Meet Jennifer Dai!

Every year, we enjoy hearing more from our graduate student interns who work in the Rubenstein Library. We are thrilled to have Jennifer Dai, the Josiah Charles Trent History of Medicine Intern, share more below about her experience. Thank you, Jen, for your enthusiasm and contributions over the past year!

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am a second-year graduate student at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science. I am working toward my Master’s of Science in Library Science and will be graduating in May. As with everything in my life, I went for the eclectic approach in my studies giving me a varied understanding of library science. Outside of the library I volunteer at Raleigh Little Theatre where I work backstage as a dresser. I am also training with my friends to complete a triathlon in the fall.

What do you find interesting about working in libraries, especially with the Josiah Charles Trent History of Medicine Collections?

I was drawn to libraries because of the eclectic nature of the work. I could never decide what exactly I wanted to learn in school or do as a career, but the joy of libraries is that you never really have to make that decision. One minute I’m working with a fringe medical device that does sleep affirmations (the beautiful Psychophone) and the next I’m looking at parapsychology records or anatomical flap books to answer a reference question or prepare for a class. I never feel like I’m stuck in a rut because I am always learning about new topics and interacting with new and interesting materials. I was drawn to the Trent History of Medicine Collections specifically because of my background in science and veterinary medicine. Prior to starting graduate school, I worked as a veterinary assistant for 6 years and learned a lot about medicine in general through that experience. This collection combines my interest in history and science in such an exciting way! I can see how knowledge has grown and changed over time in the Trent History of Medicine Collections, and I can learn about different cultures, people, and events through this lens.

What is a memorable experience from your internship?

Anatomy Day was such a great learning experience for me. Getting to see over 100 first year medical students look at the collection was so rewarding. They were all so excited and wanted to learn so much about everything we had set out for them. I learned a ton about what kinds of questions people have, how to interact with students, how to manage crowds, and what it takes to create and implement an outreach program. It was such a fantastic experience and I’m so glad I was able to take part in it!

Do you have a favorite item you’d like to share?

Of course, I’m a big fan of the Psychophone and how that weird fringe medical device from the 1920s can still be poignant today. The care and artistry that went into making this device that is not readily known today is both beautiful and tragic to me. I also really like A Collection of the yearly bills of mortality, from 1657 to 1758 inclusive because it’s so interesting to see the trends and changes in mortality data throughout the years in London. I made a few information visualizations from this book just for the fun of it. It showed me so much about how disease and mortality changed during that time, how the naming of diseases affected these trends, and how people lived and died during the 17th and 18th centuries in London.