The Read by QxMD app and website provide a personal awareness service for health sciences professionals, making it easier to keep up with published research. Users create a free account login, enter their profession and specialty, and the service uses an algorithm to deliver a feed of recommended articles. Articles with high levels of interaction and views appear higher in the feed. Like a streaming music service, the more you read, like, and save on Read, the more tailored your feed becomes.
Users can save articles to collections that can be shared with colleagues or used for research projects, journal clubs, or other purposes. Users can also choose to follow curated collections or a particular journal and get regular push notifications when items are added. My Keywords allows users to enter a set of keywords and be alerted when a new resource that’s a match is added. The content source for QxMD is PubMed. New materials become available as they are added to the PubMed service.
It’s easy to access full-text of articles in the form of PDFs in Read. Many articles are open access. Himmelfarb Library is now updating library holdings with QxMD. GW users can now indicate their affiliation and access the library’s full-text collection. Downloaded PDFs are saved to the user’s device.
RefWorks is a great way to collect, manage and organize your research papers and documents and generate citations and bibliographies easily. RefWorks recently released a number of updates that may be of interest to Himmelfarb Library users. RefWorks users can now export references from Web of Science directly to RefWorks with just a few clicks! Simply select a reference in Web of Science and select RefWorks from the Export menu.
You can also import references with multiple attachments from the legacy RefWorks or Mendeley into RefWorks. Prior to this update, importing references with multiple attachments created one reference for each attachment.
To learn more about RefWorks, check out our RefWorks Guide! This guide has a wealth of information that can get you started using this great tool including instructions on creating an account, adding citations, sharing resources and collaborating with other RefWorks users, building bibliographies and creating in-text citations.
Himmelfarb Library would like to extend the warmest of welcomes to all of our new users! Regardless of whether you are a new resident, fellow, physician assistant, or a new student, we are excited that you are here and are looking forward to serving you during this next chapter of your medical or health sciences training! In an effort to help get you started on the right foot, we’d like to share some ways Himmelfarb can help make your experience a positive one.
Resources for Residents & Fellows:
If you are a new resident or fellow, Himmelfarb has resources to help you navigate this new role. Check out our Residents and Fellows Guide for information about accessing Himmelfarb resources from the GW Hospital and other off-campus locations. This guide also provides links to popular clinical resources such as DynaMed, ClinicalKey, Lexicomp, and PubMed. You’ll also find a link to our App Shelf where you can download apps to selected resources on your smartphone or tablet. Links to specific program resources, and MFA training resources are also available. For additional information about GW University and GW Hospital wireless access, accessing your GW email, and GW Hospital clinical systems, visit the Wireless Access and Clinical Systems Guide.
Himmelfarb also provides access to NEJM Resident 360. Create your free personal account using your @gwu.edu email address. Once you’ve created your account, access the resource via the library or go directly to NEJM Resident 360 to access interactive cases, videos, rotation prep, clinical pearls, morning reports, and more!
Research Help Made Easy!
We’d like all of our new users to know that getting research help is easy! Our reference librarians are available to answer your questions in-person or remotely. Use our Ask a Librarian service right from your computer and you’ll be connected to our real reference and research staff. For more information about getting reference and research help, check out Our New Normal page.
Himmelfarb’s Resources are Available from Anywhere!
Himmelfarb’s 100+ databases, 4,800+ journals, and 6,400+ ebooks are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from anywhere! Install the LibKey Nomad Google Chrome browser extension for seamless access to full-text articles available through Himmelfarb. After installing the extension, choose ‘George Washington University - Himmelfarb Library’ as your institution, and you’ll be ready to quickly download full-text articles! When accessing our resources remotely, we recommend using the GW VPN. For directions on how to install the GW VPN, visit Himmelfarb’s off-campus access page.
Get to Know Us:
Learn more about Himmelfarb and our resources by visiting our tutorials page. You can also check out our research guides on a wide variety of topics. We are also active on social media, so be sure to connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to get the most updated information about all things Himmelfarb!
We’re looking forward to serving you! Welcome to the GW community!
Keeping up with the latest information in the health sciences can be tricky, yet it is so vital in reinforcing the life-long work of health science professionals. There are so many sources you could go to, some better than others. And then the question of what do you want to keep up with - broader health sciences information, discipline-specific information, a mix of the two? Where are the best places to go for each of those? To help you wade through the tide of information, Himmelfarb has set up a new Keeping Up with Health Sciences Information Guide. Our how-to guide includes information on setting up a curated journals shelf via Browzine, database and journal alerts, and more! We even have curated podcast lists courtesy of our Podcasts Guide.
If you have any ideas for resources we can include to help others keep up with health sciences information, please let us know! We have a form on our Podcast Guide’s “What Are You Listening To?” page. You can submit individual episodes or entire shows, it’s up to you! If your suggestion isn’t a podcast, email it to us at himmelfarb@gwu.edu and one of us will be in touch.
As always, if you run into any issues or have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at himmelfarb@gwu.edu.
Do you sometimes have to walk on campus alone after dark? Would you like to have a way to quickly alert authorities of a potentially dangerous situation, or reach someone who can help by phone?
GW’s Division of Safety and Security has an app that can help! The Guardian app is free to the GW community and can be downloaded here for iPhone or Android. The app provides quick access to GW and non-GW support services like the GW Office of Advocacy of Support, the National Sexual Assault Hotline, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and Poison Control. There is a button to immediately connect to GW Police & EMeRG (GW's volunteer EMS agency) and a button for 911 services.
A Safety Timer feature allows a family member or friend to be your guardian while traveling. Set a timer for your trip to alert your guardian if you don’t arrive within the anticipated time. You can alert them or GW PD to your location.
The app can also be customized to include critical information about you if you are in an accident or in a medical emergency. This includes contact information and your medical history.
Off campus the Guardian app provides advisories and alerts for your area as well as for the GW campus. The alerts can be set as push notifications to your phone.
Podcasts are an excellent way to learn new skills, stay engaged in culturally relevant conversations or reinforce your preexisting knowledge about a specific topic. From Spotify to Apple Podcasts to YouTube, there are numerous applications available that let you listen to the latest podcasts while on the go. Podcasts are a great resource that can help you both in and out of a classroom or clinical setting.
Himmelfarb Library is excited to announce a new guide on podcasts for medical and health sciences professionals, students, and researchers. Whether you are an avid podcast listener or new to the medium, we hope you will find a podcast that speaks to you! We are also seeking recommendations for podcasts to be included on the guide and would love to feature you and your favorite podcast in a blog post or tweet.
You might listen to podcasts while running or doing the dishes. You may select episodes that are the same duration as your commute time. You could look for podcasts to reinforce lessons from a recent course lecture, provide updates on articles in your favorite journal, or spark new directions for inquiry and research. Looking for the inside scoop on NIH funding? There’s a podcast for that. There are as many reasons to listen to podcasts as there are listeners and nearly as many different podcasts, too! We hope our new guide will help you find your next favorite.
The Himmelfarb App Shelf provides a handy entry point to all the mobile apps Himmelfarb provides access to. Some require a bit of set up, while others you can just download and go. You can find detailed instructions and a download link to the App Store by clicking on the individual app.
We have a selection of clinical and point of care apps available, with our top recommendations being DynaMed, LexiComp, and Epocrates Plus. While these apps would normally require a subscription purchase, Himmelfarb offers them to students, faculty, and staff at no charge. Simply follow the instructions on the associated app page to download and install. A little tip from personal experience: use a laptop or desktop for the initial set up, and be sure to log in to the library’s website or the VPN first.
We also have some great quality-of-life apps, like Browzine. Browzine lets you save your favorite e-journals to a personalized bookshelf where you can browse new issues and articles, as well as save them for off-line reading.
Need a productivity boost? Our Productivity App Shelf can help! Find a variety of note-taking apps, PDF readers, and even our wēpa Print app so you can print to our kiosks right from your phone or iPad.
If you have any questions or run into installation issues, please email us at himmelfarb@gwu.edu. We’re here to help!
As Himmelfarb Library begins the transition into Our New Normal, you may have questions about where to access certain services and resources we provide. Here’s a guide on what you’ll find available online and in-person.
Online
All of our e-journals, e-databases, and e-books remain available online. We also provide our Documents2Go service entirely online, where you can request articles unavailable in our collection.
We offer instructions on downloading and installing our mobile apps to your device.
Himmelfarb’s Reference team is also available online. Our chat service is monitored by reference staff 8:30AM-8PM EST Monday through Thursday and 8:30AM-5PM EST Friday. Have a question a little too involved for chat? We can also schedule individual meetings with a reference librarian via WebEx. Email us at himmelfarb@gwu.edu to start the process!
In-Person
In addition to our print collection available in our book stacks, you can also find our multimedia collection, audiovisual collection, and software resources on the third floor, in the Bloedorn Technology Center.
Our special collections, the Humanities & Health collection, Historical collection, and Healthy Living collection, are all accessible in-person.
Some of our older journals are kept in on-site storage as bound volumes. You can request a specific volume for perusal by following the instructions on our Borrowing and Requesting page.
Anatomy models are available in various places throughout the library. Our skeletal models and bone boxes are up on the third floor. Heart and brain models can be checked out at the Circulation desk.
If you have any questions about access as we move forward with Our New Normal, reach out to us at himmelfarb@gwu.edu or call the Circulation Desk at 202-994-2962.
The new PubMed is here! Himmelfarb previously announced a transition from PubMed’s old interface to their newer, more modern interface. As of May 18th, the NLM will fully transition to the new PubMed interface with a host of new features, available on mobile and desktop devices alike.
The new PubMed interface includes quality of life updates, like abstract excerpts available in the results list and updates to the interface to make the site more navigable, and as well as significant behind-the-scenes updates, including the algorithm that produces the new Best Match sort order. Additionally, your My NCBI saved searches and collections will continue to work with the new PubMed, so no starting over from scratch!
When accessing the new PubMed, be sure to go through the link on Himmelfarb’s home page, in the “Popular Resources” box, to ensure Himmelfarb’s full-text links and other customizations load. The new PubMed also offers full integration with our LibKey Nomad browser plugin (available on Google Chrome), which enhances full-text linking by directly loading a PDF if one is available!
The NLM has a number of resources to help you familiarize yourself with the new PubMed interface. Their New PubMed Transition FAQ broadly covers the changes and updates made. The New PubMed Trainer’s Toolkit consists of short videos (1-4 minutes each), slides, handouts, and webinars that can be embedded in Blackboard courses. For those of you looking for a deeper dive into the new PubMed, the webinar series How PubMed Works does a deep dive into what PubMed is and how it functions. The PubMed User Guide is also readily available, with an in-depth coverage of frequently asked questions and instructions on how to use the various features the new PubMed offers.
Of course, we here at Himmelfarb are also available as a resource. We’ve been familiarizing ourselves with the new interface, and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the new PubMed. Email us at himmelfarb@gwu.edu, or chat with us via our Ask A Librarian instant messaging service.
Lexicomp is a comprehensive clinical drug information app including Lexi-Drugs, a drug interaction tool, and an extensive library of clinical calculators. Lexicomp is available both via web access and as an app that you can install on your phone, iPad or other handheld device.
The Lexicomp is free and Himmelfarb Library’s subscription allows you to install Lexicomp‘s high-quality drug information to your phone, iPad, or other handheld device.
App Instructions
Access Lexi-Comp then click on Mobile Access Codes.
Select your platform (iPhone/iPad or Android) and if you are a new or existing customer, then copy the authorization code provided.
