NLM Traveling Exhibit Recap

Posted by Carolyn Martin on June 14th, 2023 Posted in: News from Network Members, News from NNLM Region 5
Tags: domestic violence, library programming, NLM History of Medicine, NLM Traveling Exhibits, violence against women

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Several libraries and organizations have been selected to host NLM Traveling Exhibits, including the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Library. We’re delighted to have a guest post by Nora Franco, Clinical Research Librarian, about the library’s experience in hosting one of those important exhibits.

The Zuckerberg San Francisco General (ZSFG) Library recently hosted the National Library of Medicine (NLM)’s bilingual traveling exhibit titled “Confronting Violence: Improving Women’s Lives/Enfrentando la violencia, mejorando la vida de las mujeres”, displayed in the ZSFG Hospital and Trauma Center. The hospital, San Francisco’s only Level 1 Trauma Center, sees more than 3,900 trauma patients annually. The hospital is a leader in HIV/AIDS care, serves as the major disaster response center, and serves all of San Francisco, regardless of insurance status, ability to pay, or immigration status.

Historian and educator Catherine Jacquet, PhD (Louisiana State University), guest curated “Confronting Violence: Improving Women’s Lives/Enfrentando la violencia, mejorando la vida de las mujeres”. The exhibit highlights the timeline of domestic violence as a public health issue and the nurses who bravely backed their patients experiencing it. Historically, groups of nurses and advocates across the U.S. organized (and continue to do so) to fight for these survivors, prevent domestic violence, and care for them as a specific population.

One such organization, La casa de las Madres, began in San Francisco in 1976. The program was the very first shelter for women experiencing domestic violence in Northern California. The NLM Exhibit digital gallery includes images of items La casa de las Madres created such as lipstick tubes or nail files which provided contact information to the shelter.

Additionally, NLM’s Images from the History of Medicine online collection, contains images such as the one below, advertising a screening and discussion of the film “Family Violence in America: the Conspiracy of Silence”.

The exhibit culminated in a tour of the library and hospital itself with the San Francisco Division of the Librarians Association of the University of California (LAUC). LAUC members toured the library, which is in the process of fully re-opening, and then walked over to the hospital to view the banners and learn more about NLM’s curation process.

ZSFG Library thanks NLM for providing these great resources to spread awareness of this ongoing issue and promote the importance of medical libraries and archives in preserving the history of medicine. The exhibit can now be found at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills, CA.