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Brown School Library

Location: Brown Hall, 3rd Floor
Serving the research and teaching needs of the Brown School community in social work, public health, and social policy.

Brown School Library Sessions

Feel free to attend the following library sessions.  Many of the sessions offer hands-on instruction.  In addition to Brown School Library sessions, the list includes selected sessions from WashU's Becker Medical Library, WashU's Olin Library, and WashU's Writing Center.

Advancing a Modernized Biomedical Data Ecosystem
Join Ishwar Chandramouliswaran, Lead Program Director at the NIH's Office of Data Science Strategy, for a comprehensive webinar on the FAIR Data and Resources Unit's strategy and initiatives. This unit is dedicated to modernizing the biomedical data resource ecosystem through leadership, strategic planning, and NIH-wide coordination.  Gain insights into the NIH’s initiatives, explore collaboration opportunities, and learn how to promote/adopt FAIR data practices (data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). 1-hour presentation and then 30 minutes for Q&A.
          June 5,  11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., via Zoom
          Please register: https://becker.wustl.edu/civicrm/?page=CiviCRM&q=civicrm/event/info&reset=1&id=892
Catalog of Library Materials
Learn how to search the catalog, request WashU items, set up a reading history, and renew checked out items.  No registration needed.
          By appointment or Recorded session

Course Reserves Tips
Learn how to find and use the Brown School course reserves located in the Library Catalog and Ares.
          Please email the Library for a one-on-one or small group appointment: brownlibrary@wustl.edu 

Don’t Sign Your Rights Away: Author's Rights
Hope to publish an article in the future? Learn how to retain your copyrights so you can freely use your own work for teaching, scholarly, and professional activities.  Otherwise, you may have to pay the publisher in order to use your own work.  Learn about WashU's open access repository for articles. No registration needed.
          By appointment or PowerPoint slides

Evidence-Based Resources
Learn about the evidence-based resources.  Covers evidence-based databases, websites, and filters.  These resources should save you some time when doing evidence-based assignments.  No registration needed.
          By appointment or Tutorial

Finding Similar Phrases for Database Searching
Learn how to find similar phrases in order to expand your database search.  Covers the research guide tab, database thesauri, database words, and a thesaurus.  No registration needed.
          By appointment or Recorded session

GIS Week in November  (Geographic Information Systems) (November 2025)
Learn about some geospatial resources at WUSTL.

Green Get-It Button
Learn how to use the green get-it button to retrieve full text items. Learn what to do when the full text doesn't display. No registration needed.
     By appointment or Recorded session 

Interlibrary Loan (Mobius and ILLiad)
WashU cannot buy every book and journal that is available.  Learn how to use the interlibrary loan system to request items that WashU does not own.  No registration needed.
     By appointment or Recorded session

Library Resources After Graduation
Learn about the library resources that are available to you after you graduate.  No registration needed.
     By appointment or PowerPoint
Love Data Week (week of February 14, 2026)
 

Medline via PubMed: A Fantastic, Free Health Database
Learn how to effectively search Medline via PubMed for public health, psychological, and therapeutic information. Covers MeSH searching, applying limits, using the search history, changing the results display, accessing full text, using the evidence-based clinical queries, and more.  No registration needed.
     By appointment or Recorded session

Open Access Month (October 2025)
A series of events highlighting trends in open science, open data and open access.  Presented by Bernard Becker Medical Library and Washington University Libraries with sponsorship from the Digital Intelligence & Innovation (DI2) Accelerator.

Python Workshops
Recorded sessions are in the Previous Workshops section, Python tab: https://becker.wustl.edu/services/research-computing/

R Workshops
Recorded sessions available. Introduction to R sessions: https://wustl.app.box.com/s/xz68on19wnnp8o0jtctz5h8i4pvcaaqn
Recorded sessions available: Advanced Data Visualization and data wrangling in R: https://wustl.app.box.com/s/gsxu4l7qma5yfgqdd60zzayj9kii0v7e

REDCap Workshops
REDCap is a secure, web-based application for building and managing online databases and surveys, but you do not need web development or computer programming experience to use REDCap. REDCap has built-in quality assurance/quality improvement features and is HRPO compliant. If you have a WashU Key, you can use REDCap for free!   Note: some REDCap workshops are recorded.  The recordings are available at the following website: Recorded sessions available

Search Strategies for Database Searching  
Learn about the basic search strategies and use them in a database search in order to find relevant articles. Covers Boolean Operators, truncation, phrase searching, field qualification, proximity operators, using the search history, and applying limits. No registration needed.  
     By appointment or Tutorial

Social Explorer Census & Social Statistics    
Learn how to use Social Explorer for census and social statistics.  Generate maps.  Overview of the 2010 census and the American Community Survey.  Produce statistical reports through the Premade, Keyword, and table features (age, race, households, education, income, etc.).  No registration needed.
          By appointment

Social Welfare Policies & Services Class: Library Resources    
Learn about library resources that may help you with your Social Welfare Policies & Services class assignments. Covers Congress.gov, ProQuest Congressional, CQ Researcher, PAIS, and more.  No registration needed.
     By appointment

Tour the Brown School Library    
Take a walking tour of the Brown School Library and learn where the resources are located.  No registration needed.   
           By appointment

Zotero Sessions
Zotero Citation Manager
Learn how to use Zotero to organize citations and create APA bibliographies.  No registration needed.
     By appointment or Recorded session
   
Here is the above list in chronological order:
June 5,  11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Advancing a Modernized Biomedical Data Ecosystem, via Zoom

Additional Sessions at WUSTL

Brown School Library Session Handouts