Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library Blog

The Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library has print and online resources to help you prepare for the USMLE Steps 1-3. To find books available in the library, search the UCLA Library Catalog using the keywords “examination questions” plus a subject (e.g., biochemistry). Access Medicine has textbooks and several of the Lange Review series books available anytime from anywhere. Access Medicine also contains a version of the Lange Self-Assessment Tool, also know as USMLEasy.com, containing over 3,500 USMLE-formatted questions (you must create a free personalized account in order to take advantage of this feature). Question answers also include explanations referencing online texts for further reading.

If you’re off-campus, don’t forget to set up the UCLA proxy or VPN to access resources from anywhere.

The UCLA Library is continuing our ongoing efforts to cancel print journal subscriptions when we license access to the electronic equivalent.  For 2008, we are focusing our efforts on the journals in all subjects identified by UCLA librarians where we have both print and electronic subscriptions. 

The 543 journal titles on the list and website have been identified by UCLA librarians where there is both a print and digital subscription and where they feel it is sufficient to have electronic access only.  If, however, you feel that it is important to maintain a print subscription to these titles, we would like to hear from you.

The list of proposed journal cancellations is available online through June 13, 2008. You can browse the list by holding library or individual title. Each title has an interactive button so you may send a comment directly to the librarian responsible for that subscription. If you have additional questions or comments please contact Janet Carter, Collection Coordinator for the UCLA Biomedical Library, at jcarter@library.ucla.edu.

The National Library of Medicine has created the free Drug Information Portal to provide patients, families, and health care professionals with quality information on medication.

Begin by typing a trade or generic name for a medication in the search box, and click “Go.” Your results are links to other resources provided by the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health:

NLM’s Drug Information Portal links you directly to the relevant portions of these websites. Previously, you had to search each website individually, a time-consuming and often frustrating process. The NLM Drug Information Portal makes it easier to gather information about medications from multiple sources.

The UCLA Library, Academic Senate, Academic Senate Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication, and the Office of Intellectual Property Administration have created a series of lunchtime sessions to educate faculty about special topics in intellectual property. Upcoming sessions include:

• If You Don’t Ask, How Can You Tell?: Getting Permission to Use Material in Course Instruction and E-Publishing (December 6th, 2007)
• “Don’t I Own My Own Work?”: Negotiating to Keep Your Copyright (February 7th, 2008)
• “What Are My Rights?”: Software, Patents, and Open Source (spring quarter 2008; date TBA)

Read full descriptions of each workshop and register on the Library’s web page, Intellectual Property in the Digital Age: The Rights Stuff for Teaching and Publishing.

Learn how to find the full text of articles online, how to discover the best databases for articles on a given topic, and how to search databases and other resources effectively through in-person demonstrations and hands-on instruction.

This fifty-minute session, focused on health and life sciences, will take place Friday, November 9 at 11am in the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library (12-077 CHS) Classroom.  No registration is required– just bring your questions! For more information, contact us at biomed-ref@library.ucla.edu.

The Biomedical Library’s History and Special Collections Division will co-host a conference on November 16th and 17th. The conference, titled “The Architecture of Healing: an International Conference,” is co-hosted with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. To review the planned programs, pre-register for the event, and find out more about the location, visit the Architecture of Healing blog.

GIDEON, which stands for Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Online Network, is a decision support tool for assisting with the diagnosis of and background information on tropical and infectious diseases, epidemiology, microbiology and antimicrobial chemotherapy. Using the four modules (Diagnosis, Epidemiology, Therapy, and Microbiology), you can:

• Generate a country-specific diagnosis based on symptoms, signs, and laboratory data.
• Display the epidemiological profile of a selected disease and generate a list of diseases that fit a given set of epidemiological parameters.
• Review the pharmacology and usage of anti-infective drugs.
• Identify a taxon based phenotypic characteristics. View a list of the typical positive and negative reactions for a specified organism and compare the reactions of two or more species.

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The National Academies are now providing podcasts on hot topics in science, chemistry, and medicine. Download the free, 10-minute audio files and play them on your computer’s media player or load them onto your MP3 player to listen during your commute or workout. The Sounds of Science podcasts are updated 1-2 times a week. Recent additions include “The Future of Emergency Care,” “Gone With the Wind: Environmental Impacts of Wind Energy,” and “Better Living Through Chemistry: The Future of Chemistry Research in the U.S.”

Health literacy is an important skill for anyone navigating the confusing world of health care. Health literacy includes the ability to:

• Locate medical information
• Read medical information
• Comprehend medical information
• Understand the medical services and options available
• Use prior knowledge to make informed health care decisions

Health care professionals and patients can encourage health literacy in a variety of ways. Learn more about what you can do by meeting with librarians from the Biomedical Library and health care professionals representing the UCLA Health System Patient Education Committee. We will have a table in Cafe Med on Thursday, October 25th, from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Please visit us to get handouts about health literacy, see demonstrations of online resources, and find out how the Library can help you!

If you cannot attend the event on October 25th, you can review the Consumer Health Subject Guide, created by the Biomedical Library for this event. Or, contact us at biomed-ref@library.ucla.edu to talk to a staff member.

The “kidney swap” procedure was the first of its kind to be performed in southern California. In this procedure, a living donor who wishes to give their kidney to a loved one but cannot because of incompatibility is paired with another patient and incompatible donor. The donors “swap” their organs, providing two patients with an improved quality of life.  

The UCLA Medical Center has one of the largest and most active kidney transplant programs in the world. The “donor swap” procedure is rarely performed within the U.S., but UCLA health care professionals hope that the success of the procedure performed on September 20 will encourage other transplant centers to plan their own kidney swap donation programs.

Learn more about this exciting development by reading the UCLA Health and Medicine News.