Health Science 10

Personal Health

Getting to this page:

  • Go to the Library home page ( libwww.cabrillo.edu)
  • Click on Internet Links, then click on Medicine
  • Scroll down to Course Related Materials and click on HS 10
1. Finding Books in the Cabrillo Library Catalog -- A good place to start

Finding a book on a topic is often the best way to begin researching a subject. In addition, you can often find books targeting the level you're looking for: beginning, or advanced.

  • From the Cabrillo Library home page ( libwww.cabrillo.edu):
  • Click on Library Catalog
  • Search in WORDS, for a broad general search
  • Search examples :
    • alzheimer*
    • disease* and encyclopedia*
  • Use quotes around 2+ words that MUST belong together: "medical assisting", "santa cruz"
  • Use an asterisk (*) to pick up all words beginning with your term: fluorid* would pick up fluoride,fluoridation, fluoridating, fluoridated, etc.
3. Finding Magazine and Journal Articles -- Most Cabrillo magazines are online!

There are thousands of publications covered in the Cabrillo databases, and you can often find very focused articles on almost any topic. The three primary magazine and journal article databases covering health topics and available at Cabrillo are EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier, a large general database covering many different subject areas, EBSCOhost Health Source: Nursing/Academic, focusing on more specialized health publications, and CINAHL, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health database, covering all aspects of the nursing field.

EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier

  • From the library homepage ( libwww.cabrillo.edu):
  • Click on Fulltext Articles
  • Click on Academic Search Premier (from off-campus you will need to enter your library card barcode number)
  • Put a check mark in the box that reads Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals
  • Sample searches :
    • "kaposi's sarcoma "
    • liver and disease*
    • "myocardial infarction"

Health Source: Nursing/Academic database

  • From the library homepage ( libwww.cabrillo.edu):
  • Click on Full Text Articles
  • In the Health & Medicine category, click on Health Source Nursing/Academic (if you are off-campus, you will need to enter your library card barcode number)
  • Sample searches:
    • "cervical cancer"
    •  nudity
    • "abortion pill"
    • "ru 486"
4. Finding Web Pages -- Using collections of Internet Links

There is so much information available on the Internet, but the challenge is often knowing where to start! Directories of collected internet links on a topic can be excellent starting points. A directory of links can be small and focused, like the collection of Internet Links pages maintained by the Cabrillo Library, or it can be much, much larger, like the Google web directory.

  • From the Google homepage (www.google.com):
  • Click on the more>> link
  • Click on even more>>
  • Click on the Directory icon
  • From the top-level category list, click on Health
  • Click on the sub-category Conditions and Diseases
  • Explore!
5. Using Search Tools to Find Web Pages -- The more skilled the user, the better the tool works!

Search tools such as Google (a search engine) and Dogpile (a "meta-search" engine) are powerful automated portals into much larger portions of the Internet. Each search tool provides its own collection of searching options and techniques.  
  • Start at Google's main page (www.google.com)
  • Type your search terms in the dialog box
  • Click on the Search button
  • Search tips:
    • Put multi-word phrases in quotes, e.g., "coca cola," "green frog," etc.
    • Click on the Images link to see any pictures on your topic
    • Narrow your search by domain, e.g., food allergy site:gov, "sexually transmitted diseases" site:cdc.gov

    or...

  • Start at Dogpile's main page (www.dogpile.com)
  • Type your search terms in the dialog box
  • Click on the Go Fetch button
  • Search tips:
    • Put multi-word phrases in quotes, e.g., "rheumatoid arthritis"
    • Click on the Video button to see any videos on your topic (or Audio files, or Images, etc.)
6. Evaluating Websites -- Is this stuff any good?

Anyone can publish on the Web. Does that mean that  anyone can produce good, reliable information? It is very important to evaluate what you find. In searching the web, you want to use resources that are not only current (if necessary) and relevant to your topic, but also from reliable, believable sources. Ask yourself questions like:

 

Georg Romero, 10/06