CINAHL & MEDLINE Databases Changes

Two of our Nursing/Health Sciences databases will be changing interfaces due to changes in licensing by the publishers.
MEDLINE will be accessed by way of OvidSP. MEDLINE is the enhanced version of PubMed which is the major medical database in the USA. Many of you have used the OVID databases at your hospitals. The link to MEDLINE is through the Libraries Home Page link for Databases.
An OvidSP tutorial is available at
http://www.ovid.com/site/help/tutorials_ovidsp/searchPage_demo20080208/searc hPage_demo20080208_900.htm

Following a five month study, it was decided that CINAHL, the nursing database, will be available through EBSCO's CINAHL PLUS database. Access is through the usual databases page on the BC Libraries Home Page.
An online EBSCO CINAHL SUPPORT CENTER, to help you learn how to get the most from CINAHL databases via the EBSCOhost interface has been set up at:
http://support.ebscohost.com/cinahl/

A demonstration of EBSCO's CINAHL PLUS will be arranged for Faculty next semester.
There will be a demonstration of CINAHL PLUS for the library staff on Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 10AM in O'Neill 307. Faculty and students who are available are welcome to attend this demonstration.
If there are any questions please contact Wanda at anderswb@bc.edu

Free ICPSR Webinar: Enhancing Analysis of Racially & Ethnically Underrepresented Populations in the US

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ESTjavascript:void(0)

ICPSR’s Minority Data Resource Center offers streamlined access to data that are relevant to the study of immigration, place of origin, ancestry, ethnicity, and race in the United Sates.

The topics available for analysis are vast. Here are just a few intriguing findings from data featured in the MDRC:

• Female slaves in the state of South Carolina were valued at nearly twice the dollar value as males.
• The Crow and Chippewa Tribe Family Size Suffered the Largest Decrease from 1885 to 1930.
• Non-Hispanic Black Children Most Likely to be Diagnosed with Asthma (2004).
• Hispanic Voters Experienced Difficulty Casting Votes (2002 mid-term elections).
• Hospital Admissions Vary by Race (2004).

This webinar will serve as an orientation to the Minority Data Resource Center, its content, and its online analytic tools!

This webinar is open to the public - please forward this invitation to all with interest in these topics!

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

NURSING INFORMATICS

Health informatics has become increasingly important over the past decade, and there are now publications and organizations devoted entirely to informatics in nursing. The American Nursing Informatics Association (http://ania.org) is a great place to start if you are interested in learning more about the role of informatics in nursing and finding educational, networking and job opportunities. Also check out the peer-reviewed Online Journal of Nursing Informatics (http://ojni.org).
Here in Boston, Northeastern University offers a Masters of Science in Health Informatics (http://healthinformatics.neu.edu/), and an MS in Biomedical Informatics is offered jointly through Harvard and MIT (http://hst.mit.edu/servlet/ControllerServlet?handler=PublicHandler&action=browse&pageId=129) for individuals who already have completed advanced study in the health sciences, such as a doctoral degree in nursing. There are also a number of online health informatics programs across the country (http://www.ania.org/Education.htm).
Becky DeAngelis
Science Librarian Intern
O'Neill Library
Boston College
deangere@bc.edu

New OECD Interface and Expanded Content!

The new OECD interface, OECD.Stat Extracts, makes it easier to download large amounts of international data into Excel! This database now includes most of the OECD data in one data warehouse, including OECD Health Data, previously provided by the library on CD ROM.

Search by keyword or topics such as demographics, economic indicators, education, environment, health, industry and services, prices and purchasing parity, social and welfare, and more. You can also request regional and country statistical profiles.

COCHRANE LIBRARY UPDATE

BC Library Database Update:
Welcome to The Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. It includes reliable evidence from Cochrane and other systematic reviews, clinical trials, and more. Cochrane reviews bring you the combined results of the world’s best medical research studies, and are recognised as the gold standard in evidence-based health care.

To view the online version of this email click here.
In Issue 4, 2008 there are 84 new reviews, 130 updated reviews as well as new and updated protocols . The Library now contains more than 3800 full Cochrane Reviews covering a wide range of healthcare interventions.Some of these reviews have been highlighted in Evidence Pods at: www.cochrane.org/podcasts.This issue also sees many records added to The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL).Please see the Release Notes for a summary of the updates in this issue.Users can also access our Highligts PDF to learn more about the findings of new and updated Cochrane Reviews.
Free Training and user guides:***NEW*** Instructor-led virtual training sessions on The Cochrane Library - interscience.wiley.com/training Self-paced online tutorials - interscience.wiley.com/tutorials.User guides and Powerpoint presentations at the Help page on - www.thecochranelibrary.com www.thecochranelibrary.com evidence for healthcare decision-making

Please contact Wanda Anderson Nursing Librarian with any questions. Thank you!

Secondary Research Data Resources at BC- October 23, 2008

October 23, 2008 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm, Gasson 9

Boston College offers many sources and repositories of data for secondary research in the social sciences, education, nursing, economics, business and other disciplines. This workshop is particularly geared to researchers who need to access, analyze and manipulate data from BC's subscription data repositories. This tutorial will help you: find the data you need for your research or class project; learn about the Boston College collection of data resources in the Statistical Data Catalog; and how to download the data onto your desktop, including how to import into quantitative analytical tools such as SPSS. Get a tour of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, a data archive that includes over 5,000 datasets. We will also discuss the library’s guides to key Business, Economics, Education, Health, and General U.S. and cross-national data sources. Topics may be customized based on attendees’ research interests.

Co-instructors: Rani Dalgin, ITS Research Services and Barabara Mento, Data/GIS Librarian

To sign up for a tutorial, please send email to researchservices@bc.edu with the name of the tutorial.

For more ITS Research Services tutorials Fall 2008 see:

http://www.bc.edu/offices/researchservices/tutorials.html

Welcome to a New academic Year

Hello to All of You ----Faculty, Students, and Staff!
Welcome to a New Academic Year!
In your adventure of new programs, faculty and colleagues, please remember you can count on the librarians and staff in the libraries to provide services and resources for your classes, clinicals and research.
Two important initiatives for this Academic Year are first, the search for a nursing database to replace our current version of CINAHL through SilverPlatter. SilverPlatter will not be published after 12/31/2008.
We are exploring:
OvidSP's Nursing@OVID (our current provider of CINAHL) (contact anderswb@bc.edu about access)
EBSCO's CINAHL http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search?vid=1&hid=104&sid=0935b0c8-e206-4a95-b709-9727e2c109c8%40sessionmgr108

Proquest Nursing & Allied Health Source http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=302&cfc=1

and Elsevier's MOSBY'S Nursing index http://www.mosbysnursingindex.com/ (contact anderswb@bc.edu for Mosby's username & password).

Secondly we are in the beginning stages of exploring e-books as a future format for some Nursing Reference Books. Any input about the usability/desirability of this format is welcome.

Rani Dalgin & Barbara Mento are offering some wonderful Research and Information Technology Services tutorials on data analysis, surveys and GIS (Geographic Information Services). The Fall 2008 tutorials are at:
http://www.bc.edu/offices/researchservices/tutorials.html

Have a great New Year! Wanda Anderson, Nursing Reference Librarian anderswb@bc.edu

Help by Subject: Nursing and Health Sciences

The Help by Subject Library Page link to Nursing and Health Sciences provides Quick Links & Key Resources to major nursing databases, In-Depth Research Guides for Nursing ,
Health Statistics , and Community Analysis , plus Important Websites. There is also an Rss feed promoting Recent Additions to the Collection.

ICPSR Health and Medical Care Archive

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in conjunction with ICPSR has launched their official data archive, ICPSR Health and Medical Care Archive, which is devoted to preserving and making available research data that have “significant secondary-analytic value for expanding knowledge on, and ultimately contributing to, improvement of the health of people in the United States.” Data categories include: Health Care Providers; Cost/Access to Health Care; Substance Abuse and Health and Chronic Health Conditions. Use your ICPSR account to download data.

The site includes a searchable Bibliography of Data-related Literature database. Some data are restricted and require application forms prior to data access. If you have any questions please contact datasuport@bc.edu