The official portraits of the inaugurated predecessors of President Gregory L. Eastwood have found a new home on the west wall of the main entrance to the Health Sciences Library. Dr. Eastwood requested that they be moved from their former location in Conference Room 122 of the Campus Activities Building to accompany his own relocation to Weiskotten Hall.

The institution now called the Health Science Center came into being in 1950 when Syracuse University transferred its medical school to the fledgling State University of New York. Until 1957 the Dean of the College of Medicine was the head of campus administration. In that year Carlyle F. Jacobsen, Ph.D., assumed the new position of President of the Upstate Medical Center.

Dr. Jacobsen served as President until his retirement in 1967. After Wilfred W. Westerfeld, Ph.D. and Julius B. Richmond, M.D., each served brief interim terms, Lewis W. Bluemle, Jr., M.D., was inaugurated as the second President in 1968.

Dr. Bluemle held the office until 1974. He was succeeded by Richard P. Schmidt, M.D., first as interim, then inaugurated as the third President in 1975.

Dr. Schmidt was succeeded first in 1984 by interim George F. Reed, M.D., then in 1985 by John Bernard Henry, M.D., the fourth inaugurated President. Early in his term the name of the Upstate Medical Center was changed to the SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse in order to reflect more accurately the diversity of services offered.

Dr. Henry resigned the presidency to return to the HSC Pathology Department in 1992. After the interim term of Donald C. Goodman, Ph.D., President Eastwood assumed office in 1993.

New Current Awareness Service -- Reference Update

How can researchers and clinicians gain access to the most current scientific literature? Although MEDLINE is still the database of choice for comprehensive coverage and precise searching, there is a gap of 3-6 months between the publication of a journal issue and its appearance in CD-ROM based MEDLINE products.

Reference Update is a weekly subscription service, recently initiated by the Library, which fills this gap. Most article references appear in Reference Update within a few weeks of publication. To illustrate its timeliness, compare the following examples, noted on March 5, 1996:

                                         Latest Issue  Latest Issue
Title          Type          Frequency   in Ref. Update  in MEDLINE

JAMA           clinical         weekly   March 7, 96     Dec. 6, 95
Nature         basic science    weekly   Feb. 8, 96     Nov. 30, 95
Circulation    clinical    semimonthly   Feb. 1, 96      Nov. 1, 95
Cell           basic science  biweekly   Jan. 26, 96    Nov. 17, 95
Obst.& Gynecol.   clinical     monthly   Feb. 96            Nov. 95
J.Biol.Chem.   basic science   monthly   Feb. 96            Aug. 95

Other noteworthy features of Reference Update:

• Searches by keyword, author, or journal table of contents.
• Supports truncation of search terms.
• Supports Boolean logic.
• Allows strategies to be saved for future use.
• Offers abstracts for most references.
• Exports references into Reference Manager or other bibliographic software.
• Generates author reprint requests on special postcards.
• Uses Ovid software familiar to the HSC community.

Reference Update covers over 1300 English language journals in the biomedical and life sciences, and maintains a rolling file of one year. By comparison, MEDLINE covers over 4000 journals and maintains backfiles through 1966. Reference Update does not provide automatic subject mapping, subheading menus, and other sophisticated features that depend upon the in-depth indexing found in MEDLINE, but it performs the much-needed service of offering quick access to newly published articles. It is available for remote searching through the Library's CDLink service, and also on several workstations in the Library.

Please call 464-4581 for further information.

                                                      Diane K. Hawkins
                                            Head of Reference Services

Agreement for HSC Library Services Signed by VA and HSC

As part of their Academic Affiliation Agreement, the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) at Syracuse and the SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse have arranged for the Health Sciences Library to provide VAMC clinical staff with full medical library services in exchange for the VAMC providing the Library with one full-time medical librarian. Thus Kay Root, the VAMC librarian, has joined the Health Sciences Library reference staff.

The VAMC dissolved its medical library in December 1995 to make more space for outpatient clinic expansion. Yet Kay's patrons will still be able to enjoy at least the same level of service that they had in their former library. The only difference is that they now have to walk across the street to get it.

Kay received a B.S. in Education from SUNY Cortland and an M.L.S. from Syracuse University. Besides being a medical librarian at the VA, she has been a school teacher, school librarian, public library director, IRS auditor, and social security clerk. She sings barbershop harmony with the Spirit of Syracuse, does knitting and craft projects, has served as president of the Syracuse University Alumnae, and attends a multitude of theatrical and sporting events. (You may have noticed her on television during SU basketball games, sitting in the front row knitting and cheering while wearing her orange wig.)

Kay for has been a friend for many years. It is a pleasure to welcome her as a colleague in the SUNY Health Sciences Library.

The Hall of Fame

The brightly lit hall on the first floor, amid Inter-Library Loan (ILL), the Current Periodicals Room, the Health Information Center (HIC), and the elevators, is affectionately called the "Hall of Fame." Five portraits of great physicians in the history of the SUNY Health Science Center so far adorn its walls, and more will soon be added.

It is a source of pride that this institution, then known as Geneva Medical College, broke world tradition by being the first to grant a regular M.D. degree to a woman, Elizabeth Blackwell. Her portrait, painted in 1963 by J.S. Kozlowski, was commissioned as a gift to Upstate Medical Center by Alpha Epsilon Iota, the medical student sorority. It has appeared on the cover of JAMA, July 24, 1972, and on a U.S commemorative postage stamp, January 23, 1974, the 125th anniversary of her medical graduation.

[IMAGE] At the dedication ceremony in 1964, the President of AEI, third year medical student Patricia J. Numann, now a general surgeon at University Hospital, and featured speaker Mary L. Voorhess, M.D., now Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at SUNY Buffalo, admire Koslowski's portrait of Elizabeth Blackwell.

William Tomlinson Plant (1836-1898) was Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at the Syracuse University College of Medicine from 1872 to 1879 and Professor of Pediatrics thereafter. He was a frequent contributor to Archives of Pediatrics and a member of its editorial board.

J.G. Fred Hiss (1894-1986) received his M.D. from Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1917, and was certified in internal medicine. He practiced in Syracuse, specializing in both public health and cardiology. His portrait was donated in 1974 by the Upstate New York chapter of the American Heart Association.

Thomas S. Szasz (born 1920) is among the Health Science Center's most famous living physicians. Affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry since 1956, he has gained an international reputation as the author of such controversial books as The Myth of Mental Illness (1961).

Stephen Smith (1823-1922) was briefly a fellow student of Elizabeth Blackwell at Geneva Medical College, but graduated in 1850 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University after having attended the new University of Buffalo Department of Medicine for a year in between. He distinguished himself as a surgeon, as a champion of sanitation, as the instigator of major public health reform in New York City, and as the founder and first president of the American Public Health Association. Early in the 20th century he donated about 1100 volumes to the Library.

Portrait of Sue Murray Unveiled

Recently retired Library Director Suzanne H. Murray was honored on February 14 with a 3' x 4' portrait which will hang in the Hall of Fame near the door to the Current Periodicals Reading Room.

• [IMAGE] Dr. William J. Williams served as master of ceremonies.
• [IMAGE] Dr. Robert Daly of the Department of Psychiatry was the featured speaker.
• [IMAGE] President Gregory L. Eastwood accepted the portrait on behalf of the Health Science Center.
• [IMAGE] Reference Librarian Kay Root arranged for the a cappella quartet Jazzberry to serenade Sue on this special occasion.
• [IMAGE] Sue shares a laugh with S.U. Prof. of Library Science Emeritus Antje Lemke and the artist, B.B. Chapman.