Community Health Pathfinder

Community Health

Encyclopedias

Provide excellent background/overview information. An excellent place to begin research. Contain articles written by experts for a general audience. Provide indexes indicating scope of coverage of a topic and pinpointing articles in which a concept will be discussed. Provide bibliographies for further reading.

	*Alternative Health & Medicine encyclopedia* R733 .M38 1998
	*Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases* RC112. T887 1998
	*Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition,* (3 vols) QP141 .E526 1999 Provides coverage of all aspects of human nutrition, including clinical applications.
	*Encyclopedia of mental health*, (3 vols.) RA790.5 .E53 1998
	*Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine*, (5 vols) RC41.G35 1999 A comprehensive source provides information on more than 1600 common medical disorders, including high profile diseases such as AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and heart attack. It also includes more than 240 tests and procedures.

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Reference Books

Handbooks, dictionaries, statistical sources, tables; detailed or procedural information specific to the subject areas addressed.

	*Bioethics, health care, and the law: a dictionary* R725.5 .H44 1999
	*Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary* R121. D73
	Health Professions Education Directory, 27^th ed. R847 .D57 1999/00
	*Health services cyclopedic dictionary: a compendium of health-care and public health terminology* RA393 .T56 1997
	Health United States RA407 .U57a
	Herbal Internet Companion: Herbs and Herbal Medicine Online. By David Owen RM666 .H33 O975 2002
	*Merck Manual* RC55 .M4 1999 *Merck Manual online*
	*Oxford Medical Companion* RC41 .O84
	*Physician's Desk Reference* RS75 .P5
	*Physician’s Desk Reference for Nonprescription Drugs* RM671 .A1 P48

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Databases and Indexes

Magazine, periodical and journal articles provide information on current developments, research trends, experiments and hot topics in a discipline. For every discipline, there are specific databases or indexes that provide article level information. Once articles are identified through the database or index search, look up the source journal in Vikat, PSU Library's online catalog, to locate them in the library. For a complete list of online databases and indexes, see the Library's Online Databases pages.

	*Ageline* Produced by the American Association of Retired Persons, contains citations and abstracts of books, journals, research reports, consumer guides, and book chapters. Topics covered include: Medicare/Medicaid, elder care, health care costs and policy, fitness, nutrition…etc.
	*Alt-HealthWatch* Full text database of resources focus on complementary alternative and integrated approaches to health care and wellness. 1990-
	*CINAHL* Index to 650 English language nursing and allied health journals on biomedicine, behavioral sciences, education, and consumer health, 1982-
	*Dissertation Abstracts International* This database represents the work of authors from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and European universities. From 1980 forward, each entry also includes 350-word abstracts, written by the author.
	*EBSCOhost* (Health Source: Nursing/Academic edition): consumer health information. (Clinical Reference Systems): index to magazines and journals in all fields of medicine, with selected full text. Provides some coverage of journal literature. May work for students working on health or physical condition paper. Wimpy in terms of coverage, but helpful in that we don’t have many of the Medline journals.
	Environmental Abstracts Consists of 13 databases relating to environment and pollution, i.e. ecology abstracts, pollution abstracts, water resource abstracts, and others in toxicology, health and safety…etc.
	ERIC Indexes journal articles and documents in the field of education and includes information from RIE (Resources in Education) and CIJE (Current Index to Journals in Education). 1966-
	*Catalog of U.S. Government Publications* Contains most of the information available through the federal depository Library Program and is available for online searching as part of the GPO Access Federal Locator services. 1994-
	Medline Comprehensive index to 3,200 international journals in clinical and research biomedicine, dentistry, epidemiology, health, hospital literature, nursing, nutrition, pharmacology, psychiatry, and veterinary medicine. 1965-
	PAIS Contains abstracts of journal articles, books, statistical yearbooks, directories, conference proceedings, research reports and government documents covering topics in public and social policy, public administration, political science, and other social sciences. 1972-
	*PsycINFO* Covers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, and linguistics. 1889-
	*Social Work Abstracts* Indexes 450 journals in all areas of social work, including areas of service, social issues, and social problems. 1977-
	Sociological Abstracts Covers academic and professional literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. It contains information from 2,600 international journal, serials publications, conference papers, books, and dissertations. 1963-
	*SPORT Discus* Comprehensive, international database containing sport and fitness literature, 1975-

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Online Full Text Journals

Many, but by no means ALL, of the journals of interest in Public Health are available online. Below is a selected list of Public Health full text journals to which PSU has access. Most of the journals require authentication for off campus use.

	American Journal of Public Health R421 .A41
	*Future of children* P ublishes articles related to research and policies on the well-being of children, such as birth weight, the environment, school issues, welfare programs, and education. www.futureofchildren.org
	*International electronic journal of health education* Publishes peer reviewed health education articles on the web. Subject include philosophical, qualitative research, quantitative research, technology based applications, and health content-based articles. www.iejhe.org/
	JAMA (journal of the American Medical Association) R15 .A48 http://jama.ama-assn.org/

Important Resources

These sources don't fit into any particular category, but are important for the discipline.

	Directory of Nursing Homes. RA997 .A2D49 2000
	Guide to the Nation's Hospices R726.8 .G85 1998-99
	Health Reference Series published by Omnigraphics, Inc. (i.e. AIDS Sourcebook, Alternative Medicine Sourcebook, Cancer Sourcebook, Public Health Issues Sourcebook, Substance Abuse Sourcebook, and Women’s Health Concerns Sourcebook…etc.) Each volume is cataloged separately.
	Medical and Health Information Directory (3 vols) Covers organizations, agencies and institutions, publication, libraries and other information sources, and health services. Annotated entries with contact information and indexes are provided in each volume. R711 .M4 1999

Subject Headings

Subject headings allow you to search library catalogs for materials on a particular topic. Often subject heading searching can be more productive than searching by simple keywords. Listed here are some major subject headings of interest for research in Public Health. Copies of the complete set of the Library of Congress Subject Headings are available at the reference desks throughout the library.

Dietetics

Epidemiology

Hospitals

Mental health

Nursing

Nutrition

Physical therapy

Public health

Wellness

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Call Numbers

Browsing the library shelves by call number ranges is another strategy for locating information on a topic; call numbers can help you get to the "right neighborhood" in the library stacks.

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Organizations

Often the best way to find information on a topic is to look for material published by a professional society or an organization.

	*American Cancer Association* http://www.cancer.org
	American Heart Association http://www.americanheart.org
	*American Medical Association* http://www.ama-assn.org
	*American Nursing Association* http://www.nursingworld.org/
	American Public Health Association http://www.apha.org
	Center for Disease Control and prevention http://www.bt.cdc.gov/
	*EPA* (Environmental Protection Agency) http://www.epa.gov
	*National Mental Health Association* http://www.nmha.org/
	Oregon Public Health Association http://www.oregonpublichealth.org/
	*OSHA* (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) http://www.osha.gov
	*Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration* (SAMHSA). http://www.samhsa.gov
	World Federation of Public Health Association. http://www.apha.org/wfpha/

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Web Resources

	Go Ask Alice: interactive and reference information maintained by Columbia University Health Education Dept. http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu
	Hardin Meta Directory of Internet Health Sources: The University of Iowa health science library indexes and evaluates other health directories. A truly extensive site with an abundance of links not easily found as well as the more common one. http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/md/index.html
	*Harvard School of Public Health*: from Harvard public Health NOW, including biostatisticians Crunch Data Vital to AIDS Research, Genetics…etc. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/
	Healthfinder: provides information and referral guide to free health information from federal, state, and local agencies, universities and not-for-profit organizations, as well as selected commercial health care sites. http://www.healthfinder.gov
	*Kaiser Family Foundation's State Health Facts Online*. This new resource contains the latest state-level data on demographics, health, and health policy, including health coverage, access, financing, and state legislation. http://www.statehealthfacts.kff.org/
	*Medical Matrix*: provides ranked, peer-reviewed, annotated, up-dated, clinical medicine resources relevant to medicine, nursing, allied health personnel as well as the general public. http://www.medmatrix.org/index.asp
	*National Health Information Center*: an index to health resources from the government http://www.health.gov/nhic/
	NOAH: New York Online Access to Health Home Page: All its resources are available in Spanish as well as in English. This site offers information on patients’ rights, support groups, pain, children’s health, home safety, and injury prevention, as well as the expected medical conditions. http://www.noah-health.org
	*OHSU library home page*. http://www.ohsu.edu/library
	PubMed Tags
	*RXList*: the Internet Drug Index: includes patient information on prescription drugs and herbal and other alternative therapies, links to monographs, news, and free newsletters on a wide variety of topics. http://relist.com
	*United States Public Health Service*: link to Health & Human Services Home page. Office of the US Surgeon General. List agencies and programs from the USA Department of Health & Human Services. http://www.os.dhhs.gov/phs/
	*WWW Virtual Library*: Public Health—Directory of public health links sorted topically and geographically. http://www.ldb.org.vl/

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Page developed by:
Rose Jackson
Please send comments to:
Rose Jackson

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