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Biological Sciences 670 - Senior Seminar
Spring 2004

Library Instruction Program - Research and Instructional Support
For more information about this topic contact Mary Boulanger

Table of Contents

  1. Research tips
  2. Library and Research Assistance
  3. Finding Life and Health Sciences Information
    1. Library catalog [PantherCat]
    2. Indexes and Databases
    3. Life and Health Sciences Related Internet Resources
  4. Using the Web Wisely

Research Tips

  • Use the Library Catalog to locate books and documents and to determine if the UWM Libraries own the journals.
  • Use Indexes/Databases to locate articles within journals.
    Articles may be available full text on-line or in the bound journals on the shelves.
  • Check "Electronic Journals" link to determine if the article is available online.

Tips for Constructing a Search

  • Write down research question and underline key concepts
  • Think of synonyms and alternate terms for each of the main concepts
  • Think broader, or narrower, depending on results of initial searches
  • Consult a thesaurus or index, if available, to narrow and focus the search

For example: Is family stress a predictor of job loss?

Sample searches:   family stress and employment                  family relations and work*

Library and Research Assistance

Proxy Server
This link allows UWM students, faculty, and staff with Internet access to connect to most of the Libraries' subscription databases and electronic journals from home (a few titles are licensed for on-campus or in-library use only).

AskaLibrarian
An email and at times chat service, AskaLibrarian provides a forum for questions at all hours. Check this web page for chat room hours.

Electronic Reserve
E-reserve materials generally consist of scanned journal articles, book chapters, lecture notes, and sample exams. These printable materials may be accessed from off-campus computers using the proxy server [see above].

Interlibrary Loan
When materials cannot be found at the UWM Libraries, use this link to pursue the many options available.

Research Consultation
This is an in-depth advisory service about specific library research processes offered by librarians of the RIS Department to the students, staff and faculty of UWM. Use this link to find out more or to request an appointment.

Finding Life and Health Sciences Information

The Library Catalog

PantherCat
Truncation symbol is ?    For example work? searches work, works, working, worked...
Sample Keyword (and, or, not) search in the catalog:   "family stress" and work?

Selected Indexes and Databases

On the UWM Libraries home page under "Find Articles", the Resources A-Z link leads to an alphabetical list of databases. Some index journals, magazines and newspapers from various subject disciplines. Others are collections containing the electronic full text of such journals. The ones listed below relate to the Life Sciences. They each have online guides.

Academic Search [EBSCOHost]
1984-present; indexes over 3,200 scholarly journals in the areas of business, social sciences, humanities, general academic, general science, education, and multi-cultural studies. Full-text is available for 1,850 journals starting with January 1990. Guide
Biological Abstracts [BIOSIS]
1990-present; citations with abstracts to over 5000 journals world wide in the life sciences. Thesaurus with detailed subject indexing available from 1993 to date. Guide
NOTE: Select only the years from 1993 to the present to use the thesaurus feature.
MEDLINE
1953-present; indexes over 4,000 journals in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine and the preclinical sciences.
Web version [PubMed] FREE ACCESS Tutorial
PubMed is the National Library of Medicine's search service that provides access to over 14 million citations in MEDLINE, and other related databases, with links to participating online journals. Guide
Web version [EBSCOHost] This version allows searching of the MEDLINE database through EBSCOHost.

Life and Health Sciences Related Internet Resources

There are many places to get life and health Sciences information on the Internet. Deciding what is reliable, however, is a critical distinction in the health fields. The following resources offer a sampling of critiqued web sites.

Life and Health/Biological Sciences Subject Guide
One of over one hundred subject guides created by UWM Libraries staff, the Life and Health/BiologicalSciences guide lists indexes, databases, other research guides, and selected web sites in various biological sciences, medicine, nursing, and other health fields.

Selected Health Related Internet Sites
This guide gives a sampling of various aspects of medicine and the health professions as reflected on the Internet. These include search engines, guides to medical specialties and general medical sites, nursing, health and disease topics, government resources, electronic journals and indexes in the health sciences. It is maintained by UWM Libraries staff.

Using the Web Wisely

Though not specifically related to the health fields, the first three resources are Subject Directories to web sites evaluated by people (as opposed to "selected" by a computer). The other sites listed give some general guidelines to evaluating and citing web sites.

Librarians' Index to the Internet
Search by keyword or look through the directory - keyword can lead to directory sections to search further

Internet Scout Report
Subject Directory maintained by UW Madison

Infomine - Scholarly Index Resource Collections
Contains over 20,000 well-selected and described links to scholarly resources on the Internet. Searchable.

How to evaluate and cite Web Sites

Evaluating Websites (from Colorado State University Libraries)

Citing Web sites (from Bedford / St. Martin's)