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Health Sciences - Basic Library Research

Where to start for library research in medicine, health, public health, nursing, and other health-related topics.

Books and videos

Use the library catalog, SouthernSearch, to locate books and videos. The basic search will also include articles, or choose SCSU Catalog to search just books, ebooks, and other items in the Buley Collections. The basic search is a keyword search, which allows you to enter a single word, such as epigenetics, or to combine concepts, such as children and obesity, or women and drug abuse.

You can also search the other campuses in the CSCU system by choosing the CSCU Consortium option. For most books, you can sign in and request it. The book will be shipped here within 3-5 working days.

Buley Library uses the Library of Congress classification system. Because health can be so interdisciplinary, books relevant to your health research may be located in any of these areas.

BF - Psychology
HN - Social history and conditions, history of reform 
HQ - Families, women's issues, sexuality, sex education
HV - Alcoholism, drug use, social work
QM - Human anatomy
QP - Physiology, experimental pharmacology
QR - Immunology, virology
RA - Public health
RB - Pathology
RC - Internal medicine
RJ - Pediatrics
RM - Therapuetics, pharmacology
RT - Nursing
RX - Homeopathy
RZ - Other systems of medicine

Websites

There are a lot of sites on the Internet with excellent data, but the problem is distinguishing them from sites with poor quality data and/or analysis. If you find something interesting, try and figure out who is publishing the materials, why they are publishing, and what biases they might have.

Have a look at this guide to evaluating web sites: http://libguides.library.ncat.edu/evaluate

If you have any doubts, ask your professor or your librarian.