Health Education/Community Health - Library & Learning Resources - City College of San Francisco Go to the CCSF library's main page Find Books using the library's Catalog Find Articles in periodical & reference databases Search the web Library information, frequently asked questions Go to main CCSF web page

Finding Books

Reserve Books

Subject Headings

Reference Sources

Finding Articles

Web Resources

Evaluating Sources

Citing Sources

Additional Help

Health Education/Community Health Subject Guide

Subject guides are designed to help students begin the research process, find reputable sources, and save time.



Searching the Library Catalog for Books & Other Materials

To locate books and other materials in CCSF Libraries, select the Library Catalog from the Library's Homepage. You will notice many ways to search, such as Title, Author, Subject, Subject Keyword, etc.

Examples of Subject searches include:
AIDS (Disease), Diabetes, Community health services, Memory, Smoking--Health aspects, Stress management


Reserve Materials

Reserve Materials include books, sample tests, class notes, and other items that instructors put at the library for class use. The check out time is shorter than regular circulating books.

To search for a book on reserve in the Library Catalog, select either Reserves by Course or Reserves by Instructor.

When you have located the materials, write down the Call Number and Title and present this to a staff person at the Circulation Desk.

Top


Browsing the Library Collection

Materials in the Library are shelved by call number according to the Library of Congress classification system. Books are arranged on the shelves by subject.

Relevant areas in the collection to find materials on women’s health include:

SUBJECT HEADING
CALL NUMBER RANGE
Public Health RA1-RA1270
Internal Medicine RC1-RC1245
Psychology BF1-BF999
Social Services and Social Problems HV1-HV5850

Top


Library Materials

Reference books provide background information and overviews on a given topic. Relevant reference books for health education and community health include:

Reference Sources

American College of Physicians Complete Home Medical Guide. 2nd ed. New York: DK Publishing, 2003. Ref RC 81 .A5386 2003

Encyclopedia of Health & Behavior. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, c2004. 2 vols. Ref R 726.5 .E53 2004

Occupational Health and Safety Handbook. prepared by Sex Workers for Sex Workers. 2nd ed. San Francisco: St.James Infirmary, 2004. Ref RA 425 .O23 2004

Physicians’ Desk Reference : PDR. Oradell, NJ: Medical Economics, 2006. Ref RS 75 .P5 2006

Shannon, Joyce Brennfleck, ed. Diet and Nutrition Sourcebook. 3rd ed. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, 2006. Ref RA 784 .D534 2006

Abortion: Opposing Viewpoints. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006.Ref H 61 .O66 A26 2006

Levine, Carol. Taking Sides. Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues. Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw Hill/Dushkin, 2006.Ref H 61 .T353 2006

Top


Searching for Articles in Periodical Databases

Periodical databases group together journal, magazine, and newspaper articles by subject. They also usually provide abstracts (brief summaries) and the full text of the articles. Do you need help identifying the differences between scholarly journal v. popular magazine articles?

Note: Most periodical databases are part of the private, passworded Web, so you will need to have a current CCSF ID card with a barcode to access those that CCSF subscribes to. All current CCSF Student ID cards should already have a barcode. More information about obtaining a library bar code.

Infotrac Web
Infotrac is a brand name for several databases with coverage from 1980 to the present. Most useful for topics in health are the Health Reference Center Academic and InfoTrac OneFile. You can limit your results to articles in scholarly journals only by checking the box for“peer-reviewed publications. There are many specific Subject Guide terms. Here are some examples:
a. AIDS (Diseases)
b. Colonoscopy
c. Conflict Management
d. Diabetes
e. Steroids (Drugs)
f. Suicidal Behavior

CQ Researcher

CQ provides lengthy research reports written by the editorial staff of the Congressional Quarterly Co. Examples of reports related to health: “Abortion Showdowns” 9/22/2006; “Methamphetamine” 7/16/2005; “Rising Health Costs” 4/7/2006; “Stem Cell Research” 9/1/2006; “War on Drugs” 6/2/2006.

Ethnic Newswatch

Comprised of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press in America, this unique body of materials covers a wide range of current topics and countless other social, political and educational subjects. More than 200 publications covering 1995 to the present are represented, and searchable in both English and Spanish.

SFPL - Electronic Resources, Magazines, and Newspapers
San Francisco Public Library subscribes to many periodical and reference databases. You must have a San Francisco Public Library card number to access them. Once you have entered your barcode number, select the category - Health.

Top


Finding Web Resources

Below are some examples of academic/scholarly web sites helpful for research on women’s health. If you use a search engine, such as Google, remember to evaluate the quality of the results.

Web Resources for General Reference Medline Plus. http://medlineplus.gov This webpage is sponsored by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. You can start your research here with the Online Medical Encyclopedia and Dictionary, the Health Topics directory to basic information, and links to websites. Medline Plus provides many links to pages from other U.S. government agencies and from national health organizations.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this site provides an A-Z index of health conditions and topics. For many topics there are basic statistics and fact sheets. Like Medline Plus, there are links to other helpful governmental and organization websites.

National Institutes of Health. http://www.nih.gov Also sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NIH focuses on promoting medical discoveries, so this site is rich in links to clinical trials and new medical research.

HealthySF. http://www.healthysf.org This actively growing website is focused on health issues for San Francisco.

San Francisco Department of Public Health. http://www.dph.sf.ca.us Look here for information about local health services and resources. Links are provided to locally created health studies, including statistical studies.

National Center for Health Statistics. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs This website from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a great starting place for finding statistical information for the United States.

World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/ WHO is the United Nations health agency. Under the tab for Research Tools, you can find statistics by country for many diseases and health conditions. WHO”s web site can be used in six languages.

The WWW Virtual Library: Medicine and Health: Epidemiology. http://www.epibiostat.ucsf.edu/epidem/epidem.html Univeristy of California San Francisco provides links to U.S. and international sources for epidemiological information.

PubMed. www.pubmed.gov At this website the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health maintains an extensive database of citations to journal articles in medicine and health sciences. Most of the citations come with abstracts (summaries) but very few have links to the actual text of the articles.

Top


Evaluating Sources

Content Evaluation Guidelines
Advice from the Medical Library Association

Evaluating Webpages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask
A UC Berkeley - Teaching Library Internet Workshops

Critically Analyzing Information Sources
Developed by Olin-Kroch-Uris Libraries at Cornell University.

Evaluating and Citing Source
A quick and easy check list to use when determining the quality of web documents. Prepared by Librarians at CCSF.

Top


Need More Assistance?

For additional help you may contact the Reference Desk by phone at (415) 452-5543 or stop by the East and West reference desks at the Rosenberg Library.

eRef
Electronic Reference Service to CCSF students, faculty, staff and registered community users. Use this service when you are NOT in a CCSF library.

Library and Web Research Workshops
FIfty minute workshops are given throughout the semester on effective methods in searching for books, articles and information on the Internet.

Evaluating and Citing Information Sources
Several useful sources for evaluating the quality of web pages, how to prepare citations for a "Bibliography" or "Works Cited" list, and how to avoid plagiarism.


Purdue's Online Writing Lab
One of the most thorough and easy to navigate writing labs avaialble!


A+ Research and Writing
Hosted by the Internet Public Library.

Writing Process @ CSU
Colorado State University developed these guides which "focus on a range of composing processes as well as issues related to the situations in which writers find themselves."



Send comments or suggestions to:

Karen Saginor
Subject Selector
(415) 452-5522
ksaginor@ccsf.edu




CCSF Home | Library Home | Subject Guides

Copyright Library & Learning Resource Center, City College of San Francisco
Last updated October 24, 2006

Top