library were treated to cookies and coffee on Tuesday afternoon, December 4th.
On Friday, December 7th, the School of Health Professions provided, cookies, donuts, coffee, hot cider and infused water for students getting ready for exams. One student commented that he was on his way to an exam and the refreshments were just what he needed.
To support our faculty’s research efforts, Briscoe Library has added an additional feature to our monthly newsletter. You are now able to view citations and link to articles from our UT Health Faculty Publications list. As an added feature, altmetric information is also included. This list is produced monthly by our Library Liaison group who can also provide further assistance with scholarly publication efforts. If you do not see your publication listed, you can provide us with the proper citation information by completing this form.
Click here to view the citations for November 2018 publications.
For a list of the newest titles at the Briscoe Library click here.
Purchase suggestions?
Complete the online Purchase Suggestion Form or contact
Andrea N. Schorr, Head of Resource Management.