Arizona and California library winter updates
Posted: February 4, 2026
In January, library staff from Arizona and California attended the joint meeting of the Southern California and Arizona and Northern California and Nevada chapters of the Medical Library Association in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to attending a well-put together conference on health sciences librarianship, Hal Bright and Laura Barkema also presented on resources for physician assistant education.
Exhibition Announcement: AIDS, Posters, and Stories of Public Health
The Mesa campus library is honored to host the upcoming National Library of Medicine traveling exhibition, “AIDS, Posters, and Stories of Public Health: A People’s History of a Pandemic,” running from Feb. 9-March 21. Guest curated by Theodore Kerr, a writer, organizer, and founding member of What Would an HIV Doula Do?, this compelling exhibit explores the National Library of Medicine’s extensive archive of public health posters.
The collection highlights the cultural impact of artists, activists, and community workers who used personal narratives, visual art, and collective action to communicate critical health information. By showcasing these powerful historical artifacts, the exhibition serves as a poignant reminder that, 40 years after the crisis began, the global battle against AIDS is not over. In addition to the physical display, the project includes an educational resource for college-level study and a digital gallery featuring fully digitized items from the NLM historical collections.*
*The National Library of Medicine produced this exhibition and companion website.
Student Art is Now on Display in the Library!
Back in September, we issued a call to our students to help us transform the Mesa campus library. We are thrilled to announce that those submissions are now up on the walls! Thank you to Elise Rivera, Iqra Hashmi, Natalie Beyfuss, Noah Brounstein, and Samantha Bryant for their contributions.
The goal of this initiative is to add warmth to our shared space and support student mental health through creativity. The library covers the cost of printing, and the artists get to keep their high-quality prints once the exhibit concludes.
California Campus Library Updates
The California branch of A.T. Still Memorial library is excited to be working on the proposed furniture layout of the San Luis Obispo campus library. Existing furniture from the current space will be combined with donated furniture from the old MindBody workplace to create a new feel and flow to the library. The new library will also have outdoor study space which will bring a new element for students to enjoy.
Dot Winslow, solo library assistant for ATSU’s Campus for Healthy Communities, presented at the joint meeting of the Southern California and Arizona and Northern California and Nevada chapters of the Medical Library Association. They presented a lightning talk on how Google Gemini Gems can be used to expedite the data extraction process of systematic and scoping reviews. In addition, they presented a paper talk on preliminary research results from their team’s scoping review on how artificial intelligence is affecting medical libraries.