Message from the Director

Janna Lawrence, MLIS, AHIP, FMLA
Director, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences

The renovation of Hardin's fourth floor is very close to being completed! We are so happy with the refurbished individual studies and the new furniture. And we are most excited about the new reading room for the John Martin Rare Book Room. This new area increases usability of the historic collection and also allows us to shelve more books in the rare book room—no more overflow of "not so rare books" in our conference room.

This renovation is particularly timely, since 2024 is also Hardin's 50th birthday. To celebrate, you are invited to an open house on Thursday, May 2.  See the invitation below from John Culshaw, Jack B. King university librarian, for the details.

We hope to see you soon!

SAVE THE DATE: Celebrating 50 years of the Hardin Library and its fourth floor renovation

The University of Iowa Libraries invites you to celebrate 50 years of the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences and renovation of its fourth floor, including the John Martin Rare Book Room.

Open house

Thursday, May 2, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

2:45–3:30 p.m.: Program featuring guest speaker Dr. Andrew Lam. The physician, historian, and award-winning author will share highlights from his new book The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanities Deadliest Diseases.

The Hardin Library opened in May 1974 and its fourth floor improvements are made possible by a generous grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust. The JMRBR houses nearly 6,500 volumes of original works that represent classic contributions to the history of the health sciences from the 15th through the 21st centuries.

You’ll be receiving a formal invitation by email in the coming weeks. Please reach out to Damien Ihrig, curator of the John Martin Rare Book Room, or Anne Bassett, senior director of strategic communications and external relations for the Libraries, with any questions.  

Look forward to seeing you there,

John Culshaw

Journal Citation Reports

Using Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is important because it’s the official source for finding a journal’s impact factor. However, finding JCR online can be tricky, especially because JCR and Web of Science (WoS) are owned by Clarivate.

Find out more in Mary Thomas's blog post: Hardin Library Need to Know Blog post on Journal Citation Reports

Using UILink to access full-text content

Full-text content from databases is often available using the UILink button. UILink is the tool that bridges our search tools like InfoHawk+, PubMed, and other databases to our subscriptions and full-text content. Make your experience seamless with the help of the best practices.

Biochemical Society Open Access Agreement

The University of Iowa Libraries are pleased to announce a new open access agreement with the Biochemical Society, effective through Dec. 31, 2026.

Find out more in this post from Sara Scheib, director of scholarly impact at the UI Libraries.

Course Reserves for Summer

Keep an eye out later this spring for an email about summer course reserve books. Go to the Hardin Library course reserve guidelines page for more information.

Medical Research: First Yr. Seminar

Hardin Library for the Health Sciences librarians Mary Thomas and Jennifer Deberg taught a first-year seminar in the fall called “Exploring the Exciting World of Medical Research.” You can find out more and see the final student posters on our website.

Enrichment Collection Additions

• Phantom plague: how tuberculosis shaped history by Vidya Krishnan
• Closing death's door: legal innovations to end the epidemic of healthcare harm by Michael J. Saks and Stephan Landsman
• Necessary Conversations: understanding racism as a barrier to achieving health equity edited by Alonzo L. Plough
• The unedited: a novel about genome and identity by Pernille Rørth

Hardin Library turns 50 this year! This image blends the original concept art with how Hardin looks today.