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.
Himmelfarb Library would like to welcome all of our new users! Whether you are a new resident, fellow, physician assistant or public health student, we welcome you to the GW community! Himmelfarb is ready to serve you and help make your experience here a positive one. You may be curious about what Himmelfarb has to offer and how you can make the most of our resources and services. Here are the top five things we’d like you to know about Himmelfarb:
1) Getting Research Help is Easy!
Our reference librarians are available to answer your questions and provide research support when and where you need help. Get your research and library-related questions answered right from your computer by using the Ask a Librarian service! Reference librarians are available to answer your texts and instant message questions Monday-Thursday from 8:30am-8:00pm, and Friday from 8:30am-5:00pm.
2) Himmelfarb Resources are Available Anytime, Anywhere.
Himmelfarb’s 100 databases, 4,100 journals, and 4,500 e-books are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our e-book collection includes most major textbooks from most fields. Install the LibKey Nomad Google Chrome browser extension for seamless and speedy 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 all set. For more information about accessing Himmelfarb’s online resources including tips for navigating articles, check out our E-Resources FAQs page.
To access our electronic resources from off-campus, we recommend connecting to the GW VPN. The Himmelfarb off-campus access page provides additional information about installing the VPN and accessing electronic resources with your GW NetID. Many of our resources are also available as mobile apps for download on your mobile devices.
3) 3D Printing is Available!
Himmelfarb has a 3D printer available for use by faculty, staff and students in SMHS, SON, GWSPH, the GW Hospital and the MFA. 3D printing will be available once the library opens its doors again. For more information about 3D printing at Himmelfarb, check out our 3D Printing Guide.
4) If We Don’t Have It, We’ll Do Our Best To Get It For You.
While we attempt to make our collection as robust as possible, we don’t have access to everything. In the event that we don’t have access to a resource that you need, you can place a request through our Interlibrary Loan/Documents2Go service. Through this service, we are able to work with a nationwide network of libraries to obtain a copy of a needed resource on your behalf. Articles are normally delivered within 24-72 hours. Interested in learning more about this service? Check our in-depth Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery guide.
5) The Health Sciences Research Commons Can Expand the Reach of Your Research!
Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC) is Himmelfarb’s institutional repository, and is a perfect place for you to share your research output during your time at GW. All faculty, researchers, students (with the sponsorship of a faculty member), and staff affiliated with SMHS, SON, GWSPH at GW are eligible to submit their scholarly works to HSRC. By placing your work in HSRC, your work will be easily shareable and discoverable via Google Scholar and other search engines. If you have questions about the HSRC, take a look at the FAQ page or contact Sara Hoover (shoover@gwu.edu), Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian, for more information.
This top five list is just a glimpse into all that Himmelfarb has to offer! In addition to the resources mentioned above, we have numerous research guides on a wide variety of topics. Tutorials are also available on a variety of topics. Himmelfarb welcomes you to the GW community!
In Wednesday’s blog post we shared Himmelfarb Library’s electronic clinical case study resources to incorporate in your online instruction. Today we’d like to share some of the electronic question banks Himmelfarb provides access to. While Himmelfarb provides access, in order to unlock all features you must create a personal account. Instructions for doing so are provided.
Exam Master Medical Subject Review provides over 9,000 questions and explanations to prepare for the USMLE Steps 1, 2, and 3. Exam Master tries to emulate the board exams, helping students build confidence by identifying strengths and improving on weaknesses. In order to use Himmelfarb’s Exam Master, you must make a free Exam Master account, then access Exam Master while on campus or when logged in to the VPN.
USMLEasy offers questions and answers to prepare for Steps 1, 2 CK, and 3. Their customization feature allows you to select topic coverage and the number of questions. You’re also able to annotate exam questions and answers. In order to access USMLEasy, access the webpage through the provided link and create a personal profile.
BoardVitals provides test banks for NBME Shelf Exams in seven different medical subjects. Features include timed test conditions, study tips, and individualized study recommendations based on practice test performance. In order to register, connect via the VPN and create an account at the link provided. After you’ve logged in once while connected to the VPN, you’ll be able to access your account from anywhere.
PA Exam Prep offers practice questions for PANCE and PANRE, as well as customizable features like topic coverage, number of questions, and annotation. In order to unlock these customizations, create a free account at the provided link.
After Himmelfarb Library closed its physical space, we made changes to Health Information @ Himmelfarb to make searching for electronic content easier. The default search mode was switched from Articles + Himmelfarb Catalog to Online Access. The online access search limits items retrieved to those available full-text online. This includes article, book chapter, and e-book content, as well as some streaming media.
Searchers can still search physical content by switching the search mode to any of the “catalog” options:
Requesting holds on books and Consortium Loan request options are turned off until Himmelfarb and other Washington Research Library Consortium libraries reopen. Library users can continue to request items that can be sent digitally through our Documents2Go service.
Have you ever wanted to keep filters you applied in a search active throughout a search session, or easily remove all of them? Now you can! A new enhancement allows setting and keeping multiple filters active with “Remember all filters” or removing all with “Reset filters”. These options become available at the top of the left column menu whenever filters are applied.
We are thrilled to let you know the GW Writing Center has reopened in online status starting today, Tuesday, March 24th! Writing Center hours for the rest of the Spring 2020 semester will be:
Sunday 5PM-10PM EST
Monday - Thursday 9AM-9PM EST
Friday 9AM-3PM EST
All appointments for the remainder of the semester will be held via Zoom. The Writing Center has used Zoom for distance appointments with GW's online students for the past two years, so Writing Center consultants are already familiar with it. Additionally, all appointments will be 50 minutes to ensure consultants and clients have enough time to get substantive work done.
You can schedule an appointment, chat with a front desk assistant via WebEx, or review their COVID-19 policies on the Writing Center website.
Students, faculty and staff in GW's SMHS, SON and Milken School of Public Health have full access to the collections and services of the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library online. Many major public health and health sciences textbooks are available online to support coursework, plus databases and research tools are accessible to find information and manage citations and bibliographies while audiovisual and multimedia resources support research and education. The Library regularly offers webinars to teach students how to use these resources.
Himmelfarb librarians are available 64 hours each week, including evenings and weekends, to provide consultations and support via web conference, e-mail, and instant messaging. Himmelfarb librarians are experienced in conducting systematic reviews and supporting culminating experiences. Students, faculty and staff also have full access to the electronic collections of the University Library.
Due to the current upgrade of the George Washington University VPN system, users will be required to update their version of Cisco Anyconnect software to Version 4.5. If you are installing and logging into your GW VPN for the first time the software update will happen automatically after connecting.
Users currently running Cisco Anyconnect version 3.1 may have difficulty upgrading their software version and will need to uninstall the current version of Cisco Anyconnect, and download the current available version located at https://it.gwu.edu/virtual-private-network-vpn.
If you need assistance uninstalling the legacy version of Cisco Anyconnect VPN software or updating to the newest version, please contact the GW IT Support Center at 202-994-4948 or via email at ithelp@gwu.edu for further assistance.
Need help accessing Himmelfarb Library's online collections? Please consult our step-by-step off-campus access instructions!
GW has recently made changes to the sign-on process used by many users to access Himmelfarb Library's online resources. The updated sign-on now includes uApprove, which asks users to accept terms of use and consent to have information provided to services accessed using the single sign-on application. Users should accept the terms of use and consent in order to access Himmelfarb's databases, e-books, and e-journals.
Due to networking connectivity problems, the Himmelfarb Library website is experiencing intermittent short-term outages. The Division of Information Technology is working to restore all connectivity as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience. You may be able to access most of our resources through this link: http://libguides.gwu.edu/medicinedatabases
