Online Nursing Doctoral Program
Library Instruction Program - Research
and Instructional Support
For more information about this topic contact Mary
Boulanger
Table of Contents
- Research tips
- Library and Research Assistance
- Finding Nursing and Health Information
- Using the Web Wisely
Research Tips
- Use the Library Catalog to locate books and documents and to determine if the Library owns 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
Distance Education Resources
Students pursuing education through distance education methods are entitled to access to library resources and services equivalent to those provided in traditional campus settings. The UWM Libraries offer a number of services to assist students and faculty with their research, coursework, and instruction. For more information, contact the Libraries' Distance Education liaison toll free at 1-877-893-8583.
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].
Document Delivery [see Distance Education Resources]
Research Consultation
Though this service is primarily an in-person one, Distance Education students may arrange to have a consultation via telephone or chat.
Finding Nursing and Health Information
The Library Catalog
Panther Cat
Truncation symbol is ? For example work? searches work, works, working, worked...
Sample Keyword (and, or, not) search in the catalog: "family stress" and work?
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 Health Sciences and Nursing. They each have online guides and CINAHL also has an online tutorial.CINAHL
The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, or CINAHL, indexes over 1,200 journals in the areas of nursing, allied health, physical and occupational therapy, alternative therapies, biomedicine, consumer health, and health administration. Full-text of articles is available for more than 260 journals. For further information there is both a *tutorial and an online *guide to this database.MEDLINE
The most comprehensive index to the medical literature, MEDLINE indexes over 4000 journals in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine and the preclinical sciences. There is world wide free access to MEDLINE via PubMed.Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
This database covers 520 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also featured are abstracts and indexing for over 560 journals.ProQuest Nursing Journals
1986-present; indexing and full text to over 250 journals in nursing, allied health, biomedicine, consumer health, and health related articles from journals and magazines in other subject areas. Guide
Nursing and Health Related Internet Resources
There are many places to get medical and health 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.
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.
Nursing and Health Multi-link SitesLife and Health/Biological Sciences Subject Guide
One of thirty subject guides created by UWM Libraries staff, the Life and Health/BiologicalSciences guide lists indexes, databases, other research guides, and selected web sites in biology, medicine, nursing, and other health fields.
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
How to Evaluate and Cite Web Sites
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.Evaluating Websites (from Colorado State University Libraries)