VCU Libraries will celebrate the 3,000,000th addition to its library collections in 2018 with a trio of selections and accompanying events. Three different items have been identified to add to the collections: an oral history collection featuring second-wave feminists in central Virginia (2,999,999th volume); a seminal new book about treatment of traumatic brain injury, co-authored by David X. Cifu, M.D., chair of VCU’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (3,000,000th volume); and an artists’ book by VCU alumna Colette Fu (3,000,001st volume).

The celebration of the three-millionth volume coincides with VCU Libraries’ emergence as one of the leading research libraries in the country. Representing the maturity and depth of its collections, these acquisitions coincide with VCU Libraries’ inaugural year as a member of the Association of Research Libraries (joining the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech as the only ARL institutions in Virginia). The celebration also falls on the 50th anniversary of the creation of Virginia Commonwealth University, the 120th anniversary of the founding of Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, and the recognition of the VCU Libraries with the prestigious 2018 Association of College and Research Libraries Excellence in Academic Libraries Award.

“These three items represent the diversity and breadth of our collections and demonstrate the libraries’ commitment to advancing research, scholarship, and creative expression throughout the university,” said University Librarian John E. Ulmschneider. “They highlight the key role that Tompkins-McCaw Library plays in patient care and research at VCU, demonstrate how books in academic libraries are evolving, and showcase how VCU Libraries engages in scholarship and collaborations to make rare and unique materials available globally.”

Details about the selections and events:

• 2,999,999th Volume: The Virginia Feminist Oral History Project, 2013–2014 by Megan Shockley, Ph.D.

Event: March, 19, 2018, 3-5 p.m., Cabell Library Lecture Hall
Talk by Megan Shockley, Ph.D.: Listening to Progressive Women: The Virginia Feminist Oral History Collection
Register for this March 19 event

The Virginia Feminist Oral History Collection, available through Special Collections and Archives, documents the stories of women involved in second-wave feminism and related women’s activism in Virginia. The interviews were conducted by Megan Shockley, Ph.D., professor of history at Clemson University as part of research for her new book, Combating Southern Patriarchy: Virginia Feminists and the Politics of Social Change, which will be released by Louisiana State University Press in 2018. Shockley’s donation of 24 audio recordings and corresponding transcripts makes it possible for VCU Libraries to preserve and provide access to the voices of second-wave feminists throughout Virginia.

In addition to her forthcoming book, Shockley is the author of Changing History: Virginia Women Through Four Centuries (with Cynthia Kierner and Jennifer Loux), Richmond: Library of Virginia Press, 2013; The Captain’s Widow of Sandwich: Self-Invention and the Life of Hannah Rebecca Burgess, 1834-1917, New York: New York University Press, 2010; and ‘We, Too, Are Americans’: African American Women in Detroit and Richmond, 1940-1954, Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2004.

• 3,000,000th Volume: Rehabilitation After Traumatic Brain Injury by Blessen C. Eapen, M.D., and David X. Cifu, M.D.

Event: April 3, 2018, 3-4 p.m., Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences
Celebration and remarks featuring David X. Cifu, M.D.
Register for this April 3 event

This seminal work is based on years of research and leading-edge practice in the treatment of traumatic brain injury by David X. Cifu. It includes current translational research conducted at VCU, and is a guide to best practices for rehabilitation following traumatic brain injury. The authors provide a thorough review of rehabilitation for an array of patient populations to assist them in regaining independence and life skills. The work will be an important addition to Tompkins-McCaw Library’s Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) collection, one of VCU Libraries’ Collections of Distinction--a designation within the libraries for an important area of focus in collecting.

David Cifu, M.D., is the Associate Dean for Innovation and System Integration in the in the VCU School of Medicine, and the Chairman and Herman J. Flax, MD Endowed Professor (tenured) of the Department of PM&R at VCU-School of Medicine. He is also Chief of PM&R Services for the VCU Health System and Founding Director of the VCU-Center for Rehabilitation Sciences and Engineering (CERSE). He is the Senior TBI Specialist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He has been funded on 43 research grants for more than  $137 million, including currently serving as Principal Investigator of the VA/DoD $62.2 million Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (CENC), which is studying the long-term effects of combat concussions in service members and veterans across 15 VA’s, 12 military bases, and 30 universities in 20 states. In his more than 25 years as an academic physiatrist, he has delivered more than 550 regional, national and International lectures, published more than 220 scientific articles and 65 abstracts, and co-authored or edited 34 books and book chapters. He is the Past President of the American Academy of PM&R (2007-8), Editor-in-Chief of the 5th Edition of Braddom’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation textbook (2015) and co-Editor in Chief of Braddom’s Handbook of Rehabilitation Medicine (2017).

Under Cifu’s leadership, VCU’s system of care for TBI has become a national model. Widely considered a national leader in the treatment of traumatic brain injury and a champion for injured veterans, Cifu graduated from the Boston University School of Medicine combined BA/MD six-year medical program in 1986 and completed his internship and residency in PM&R at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He served as faculty at Baylor before joining the VCU Medical Center in 1991.

• 3,000,001st Volume: Wa Hair Swinging Dance by Colette Fu

Events: April 20, 2018, workshop: 1:30-3:30 p.m., Cabell Library Mapp Room; lecture: 4-5 p.m. Cabell Library Lecture Hall
Workshop led by Colette Fu: Year of the Dog Pop-up Card Making Workshop
Register for this April 20 workshop
Talk by Colette Fu: Pop-up Book Wonderlands
Register for this April 20 talk

An impressively scaled pop-up artists’ book, Wa Hair Swinging Dance by VCU alumna Colette Fu captures the fervent movement of women from the Wa people of China engaged in a traditional harvest dance. From the series We are the Dragon People, this edition falls within a group of complex sculptural pop-up books that Fu constructed from her own photographs. Fu, whose mother is descended from the Yi people, began the series while traveling on a Fulbright award to document the social and cultural life of ethnic minority groups in the Yunnan Province. Wa Hair Swinging Dance is a valuable addition to VCU Libraries’ Book Art Collection, a nationally significant collection in high demand by artists and scholars.

Fu is an internationally celebrated book artist and paper engineer, as well as a passionate arts educator. She received a B.A. in French from the University of Virginia, a B.G.S. from VCU and an M.F.A. from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Fu’s pop-up editions are held by the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University, Virginia Commonwealth University and other major collecting institutions. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the University of Virginia Gallery, the Philadelphia Athenaeum and Georgetown University. She is the recipient of the Fulbright Research Award and grants from the Independence Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Puffin Foundation and the Society for Photographic Education.