• Scott Library is focusing on medical milestones for Black History Month. The display will also feature profiles of pioneers in medicine and the healthcare field.

Did you know that over 30% of students at the UofA do not get an adequate amount of sleep? This deficit can result in poor grades, cognitive deficits, and poor physical and psychological health. Sleep, like good nutrition and exercise, is considered one of the foundations necessary for a happy, healthy life. For many post-secondary students, sleep is a major self-care challenge and a potential obstacle to success. Yuluan Wang and Vineet Prasad, graduate students with the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, are on a mission to make the UofA a sleep-healthy campus.

Earlier this year, Yuluan and Vineet were awarded a Heroes for Health grant for their proposal to raise awareness of the effects of sleep on health. As a part of this initiative they have created an eClass course called Dream Big, Sleep Tight, where members of the UofA community can learn about the perils of sleep deficiency and how to combat it.

To help promote this course and the overall importance of sleep, Yuluan and Vineet have put together an exciting new exhibit at the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library. Exploring everything from hidden sources of caffeine to gadgets that can help and harm sleep this exhibit has plenty of solutions to help you catch the Zzzs you need to help you succeed. The Sleep for Success Exhibit will be hosted at the Scott Library from October 16 until November 19, 2017.

The J.W. Scott Health Sciences Library has created adult colouring sheets of images from historic books in the Rawlinson Rare Book Collection. Ranging from early botanical drawings, a public human dissection, to a humorous skeleton, there are different options to suit your various moods. The J.W. Scott Library has set up a colouring station on the main floor of the library. The colouring station has free paper copies of each of the colouring sheets. We are also supplying colouring pencils, felt pens, and crayons for in-library use.

Come, relax and colour!

We invite you to display your colouring virtuosity on our display board for all to admire.

The colouring pages can also be downloaded and printed off from Colour our Collections.

Want to see the original books these images are taken from? For more information on the Rawlinson Rare Book Collection and the visitation procedures, please see the libguide or stop by the service desk.

Join staff at the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library this Halloween as they raise the lid on some ghastly tomes from the Rawlinson Rare Book Collection.

Inspired by the spookiest of seasons, visitors will have the opportunity to view some of our most frightening rare medical books. Learn the ingredients for a Romany baldness cure and how to properly administer leeches. Discover the morbid ways artists have depicted the human body throughout history.  View one of the most unique items in our special collection - a book purported to be bound in human skin.

Drop by the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library on Monday, October 31 between 11:30am - 1:30pm and join in the fun.

These compelling works of art are part of the MD program’s Patient Immersion Experience (PIE) program, a longitudinal initiative introduced in 2013. Pairs of incoming medical students are partnered with a patient mentor in an innovative program designed to instill a deeper understanding of the human side of medicine by learning directly from patients’ experience of disease and illness. The culmination of this program is the creation of a unique piece of art inspired by the experiences and connections forged between student and patient.

We invite everyone to come by the John W. Scott Library between March 23 and April 22, 2016 to view this wonderful exhibit, which includes paintings, sculptures, photographs and audio-visual installations.  The Health Sciences library is located on the 2nd floor of the Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre (enter the University of Alberta Hospital via the 114 Street entrance across from the Health Sciences/ Jubilee LRT Station, or using the the 112 Street entrance; ask for directions at the Information Desk).

Attention all aficionados of medical history and antiquarian books! Did you know that University of Alberta Libraries has its very own rare medical book collection?

The Rawlinson Rare Book Collection is located in the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library. Named for anatomy professor Herbert E. Rawlinson, who taught at the UofA from 1927-1962, the collection features over 1500 volumes of books on a variety of health sciences topics, including Western Canadian medicine, anatomy, midwifery and women’s health, domestic healthcare, epidemics and public health, military medicine, and neurology.

There are a lot of amazing things to see at in the Rawlinson collection. Here are five items that we think are worth making a trip to the Scott to see:

1. Icones Anatomicae  by Andreas Vesalius - Andreas Vesalius was a 16th century physician and is now referred to as the founder of modern anatomy. In an age when human dissection was outlawed, Vesalius broke the rules by teaching anatomy through performing human dissections in a lecture theatre where his pupils could watch. Vesalius published his anatomical findings in his 1543 masterwork De humani corporis fabrica, which featured some of the most famous images in the history of anatomical illustration. Icones Anatomicae, published in 1934, features reprints of these illustrations produced using the 400-year old woodblocks created for the original Fabrica.

2. Corpus of the anatomical studies in the collection of Her Majesty, the Queen, at Windsor Castle by Leonardo da Vinci - Among his myriad of interests, da Vinci was an avid anatomist whose reputation as a great artist garnered him special permission to dissect human corpses. He sketched hundreds of stunning drawings in a number of notebooks that were believed to be lost in the centuries that followed. Many of these notebooks reappeared in the art collection at Windsor Castle. In 1978 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II allowed 998 copies of da Vinci’s anatomical sketches to be made available for the public in this gorgeous three volume set. If you are a fan of da Vinci’s artwork these images are a must see.

3. Description anatomique des parties de la femme (...) by Jan Palfijn and Francois Mauriceau - Both Palfijn and Mauriceau were physicians concerned with obstetrics and female anatomy, and this volume, published in 1708, contains some wonderful foldout illustrations on the subject. What makes this volume unique is the second half, Traité des monstres, de leur causes, de leur nature, & de leur differences. Traité des monstres features numerous illustrations of rare birth defects including a multitude of siamese twins and some more imaginative half-human creatures with the heads or bodies of animals.

4. Plastic surgery of the face : based on selected cases of war injuries of the face including burns by Harold Delf Gillies - Not for the faint of heart, Gilles 1920 book takes a look at facial reconstruction procedures utilized during the First World War. This volume is filled with photos and illustrations from actual cases from this era and is fascinatingly macabre.

5. Speaking of the macabre, let’s not forget the most infamous book in the Rawlinson collection, ​Celsi de medicina libri octo. Published in 1722, this is the book that is purported to be bound in human skin.

Items housed within this collection do not circulate and can only be accessed in the Phyllis Russell Rare Book Room during business hours at the John W. Scott Library. All visitors to the Rawlinson must present their ONEcard, or other government issued identification, to staff at the Scott service desk. Be sure to have the titles, author names, and call numbers of the books you would like to view handy when you come to the service desk. You can find more visit procedures and information on the Rawlinson Collection in our History of Medicine Library Guide.