USC Libraries

On Friday, March 1, the USC Libraries welcomed a capacity crowd for Just Food and Fair Food: A Multidisciplinary Exploration. Presented by USC Visions and Voices, the event explored issues at the intersection of nutrition, urban policy, and social justice through a panel discussion and also featured a fair-food bazaar. To learn more about the event, check out this companion resource guide with suggestions for further reading and research, prepared by the USC Libraries' Rita Romero, Chimene Tucker, and Sue Tyson. Click through for photos from the event.

A rare book from the USC Libraries' Special Collections about anatomical anomalies—both real and imagined—was featured in today's edition of the USC Chronicle. As Dan Knapp writes in his story for the Chronicle, the Italian philosopher and scientist Fortunio Liceti wrote De Monstrorum Natura, Caussis, et Differentiis (On the Nature, Causes, and Differences of Monsters) in 1616 to investigate anatomical abnormalities like the famed Monster of Ravenna, an early-16th-century child who likely suffered from a rare genetic disorder now known as Roberts syndrome. Click through for selected illustrations from Liceti's book.

Pulitzer Prize winner Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, speaks Thursday, October 6 at 4:30 p.m. in the USC Health Science Campus' Aresty Auditorium. The event also features snacks and a special "poison brew" cocktail. Keep reading to learn more about The Poisoner's Handbook and Thursday's event.

The USC Libraries have added 33 new electronic resources to support USC's teaching and research needs. By mid-July, USC students, faculty, and staff will be able to access to the new databases, electronic journals, and other digital resources through the E-Resources tab on the USC Libraries homepage.

Author Colin Dickey, a PhD candidate in comparative literature at USC, will speak on Monday, February 7 at 4:00 p.m. in USC's Norris Medical Library about his book, Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius. Dickey's talk will be  followed by a wine and cheese reception and a special exhibition of rare books from Norris Medical Library's collections. Keep reading to learn more about the event, which looks into the nineteenth century practice of buying and stealing the skulls of famous deceased geniuses.

More than one hundred finding aids for the USC Libraries' archival collections are now available online. These finding aids, which provide basic information about the collections as well as detailed inventories of the collections' contents, help researchers discover the riches of the libraries' archival collections. Keep reading for a list of available finding aids, organized by subject area.

Richard J. Bing, an accomplished cardiologist, composer and author, died Nov. 8 at the age of 101. Bing was a longtime professor of medicine at USC who, in 2000, donated the Richard J. Bing Collection of Music Scores to the USC Libraries. Keeping reading for the USC News article about Bing and his collection of musical compositions.

The libraries recently acquired 59 new databases and other digital collections, many of which are already accessible via the E-Resources tab on the libraries' homepage. Keep reading for an introduction to the new resources available for Science, Engineering, and Mathematics researchers.

Credo Reference recently added Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches; The Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function and Disorders; A Dictionary of Globalisation and Environmental Policy; and numerous other titles. Read more for a complete list of new Credo e-resources, which you can access from the USC Libraries e-resources pages.

Science librarian Jean Crampon chairs the Biomedical and Life Sciences Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). The division recently polled its members to identify the 100 most influential biology and medicine journals over the last 100 years. You can find the results on the SLA Web site.