Collection Equity Award - University of California San Francisco

Building on our specialized history and expertise, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Library plans to use the NNLM Region 5 Collection Equity Award to acquire a collection of graphic novels about health topics, i.e., graphic medicine. As medical humanities and similar interdisciplinary studies have gained wider scholastic recognition, academic health sciences libraries have begun graphic medicine collections as a way to better engage with this branch of scholarship. By weaving together text and imagery in a highly accessible way, graphic medicine captures patient and healthcare provider experiences in a unique format that naturally engenders empathy and understanding. Beginning a graphic medicine collection at the UCSF Library will not only allow the collection to better align with research trends and create opportunities to better serve our students, but also provide our clinicians with fresh sources of patient experiences to draw from in order to help improve care at UCSF and beyond.