From the Library Director
Posted: August 1, 2025
A message from our University library director, Hal Bright:
Despite the Arizona heat, July is my favorite month of the academic year because of all of the excitement and newfound energy from students and staff. New students lend a fresh set of eyes on learning. Returning students have a sense of confidence from the past year of learning. Faculty and staff are anxious and excited at the same time for the rewards and challenges of a new class and new year.
The last quarter has been exciting for the library. We tested and deployed a new interface for Still OneSearch and explored many topics as we guided several students and faculty through their research projects. We partnered with ITS for a well-attended AI Show-and-Share series highlighting AI use cases across the University; this series will continue over the fall. Look for more topics this fall! We also partnered with ATSU-KCOM and the Diversity department to provide health literacy outreach to the community at each of our campuses.
In May, the library staff attended the annual Medical Library Association conference where we presented on OMM research resources, staff retention, how AI affects contracting language and AI tool use in health sciences libraries.
Kudos to Maud Mundava, Leslie Golamb, Julia Peters, and Dot Winslow for their successful and well received posters and papers.
The library also made exciting additions to its physical spaces. Check out our AZ, CA, and MO campus updates for details. With the new budget year, we have been able to add several resources. We added several databases from the McGraw-Hill publishers in April. MSKforPCPs focuses on musculoskeletal point of care education and care. Scopus added an AI research assistant. And, again, Still OneSearch has added a cleaner user interface with improved functionality.
Welcome back and here’s to an amazing 2025-2026.
Best,
Hal Bright