As I mentioned in an earlier message, October is the month in which we celebrate the valuable role medical libraries play in supporting the academic health sciences enterprise. Earlier images of academic medicine would depict the enterprise as a three-legged stool with the legs representing research, teaching and service. In this decade we describe the enterprise more in terms of a continuum that takes bench research and translates that research to the bedside with lifesaving patient care treatments to the trench or communities for population health. This is called the translational science path.

This topic was top of mind as I was asked to make a presentation to the University Library Faculty Advisory Board this week. I focused on illustrating how Countway staff has successfully embedded their research, teaching, scholarly publishing, history of medicine, collection, and access services into the translational science continuum. We have had to pivot the way we have done our work quickly during these past few months. Despite the challenges we have faced in the Covid-19 era, Countway staff continue to demonstrate their value by embedding library services to advance scientific discovery that improves patient care decision making and foster the health of the public and our community. The slides illustrating your work make up this week’s message. Thank you for sharing your work with me and for all that you do to advance scientific discovery and save lives.

Elaine