NLM Staff Awarded for Highlighting Public Health, History, Innovation

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This cover image from the "This Lead is Killing Us" exhibit, shows men working in a pottery factory in New Jersey in the early 1900s. The glazes used to coat ceramics contained lead. When workers fired the pottery, lead fumes entered the air. Workers inhaled the toxic fumes, which caused severe respiratory issues.

Photo:  courtesy of KGPA Ltd/Alamy Stock

National Library of Medicine (NLM) staff were honored recently for their efforts in highlighting public health through the lens of history and bringing the library’s collections to the world through innovation and collaboration.

Dr. Stephen Sherry

NLM Acting Director Dr. Stephen Sherry received the Health and Safety Virtual Exhibit of the Year Award from the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) for the exhibit, This Lead is Killing Us: A History of Citizens Fighting Lead Poisoning in Their Communities. The virtual presentation (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/thisleadiskillingus/index.html) highlights past and ongoing efforts to prevent lead exposure in workplaces.

Presented by AIHA’s museum and cultural heritage industry working group, the award acknowledges the power of an instructive, visually appealing virtual exhibit to tell a story about occupational and environmental health and safety issues. By bestowing this award, the working group seeks to inspire others to identify or develop other health and safety-related virtual exhibits.

In May, the professional organization LAMPHHS (Librarians, Archivists, and Museum Professionals in the History of the Health Sciences) honored an NLM team for their co-authored article. NLM’s Dr. Jeffrey Reznick, senior historian; Christie Moffatt, digital manuscripts program manager; Jennifer Gilbert, senior technical informational specialist; and Doron Shalvi, senior applications architect, received the 2024 Patricia E. Gallagher Best Article Award for “Innovation and Collaboration at the National Library of Medicine: Migrating Profiles in Science to a New Digital Platform for Development, Preservation and Public Access.”

NLM’s Profiles in Science (https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/) is the focus of NLM’s award-winning open-access article.

Photo:  NLM History of Medicine

Published open access in the Society of American Archivists’ American Archivist journal, the article features a model of teamwork to inspire other organizations engaged in long-term digital stewardship of historical resources to advance research, teaching and learning. See bit.ly/3X2VpBs.

NLM staff noted receiving this award was especially meaningful because it honors the memory and professional contributions of their former colleague, Patricia E. Gallagher, who passed away in 2021. See https://go.nih.gov/DfsjAzC.