Stewart Library - Weber State University


Research Guide: Health 1030-Healthy Lifestyles

Library  Resources

Stewart Library & the WSU-Davis Library own or have access to a large number of resources to help in your research.  

Getting Started:  if you're not sure of a topic or need some background information, reference books can be very helpful.  We have multiple resources, both online and in print in the library. Some good online ones to start with are:

  • Oxford Reference Online -- Oxford Reference Online contains a number of useful titles. You can do a keyword search on your topic or browse relevant titles listed in the Medicine category under "Subject Reference". These titles include: The Oxford Companion to the Body; A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition; Concise Medical Dictionary; An A-Z of Medicinal Drugs; The Oxford Companion to Medicine; A Dictionary of Nursing; A Dictionary of Psychology; A Dictionary of Public Health; and The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine.
  • CREDO Reference --CREDO Reference also contains a number of relevant resources. You can search by keyword or browse the available titles by using the "Find a Book" link at the top of the page and choosing the Medicine category. Titles include: The American Heritage Medical Dictionary; Baillière's Midwives' Dictionary; Black's Medical Dictionary (41st ed.); The Cambridge Historical Dictionary of Disease; Churchill Livingstone's Dictionary of Nursing; Collins Dictionary of Medicine; Dictionary of Medical Acronyms & Abbreviations; Dictionary of Medicine (Peter Collin Publishing); Dictionary of Optometry and Visual Science; Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary; International Dictionary of Homeopathy; Macmillan Dictionary of Toxicology; Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary (Rev. ed.); Mosby's Dental Dictionary; Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Mosby's Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, & Health Professions; Mosby's Emergency Dictionary; Mosby's Handbook of Herbs & Natural Supplements; Natural Medicine Instructions for Patients; The New Harvard Guide to Women's Health; Pharmaceutical Medicine Dictionary; The Royal Society of Medicine Health Encyclopedia; The Royal Society of Medicine: Medicines; Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary; Webster's New World Medical Dictionary

Print Titles in the Stewart Library Reference Collection

  • American Medical Association Complete Medical Encyclopedia--Ref RC81.A2 A497 2003
  • Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine--Ref R133.C6 1993
  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR)--Ref RC455.2.C4 D536 2000
  • Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures--Ref Q124.8.E53 1997
  • Encyclopedia of Complementary Health Practice--Ref R733.E525 1999
  • Encyclopedia & Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health--Ref R121.M65 2003
  • Encyclopedia of Family Health--Ref RC81.A2 M336 1998
  • Encyclopedia of Folk Medicine--Ref R733.H376 2004
  • The Encyclopedia of Medical Breakthroughs & Forbidden Treatments-Ref RA418.5.M4 E52 2005
  • Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety--Ref RC963.3.E53 1998
  • The Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine--Ref RC1206.O355 2005
  • The Encyclopedia of Work-Related Illnesses, Injuries, and Health Issues--Ref RC963.A3 K348 2004
  • The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine--Ref RC41.G35 2006 Table 4B
  • Health and Illness--Ref R733.L477 1997
  • Macmillan Health Encyclopedia--Ref RA776.M174 1993
  • Milestones in Health and Medicine--Ref R133.H36 2000
  • World of Health--Ref R130.5.W67 2000

Print Titles in the WSU Davis Reference Collection

  • The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine--Ref RC81.A2 A52 1997
  • A Consumer's Dictionary of Medicines--Ref RM300.W56 1996
  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR)--Ref RC455.2.C4 D536 2000
  • Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine--Ref RS164.C4437 2000
  • Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine--Ref RZ433.M87 1998
  • The Encyclopedia of Nutrition & Good Health--Ref RA784.R646 1997
  • The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine--Ref R125.F32 2007
  • New Medicine--Ref RC81.N523 2007
  • The Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine--Ref R121.O884 2001

You can find many other reference books on health topics  by browsing the following call number areas:  

 BF    Psychology    

 GV    Recreation

 R      Medicine

 

Finding Books:  

Use the WSU online catalog  to find what books and other materials, such as videos,  the Library owns.  The catalog will provide the location and availability of the resource,  We also have a subscription to Netlibrary, which provides access to electronic books.

Finding Articles:  

The best way to find articles is to use one of the Library's article databases.   These databases provide references to articles in journals.  In some cases, the actual article is available on the computer.  Most of these databases are available off campus by clicking on the database link.  

Useful databases for health research  include:

A general database that allows you to search important journals and magazines in many fields, including all areas of health.  It has many full text articles and is a good place to begin your research.  

Over 500 scholarly full text journals covering the health professions.  Abstracts and references for over 500 additional journals.   

Many full text articles from journals, health pamphlets and reference books.

Alternative and complementary approaches to health care and wellness from  over 165 peer reviewed journals, consumer magazines, research reports, association newsletters.  Selected fulltext.

References, abstracts, and selected fulltext from nursing, allied health,  biomedical and consumer health literature, including health care books, nursing dissertations, nursing practice standards and educational software.  1982 to present.

140 Full text nursing journals from Lippincott and Williams & Wilkins .

All fields of medicine, nursing,  dentistry, veterinary medicine, and the pre\-clinical sciences from journals published worldwide.    Rare full text.

Comprehensive index to scholarly literature in psychology and related fields.   Rare full text.

Provides citation and abstract information from over 750 educational journals and related documents from the Educational Resource Information Center, including information on sports & recreation. Selected full text.  

Education database including information on sports & recreation.  Selected full text articles.

Full text coverage of many news, legal, and business resources. Good for news items about health and for industry news.  

Citations and selected fulltext from articles about contemporary women's issues on health and human rights.  

Full text articles from minority and ethnic newspapers, magazines, and journals in English and Spanish. 1990-Present (with selected articles from the 1980's).

Full text newspaper, magazine, and journal articles addressing the impact of gender in society.  1990-Present (with selected articles from the 1970's and 1980's)

This database represents the OCLC Online Union Catalog, which we use to borrow books from other libraries.  It contains more than 35 million records describing items owned by libraries around the world; each record contains library holdings. ~1000 A.D.-present.

Ejournals   takes you to a database that lists all the full text journals that are available to WSU library patrons.   


Interlibrary Loan:

If we do not own a particular book or article you need, we will borrow it for you from another library through Interlibrary Loan.

 

Web Resources

There's a lot of good information out on the web.  Unfortunately, some of it's not so good, so be sure to evaluate, evaluate, evaluate!  Some interesting places to start looking are:


Research Tips

  • Clearly identify your information need
  • Identify key words and search terms to match your topic
  • Develop search statements using advanced search techniques
    • Boolean logic, adjacency searching and truncation
  • Clearly define your audience - this will help define whether you need to concentrate on primary or secondary sources.
  • Use the Online catalog to find books, videos and other materials
  • Use an  appropriate article  database to find journal articles, ask a librarian for help if you're not sure what's best
  • Use Interlibrary loan to get materials that are not in Stewart Library
  • Use search engines to find Web information
  • Carefully evaluate the information you find for usefulness and quality
  • Revise your search terms and strategy to expand or narrow your results, be creative, look in other areas
  • Use appropriate style to document and cite research
  • Ask for HELP at  Reference, via phone or email


Updated August 19, 2008 . Please send comments to Megan Davis
Weber State University, Stewart Library. Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved.