Duke Medical Center Library & Archives News

The Library Welcome Party is a chance for new and returning students, faculty, residents, fellows, and staff to come to the Medical Center Library for a little fun, education, and LocoPops. This year, we are hosting a DJ, educational stations about library resources, maker stations (zine making, button making), and a couple of wellness activities. Join library staff, as well as representatives from LeWell for some fun at this annual event!

Date: September 8th, 2025  
Time: 12pm -2pm  
Location: Medical Center Library (Seeley G. Mudd Building, 10 Searle Drive)

Categories: Events

The Third Year at the Duke School of Medicine provides M.D. program students the opportunity to dig deep into biomedical-related research. The results of these research projects are presented annually at the Medical Student Research Symposium. Now in its 56th year, the symposium, held this year on August 7 – 8th in the Trent Semans Center for Health Education, highlights the unique scholarly accomplishments of third year medical students. Medical student posters from 2020 – present are available in the Medical Center Archives’ MEDSpace digital repository of scholarly works from the institution. 

These more than 650 posters reflect the broad variety of third year medical students’ scholarly and research…

Categories: Events

With more than 1.9 million apps in Apple’s App Store, it can be tough to know which ones are worth your time. Start with our Mobile Apps guide to see the health-related apps available through Duke or read on for highlights of our most popular tools.

Point of Care Tools

Our most-used apps are UpToDate and DynaMed, both rich with medical calculators and clinical evidence. While they share common strengths, they also differ in specialties and organization. DynaMed, for example, covers Neonatology, Neurosurgery, Occupational Medicine, Ophthalmology, Oral Health, Otolaryngology, and Pathology. We encourage you to try both to see which fits your workflow best. You can also earn…

If you’ve spent any time in our reading room on the 1st level of the Medical Center Library, you might have noticed the striking and colorful ribbon illustrations on the walls in between the bookshelves! But you might not know the importance of these images to the history of protein science and scientific visualization! They are the influential work of Duke scientists Jane and Dave Richardson.

The ribbon diagrams or “Richardson diagrams” are now ubiquitous in depiction of proteins today, but they were first hand-drawn by Jane Richardson. She is widely recognized for the creation of this new visual language, first published in “Advances in Protein Chemistry” in 1981. The drawings stemmed from the realization that a general classification scheme could be developed…

Authroization codes for the Lexidrug app expire yearly at the end of August. To continue using the app, you must add the new code to your account (provided after 8/31 on their website). 

To get the new code, go to Lexidrug and click on the Mobile App Access button. Select your platform and indicate if you are a new or existing customer for instructions on adding the new code to your subscription.  If you have any issues installing or updating the software, contact their Technical Support Dept at 1.855.633.0577 or submit your question via their online form (Note: if cookies are blocked, the form may not…

Categories: Alerts

Duke students, faculty and staff and most affiliates with a Duke NetID have off-campus access to many online resources, such as databases and e-journals. Simply start at our Website and you will be prompted to sign in with your Duke NetID and password once you get to a resource that requires authentication. Or you may use the Duke NetID Login button at the top right of the site to avoid the need for repeated resource prompts. This login will last until you close your browser.

With the exception of the Duke FormWeb, Micromedex, and CultureVision (which require the VPN), no VPN or Virtual PIN is needed to access our resources. A small subset of Duke's online resources are restricted by license agreements and…

We’re so glad you’re here! The Duke Medical Center Library & Archives is more than just a place for books—it’s a hub for discovery, collaboration, and support. Whether you need evidence-based resources, expert help with research, or a quiet place to study or work, we’re here to help you succeed. Plus, save the date for our Welcome Party taking place on Monday, September 8th from 12-2 pm.

As you get started, here are our top tips.

💻 Bookmark our website. It’s your gateway to journals, eBooks, databases, and more—no…

Categories: Events

Seeking quick and reliable answers to your clinical questions? Look no further than the Library’s Clinical Tools page! Here you will find a handy list of links to point-of-care resources, decision-support tools, core eBooks, guidelines, and patient education information.

Some of these include:

• DynaMed, which provides evidence-based clinical information concerning diseases, drugs, and other therapies that is highly useful when making decisions about patient care.
• …

Tags: DynaMed, UpToDate, visualdx

From the National Library of Medicine:

On Friday, July 25th, starting at 9:00 PM EDT, we’ll be performing essential maintenance on the NLM data center. This upgrade is critical to ensure the continued reliability and stability of our services.

We anticipate this planned outage will last 24 hours or more. During this time, users may experience interrupted access or degraded performance across a range of NLM resources, including databases, search tools, submission systems, and programmatic services.

We understand this may cause inconvenience, and we sincerely apologize for the disruption. We’re committed to minimizing impact and will provide timely updates throughout the process.

We expect all NCBI products and services to be fully available again by Monday, July…

Categories: Alerts

Duke Hospital opened for patients on July 21, 1930. Pictured below is the staff of the Duke University School of Medicine, Nursing, and Dietetics and Duke Hospital two days before the opening.

F. Ross Porter was one of Duke Hospital's first administrative interns when the hospital opened in 1930. In 1932 he was appointed assistant superintendent of Duke Hospital, and in 1933 he was certified in hospital administration. He served at Duke as professor of hospital administration until 1960. On the 25th anniversary of the hospital, Porter shared his remembrances in the August 1955 issue of the Intercom. He writes: 

“Contrary to our expectations that the Hospital wards could be opened…

Tags: archives, duke history

Stop by room 212E in the library on Monday, July 21 between 10 am and 12 pm to visit with therapy dog Jerry, a golden retriever from Pets at Duke. Students, faculty, and staff are welcome. 

Categories: Events

If you're searching for theses or dissertations by members of the Duke community, here are the best places to start:

DukeSpace Theses & Dissertations

DukeSpace is the primary open-access repository for Duke University theses and dissertations and should be your first stop!  It includes:

• Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations (2007–present)
• Undergraduate honors theses

Materials from 2007 to present are available in full-text with no login required.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses @ Duke University 

This ProQuest database…

Tags: theses and dissertations, DukeSpace, publications

Have you received an unexpected invitation by email to publish in a journal? Or perhaps you've been asked to serve as a peer reviewer for a journal you’ve never heard of? You're not alone. Many researchers are regularly contacted by unfamiliar publishers—and while some may be legitimate, others may not be worth your time or reputation.

With the continued rise of open access publishing and the “pay to publish” model, it's more important than ever to evaluate journals before engaging with them. While open access can increase the visibility of your research, it has also led to the growth of predatory journals—publications that charge fees without providing proper editorial or peer review services. The ever-increasing number of new journals makes it difficult to distinguish between…

Tags: publishing, scholarly communication, peer review

Are you interested in the history of Duke Health? Duke University Medical Center Archives collects, preserves, and provides access to materials documenting the history of the medical center community, from the 1930s to the present! With almost 100 years of history, it can be tough to know where to start especially if you have never worked with an archive before.

For a quick primer on archival research, we recommend you watch this short video on YouTube: Archives Research: Getting Started! It gives an overview of archives in general, how archives are different from libraries, our resources for helping with research, and guidelines on what to expect if you visit our reading room! (All under 5…

Tags: archives

Starting July 1, access to library study spaces on evenings and weekends is expanding for students and faculty. Students and faculty from the School of Medicine and School of Nursing will be able to use their DukeCards to access library spaces from the level 2 plaza doors at any time on evenings and weekends, effectively providing 24/7 access to the facility. Please note that while access to the space is expanding, there will not be staff on-site during these times. During evenings and weekends, study rooms and cubicles will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Library spaces remain available to all Duke Health and Duke University patrons as well as the general public from 7 am – 5 pm, Monday through Friday. Library services, staff, and access to the book…

Categories: Alerts