Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library Blog

DynaMed is the physician-created, point of care resource providing evidence-based summaries for over 3,000 topics. Drugs, conditions, and medical procedures are covered in summaries relevant to all health care professionals. Each summary is clinically organized into sections providing etiology, diagnosis, prevention, prognosis, treatment options, and patient care handouts. DynaMed is written and edited by practicing physicians who monitor over 500 peer reviewed journals for new evidence. Content is updated frequently, and added content is ranked based on the strength of the supporting evidence. In addition to viewing DynaMed content online, UCLA affiliates can download DynaMed onto their PDA.

UCLA is experiencing access and linking problems for multiple e-journals on the Wiley Interscience platform. On July 1st, 2008, all e-journals previously published by Blackwell Synergy were transferred to Wiley Publishers. Due to this changeover, UCLA affiliates may be denied access to specific e-journal titles and the UC-eLinks service is not functioning optimally.

If you are unable to access an e-journal that UCLA subscribes to, please contact the Biomedical Library or your subject library.

If you are using UC-eLinks and click on the “Access this article online” link, you may be directed to the main page of Wiley Interscience rather than directly to the article. If this occurs, you will still be able to access the article. Browse by product type “journals,” use the alphabetical browse to navigate to the journal title, then navigate through the journal home page to the year, volume, and issue you require.

We are working to resolve these issues and restore full access and functionality as soon as possible.

Have you ever spent time creating an elaborate PubMed search and then sifting through the results to find the perfect articles?  Don’t you wish you could save your searches and selected articles so you didn’t have to go through that process all over again?  Well, you can by using PubMed’s My NCBI!

Use My NCBI to save searches and set up email alerts for saved searches on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.  You can also save multiple collections of articles (e.g., one collection for each research topic).

Do you normally use the same limits (e.g., specific age group, gender, publication type, publication date) for each search?  With My NCBI, you can choose filters that group search results so when you’re on the results page there will be a tab for each filter you’ve created.

Read PubMed’s My NCBI Help section for more information.  Let My NCBI save you time by streamlining the research process!

We are happy to announce that the online access problems with the Journal of the American Medical Association have been resolved and access has been restored. We appreciate your patience. If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at biomed-ref@library.ucla.edu.

The UCLA Library is currently experiencing online access problems with the Journal of the American Medical Association. Staff are working on the problem and hope to resume full access as soon as possible. We will post to the blog when the problem is corrected. In the meantime, print copies of JAMA are available in the Biomedical Library, call number W1 AM554. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Featured Resource: Cancer.gov

For over 70 years, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been promoting research, disseminating results and providing training in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Cancer.gov, the NCI Web site, is an informative resource for this work. Bringing up to date information about drugs used to treat cancer, clinical trials and research funding opportunities, this site also includes authoritative, easily understandable patient education materials for various types of cancers and the PDQ (Physician’s Data Query) NCI’s comprehensive database of peer-reviewed summaries of the cancer literature. Much of the Cancer.gov content is also available in Spanish.

The Biomedical Library has trial access to the AccessSurgery database for the month of June 2008 for the months of June and July, 2008. This database, published by McGraw-Hill, provides objective, high-quality answers to surgical questions, 105 narrated videos, and Board Review tests and study materials. Clinically relevant information can be searched in an easy-to-use format for a surgical procedure or by alphabetical browsing. The database is updated regularly, both with new surgical videos and new reference textbooks as they are available.

The AccessSurgery database is available on-campus only for this trial period.

Please send your comments about the AccessSurgery trial by June 30, 2008 July 31, 2008 to Amy Chatfield, Outreach and Communications Coordinator, at achatfie@library.ucla.edu. You may also leave a comment on this blog post.

If you have questions about any of the Biomedical Library’s licensed databases or electronic resources, contact Janet Carter, Collections Coordinator at jcarter@library.ucla.edu or Tania Bardyn, Associate Director for Public Services, at bardyn@library.ucla.edu.

The University of California Libraries have launched a pilot version of a replacement for the current Melvyl Catalog, which contains records for library holdings at all ten UC campuses. Users are encouraged to test the pilot, called Next-Generation Melvyl, and offer feedback on how well it meets their needs. The UCLA version is available at http://ucla.worldcat.org. Please provide feedback using the survey link found in the upper right-hand corner of the search page.

The pilot, which will last at least six months, features a single interface that searches holdings in all UC Libraries, those of libraries around the world, and UC books digitized by Google. It searches for U.S. government publications and incorporates information from Medline and other databases to provide citations to articles in medicine, health, psychology, and other fields.

Next-Generation Melvyl search results are displayed with local records first, then records from the other UC campuses, then records from other libraries worldwide. From the individual records, users can check circulation status, place holds on items at their home campuses, and request items held elsewhere, both within the UC system and beyond.

Other features, many of which are new with this pilot version, include the ability to easily refine searches, build and share lists of library resources, view personal ratings and reviews of items, cite items in various styles, export citations in multiple formats, and search the catalog using several languages.

Following completion of the pilot phase of Next-Generation Melvyl, a decision will be made about whether to move forward with it or to pursue other options. For more information about the pilot, view the PowerPoint presentation on the University of California, Office of the President (UCOP) website. As always, your librarians are available to answer questions and provide help.

The Military & Government Collection  is designed to offer current news pertaining to all branches of the military. This database offers a thorough collection of periodicals, academic journals, Congressional hearings and reports, and other related content. The database indexes nearly 400 titles, including Air Force Comptroller, Army Reserve Magazine, Defence Studies, JFQ: Joint Force Quarterly, Military Technology, Combat Edge, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Foreign Affairs, and Naval Forces.  Cover-to-cover full text is provided for nearly 300 journals and periodicals.

Military & Government Collection is included in the UCLA Library’s Academic Search Complete database subscription. Please note that you must follow the numbered steps below in the exact order to access this database!

1. Open the UCLA A-Z List of Databases.

2. Search for “Academic Search Complete,” and click on the link to enter this database.

3. Once inside Academic Search Complete, select Military & Government Collection  from the drop-down list of databases and select “Submit” (see the screenshot below). This will automatically select the Military & Government Collection as the sole database you are searching. Now you can search Military & Government Collection by typing search terms into the search boxes.

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.