Health sciences libraries in the United States: new directions

This article is the third in a series in this regular feature. The intention of the series is to look at important global developments in health science libraries. These articles will serve as a road map, describing the key changes in the field and exploring factors driving these changes. The present article by the current president of the Medical Library Association outlines two important developments in the United States. The topics chosen for consideration are national initiatives in the United States impacting health sciences libraries and librarians and enhanced roles for U.S. health sciences librarians in providing support for research. J.M.     

Ice hockey shoulder pad design and the effect on head response during shoulder-to-head impacts

Ice hockey body checks involving direct shoulder-to-head contact frequently result in head injury. In the current study, we examined the effect of shoulder pad style on the likelihood of head injury from a shoulder-to-head check. Shoulder-to-head body checks were simulated by swinging a modified Hybrid-III anthropomorphic test device (ATD) with and without shoulder pads into a stationary Hybrid-III ATD at 21 km/h. Tests were conducted with three different styles of shoulder pads (traditional, integrated and tethered) and without shoulder pads for the purpose of control. Head response kinematics for the stationary ATD were measured. Compared to the case of no shoulder pads, the three different pad styles significantly (p < 0.05) reduced peak resultant linear head accelerations of the stationary ATD by 35–56%. The integrated shoulder pads reduced linear head accelerations by an additional 18–21% beyond the other two styles of shoulder pads. The data presented here suggest that shoulder pads can be designed to help protect the head of the struck player in a shoulder-to-head check.     

Making the Traditional Relevant

An unique omnidisciplinary seminar served as the independent variable in a study in which the main dependent variable was the students’ (n = 17) self-evaluated ability to discuss contemporary “relevant” topics from the standpoint of traditional academic disciplines (e.g., discuss population control in the context of anthropology; education; history, economics, political science; literature; music, art, theater; natural and physical science; philosophy; sociology; theology) . Analysis of pre and post treatment scores of seventeen behavioral science majors showed a significant increase in this ability (Wilcoxon T = 15, p<.01). Pre treatment difficulty based on mental set and functional fixedness was held to be counteracted by the effect of the omnidisciplinary seminar on learning to learn and transfer processes.