"And There's the Humor of It": Shakespeare and the Four Humors Exhibit

Examine the intersection of medical theory and literature with the National Library of Medicine's traveling exhibition currently in the Harriet K. & Philip Pumerantz Library. 

These four bodily humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—were understood by Shakespeare, and generations before him, to define people’s physical and mental health, and to determine an individual’s personality, as well. 

Visit the Pumerantz Library to see this exhibit to learn more about the language of the four humors and their influence in Shakespeare’s plays.  Additional displays, created by the Pumerantz Library staff, show the evolution toward modern medical theory and practice.   

The exhibit will run, in the Pumerantz Library's Lobby, from August 4 until September 12, 2014.  View some photos of the exhibit on our Flickr page. For further information contact the Pumerantz Library at 909-469-5323 or visit the "And there's the humor of it" website.

STAT!Ref Cancellation

Over the past few years we have had to reduce our Stat!Ref subscriptions due to important resources such as McGraw-Hill content and the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM being pulled by the publishers. As publishers were removing their content, Stat!Ref made a policy change and no longer gave us title by title pricing. Their pricing system changed to a weighted system, so the more resources you added, the more competitive their price was. 

 Over the years usage has decreased and it was noticed that we had duplicate coverage for many of the resources that were being used in Stat!Ref. As a result, we were no longer adding to Stat!Ref and instead were cancelling individual titles due to overlap. Because of the weighted system, we were not seeing the reduction in costs that one would expect. As a result, we have decided to cancel Stat!Ref as of July 2014 and use that money to purchase resources that are not duplicated elsewhere and that will be used more frequently.

 

If you have used “The Review of Natural Products” which was available in Stat!Ref , you can now use Natural Standard.

Natural Standard is available on the library’s Electronic Resources page. It provides evidence-based information about complementary and alternative medicine including dietary supplements and integrative therapies. Grades reflect the level of available scientific data for or against the use of each therapy for a specific medical condition.

If you used “AHFS Drug Information” in Stat!Ref, this resource is embedded throughout  Lexi-Comp. Lexi-Comp is also available from the library’s Electronic Resources page. Simply enter the drug name to pull up a list of your options and select the AHFS DI link.

 

If you have any questions or concerns about Stat!Ref content, please contact the library at 909-469-5323 ask for Reference or by email at reference@westernu.edu.

 

Independence Day Closure

The Harriet K. and Philip Pumerantz Library will be closed from Friday, July 4 to Sunday, July 6 in observance of Independence Day. We will re-open on Monday, July 7 at 7 am.

Enjoy the 4th and be safe.