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DynaMed, Lexicomp and Epocrates app iconsHimmelfarb Library provides clinical apps for free download!  DynaMed, Lexicomp and Epocrates Plus (premium) provide clinical information including up to the minute disease and drug information.  All three apps provide access to information whether or not you have WiFi or data access at your point of need.

For each app, download the free app from the iTunes store or Google Play, and then follow the instructions on Himmelfarb Library's App Shelf in order to connect your app to Himmelfarb's subscription.

If you prefer not to install the app, you can access these resources via 24/7 web access from Himmelfarb Library's webpage.  DynaMed and Epocrates Plus are mobile-optimized so will display well whether you're accessing these information tools on your cell phone, a tablet, or computer.

If you have any questions, please contact Laura Abate (leabate@gwu.edu).

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RefWorks Legacy & New Proquest RefWorks

It’s time to start thinking about final research projects for Fall 2019, and Himmelfarb Library offers a fantastic tool to help you track your research – RefWorks!

RefWorks is a handy citation tracking tool that allows users to import references, sort them into folders, and share them with other RefWorks users.  Himmelfarb offers two versions of RefWorks: RefWorks Legacy which is terrific for systematic reviews and the new Proquest RefWorks which valued for its Google Docs integration.  Both versions of RefWorks provide a Microsoft Word plug that helps you create in-text citations and a references list.

One of the best features of RefWorks is the ability to easily import references from some of Himmelfarb’s top databases, like PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Health Information @ Himmelfarb. You can even import directly from Google Scholar! You can find instructions on how to do so on our RefWorks Research Guide under “Importing reference into RefWorks.”

RefWorks also supports extensive and personalized organization of your references. You can create your own folders for individual papers, projects, or classes, and sort your references into those folders immediately after importing them.

Once you’ve imported your references, RefWorks helps you generate bibliographies in APA, AMA, and hundreds of other citation styles you may need for publication. If you’ve downloaded Write-N-Cite, you can sync your RefWorks account to Word, and even use it to generate properly formatted in-text citations in your style of choice!

For more information on RefWorks and the support Himmelfarb provides, as well as some handy video tutorials, check out our RefWorks Research Guide.

Health Information @ Himmelfarb, the search box on Himmelfarb Library’s home page, has new features for managing results and setting filters to limit results to specific disciplines.  On the brief results page, searchers can now opt to save the top 50 results and send to email, RefWorks, or add the whole group to Favorites. Click the box at the top of the results list to select the items on the page and the option to choose the top 50 results will appear.

Brief results page

Users can also activate the Personalize button at the top of brief results to limit results to a particular set of disciplines.  Clicking the button takes searchers to a list of disciplines to choose:

Disciplines list

Once disciplines are set, searchers have the option to boost newer materials with the Prefer newer material button that appears in Refine Results options to the left.  Searchers can also de-select the disciplines if desired to expand the search.

Results page with newer results displayed first

Health Information @ Himmelfarb has recently been configured to boost the most current five years of content in results.

If you have questions about using Health Information @ Himmelfarb or need assistance with searching, contact us through Ask Us or email himmelfarb@gwu.edu.

LibKey-Nomad-Blue-Font-1024x190.pngDo you want full-text faster? The LibKey Nomad browser extension can connect you to articles in Himmelfarb Library’s collection wherever you find them – i.e. PubMed, publisher sites, and even Wikipedia.  LibKey Nomad immediately delivers a PDF if available, and will otherwise provide you Himmelfarb full-text and document delivery options.

LibKey Nomad is a Google Chrome browser extension that links you directly to full texts of articles available through Himmelfarb, wherever you find them.   Download LibKey Nomad from the Chrome Web Store page.  After you install the extension, choose ‘George Washington University – Himmelfarb Library’ as your institution, and you’re good to go!

LibKey Nomad functions by looking at the DOI of an article, and matching it to our Himmelfarb holdings. If it finds the DOI among our available resources, it provides a direct download link or a list of full-text options. If it doesn’t find a DOI match in our collections, it then searches an open access knowledge base and if successful provides a PDF download. If LibKey Nomad can’t find the article available through either of those means, it links you to our Health Information @ Himmelfarb discovery system, where you can find alternative access methods like our Documents2Go service.

So what does this mean for patrons? LibKey Nomad makes it easier than ever to access the full text of articles efficiently. If you find an article you want to read on a publisher’s site, you no longer have to go to Himmelfarb, log in, search for it in our collections, and then be linked to full-text access. LibKey Nomad integrates full-text access directly where you find the article.

If you like LibKey Nomad, be sure to check out additional resources from Third Iron such as Browzine.  Browzine gives Himmelfarb users the opportunity to build a bookshelf of favorite journals from Himmelfarb Library’s holdings.  Browzine users are alerted to new articles and issues and can scan issues and read or save articles.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB3V4BRV1jg]
On Tuesday, November 12 from 10-11 a.m., Himmelfarb Library will provide a training session in Covidence, an online tool that manages and facilitates much of the systematic review process.  Covidence is a not-for-profit service working in partnership with the Cochrane Library to improve the production and use of systematic reviews for health and wellbeing.

Covidence supports the screening process (both title/abstract and full-text), creation and population of data extraction forms, and helps complete your risk of bias tables. Covidence allows you to share work among your systematic review team and track the progress of your project.

Himmelfarb Library provides a Covidence Research Guide to help you sign up for an account.  This guide also provides video tutorials to show you what Covidence can do, and how it can be integrated with your systematic review process.

Remember, to join us at the Introduction to Covidence webinar on Tuesday, November 12 from 10-11 a.m. EST.

 
JAMAevidence has information and tools to support you whether you're working on basic concepts, clinical application, or advanced analysis of evidence-based medicine.  For example, JAMAevidence provides access to:
JAMAevidence provides access to information and tools to identify the best available evidence and to support users in the systematic evaluation of the validity, importance, and applicability of health sciences research.  In addition to full-text access to key books, JAMAevidence gives you:
JAMAevidence is available 24/7 from the Himmelfarb Library’s webpage.  If you have any questions, please contact Laura Abate (leabate@gwu.edu).

 

macbeth
The Tragedie of Macbeth

Tis’ the season for trick or treat, and while our Himmelfarb Library resources might be limited on dragon scales and tooth of wolf, Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth was not entirely far fetched when it came to medicinal trends in the 1500s.

“Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark”

Did you know, that while poisonous, practitioners used diluted hemlock for its sedative, antispasmodic, and paralyzing properties? Beware, this species is not as appealing as it may sound for in Ancient Greece, the plant was actually used in the execution of condemned prisoners. Find out more via the library's Natural Medicines database which has a professional-level monograph on Hemlock.

Natural Medicines can provide information and evidence on plants, roots and herbs and allow you to learn about what people use it for as well as safety, effectiveness, dosing and administration, adverse effects, and toxicology.  Natural Medicines can also help you identify possible interactions with drugs, food, laboratory tests, and diseases.

“... slips of yew

Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,” Macbeth

While one can only imagine what ‘Witches Mummy’ and ‘slips of yew’ may have been used for, why not take a look at our database and see what unusual remedies you can find?

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Witch no. 1 lithograph by Joseph E. Baker (circa 1837-1914)

Salem Witch Trials—Bewitchment or Ergotism

From the JAMA archives just in time for Halloween, check out The Salem Witch Trials—Bewitchment or Ergotism which presents a new theory for what caused temporary blindness, skin lesions, convulsions, and hallucinations and eventually led to the Salem witch trials.
Interested in learning more about how ergot may have made history?  Search PubMed by Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) to find more articles: "Ergotism/history"[MAJR]

NationalsCan supporting your local team (GO NATIONALS!) make you happier?

Examining the Potential Causal Relationship Between Sport Team Identification and Psychological Well-being by Daniel Wann uses past research and theory to develop a team identification model which suggests that high levels of identifying with a local supports team leads to positive psychological health.

 

Identifying with a distant sports team or being a fan in general doesn't provide significant well-being benefits.     Local team fans benefit from a larger social group, and "associations to other fans form the basis for a valuable connection to society at large and serve as a buffer to loneliness, isolation, and so forth."

 

You can read more about this topic by searching databases such as SPORTDiscus and PsycINFO which are available in Himmelfarb Library's collections.

 

Image citation: Fagen, A. (2009). Nationals Park.  Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/afagen/3416538391/

pubmedredesigned
PubMed is nearing the completion of a platform overhaul and the new interface is ready for testing via PubMed Labs.  Key features of the redesigned PubMed include:
  • Updated mobile-compliant interface allows you to search from a desktop, laptop, or your phone via a consistent interface
  • Search results display in 'Best Match' order using a newly launched state-of-the-art machine learning algorithm.
  • Articles are displayed with a brief citation and snippet of the most relevant portion of the article's abstract.
Along with the updated interface, Himmelfarb library users can continue to take advantage of these customized features:
  • Find it @ Himmelfarb links connect users to full-text articles in Himmelfarb Library's collection, as well as the library's interlibrary loan service, Documents@Go.
  • Evidence-based practice filters allow users to quickly identify specific article types including systematic review, practice guidelines, randomized controlled trials, cohort and case control studies, and background reviews.
PubMed's redesign is available for testing now via the PubMed Labs website.  This fall, the updated interface will become the default PubMed interface.   Once the new interface is launched, users will be able to switch from the updated interface to the classic interface for the remainder of 2019.