Report on Carcinogens: Industry pressure postponed release

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released the 12th Report on Carcinogens, a science-based document that identifies chemicals and biological agents that may put people at increased risk for cancer.

The industrial chemical formaldehyde and a botanical known as aristolochic acids are listed as known human carcinogens. Six other substances – captafol, cobalt-tungsten carbide (in powder or hard metal form), certain inhalable glass wool fibers, o-nitrotoluene, riddelliine, and styrene – are added as substances that are reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens. With these additions, the 12th Report on Carcinogens now includes 240 listings. It is available at http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/go/roc12, as well as the Public Health Library’s Cancer Resources web page.

The listing of formaldehyde and styrene, two widely used chemicals, was fought by the chemical industry. Release of the report was held up, but the report was finally released a few weeks ago.

View the press release from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. View a blog post from the Natural Resources Defense Council describing the controversy.


This Ain’t No Room for the Summertime Blues: New Books in Graduate Services in June

It’s summertime, and although not many new books came in this June, that doesn’t mean the summertime blues are hanging around here. No sir, that is not the case here in Graduate Services because the ten books we did get this June are ten great summertime reads. For example, the Fourth of July is coming up and you’ll probably be saying the Pledge of Allegiance quite a bit, so why not come here a few days before and read Giorgio Agamben’s latest book, The Sacraement of Language, which is an archaeology of the oath. Don’t pledge blindly this Fourth of July holiday, pledge knowingly. Now, anyone one who knows anything knows nothing says summer fun like a manifesto, which is why kicking back in Graduate Services next to a window reading Alain Badiou’s Second Manifesto for Philosophy is the perfect way to spend a summer afternoon. The heat from the warm sun and the energy from so much proclaming just warms up those butterflys in your stomach. But don’t worry, it doesn’t get hot enough for them to curdle. And finally, if you are longing for those long discourses with faculty members you’re used to engaging in from August to May, well, we have a few books here from Lyn Hejinian and Ishmal Reed to get you engaged. A book of poetry, a book of essays about poetry, and a novel from these two should make you feel like the spring semester never ended and the summer one never began. Enjoy.

 

agamben

The Sacrament of Language: An Archaeology of the Oath (Homo Sacer II, 3) by Giorgio Agamben

bynum

Christian Materiality: An Essay on Religion in Late Medieval Europe by Caroline Walker Bynum

badiou

Second Manifesto For Philosophy by Alain Badiou

hejinian

Sunflower by Jack Collom and Lyn Hejinian

snyder

The Etiquette of Freedom: Gary Snyder, Jim Harrison, and The Practice of the Wild edited by Paul Ebenkamp

hejinian

The Cold of Poetry by Lyn Hejinian

reed

Juice! by Ishmael Reed

robinson

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

sandywell

Dictionary of Visual DIscourse: A Dialectical Lexicon of Terms By Barry Sandywell

heidegger's philosophy

Historical Dictionary of Heidegger’s Philosophy 2nd Edition edited by Frank Schalow and Alfred Denker


I Am Glad Everything You Need Is Bullfighting: New Books in Graduate Services for May

It’s the month of May. The month that celebrates that wonderful auxiliary verb we all love. It expresses possibility as well as the ability and capacity to do something. And with that in mind, may  I introduce you to A.L. Kennedy. She is a writer, a comedian, and now she is a part of the Modern Authors Collection in Graduate Services. Three of her books are here now (So I Am Glad, Everything You Need, On Bullfighting) with more on the way in the coming months. After learning about being glad everything you need is bullfighting, may I suggest some other new titles for you to look into? The new one from UC Berkeley Emeritus professor Maxine Hong Kingston is ready to be read. A collection of Antonio Negri’s plays is here for your mind to perform. And if you really want to do some mental aerobics, there’s Hegel and Maurice Merleau-Ponty here to be your trainers. Add a little Ford Maddox Ford, Hanif Kureishi, Peter Matthiessen, and W.B. Yeats to the equation, and it looks like May may have the capicty to equal good days spent reading new books in Graduate Services. So gear up for getting down here to Graduate Services. You may like what you find.

 

ford

Parade’s End Volume One: Some Do Not…by Ford Madox Ford edited by Max Saunders

hegel

Encyclopedia of the Phiosophical Sciences in Basic Outline, Part I: Science of Logic by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

kennedy

Everything You Need by A.L. Kennedy

kennedy

On Bullfighting by A.L. Kennedy

kennedy'

So I Am Glad by A.L. Kennedy

kingstone

I Love A Broad Margin To My Life by Maxine Hong Kingstone

kureishi

Gabriel’s Gift by Hanif Kureishi

kureishi

Love in a Blue Time by Hanif Kureishi

little

…isms: Understanding Art by Stephen Little

matthiessen

Are We There Yet?: A Zen Journey Through Space and TIme by Peter Matthiessen and Peter Cunningham

matthiessen

Sal Si Puedes (Escape If You Can): Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution by Peter Matthiessen

merleau-ponty

Institution and Passivity: Course Notes From The College de France (1954-1955) by Maurice Merleau-Ponty

negri

Trilogy of Resistance by Antonio Negri

yeats

At the Hawk’s Well and The Cat and the Moon: Manuscript Materials (The Cornell Yeats) by W.B. Yeats edited by Andrew Parkin


July 13th Richmond Instruction Session: PubMed Basics Hands on

———————————————-
RSVP by Monday, July 11th to Judy Bolstad at
jbolstad@library.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-2510.
———————————————-

* Do you need to find health/medical journal literature?

* Are you having trouble accessing full text articles from your desktop?

* Do you get too many or too few search results when searching PubMed?

* Are you already using PubMed and have some burning questions?

* Are you interested in a hands-on session so you can learn and practice using PubMed?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then please come to the Sheldon Margen Public Health Library’s PubMed Basics Hands on class!

Topics covered will include:
1. Introduction to PubMed
2. Retrieving Full Text Articles Using the CDPH PubMed URL
3. Effective Keyword Searching Using Boolean Logic
4. Finding and Using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
5. Other PubMed Features

Class: PubMed Basics Hands-On
When: Wednesday, July 13, 2011, 10:30-12 pm
Where: CDPH Richmond Campus, Building P, Room 1246 (Computer Training Room)

Audience:
This class is intended for CDPH staff new to PubMed or those who may have some basic understanding of PubMed but don’t know how to use its features.

Supervisors: Please encourage your staff to attend if appropriate.

If you wish to attend, please RSVP by Monday July 11th to Judy Bolstad at jbolstad@library.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-2510.

Please note: This class is limited to 16 participants. A waiting list will be created, if necessary, for an additional class.

NON-BUILDING P OCCUPANTS: Please make sure to register so your name will be on the class participant list given to the Building P Security Desk for entry into Building P.

These hands on training sessions are free to CDPH employees. Please obtain your supervisor’s approval to attend.


July 27th Sacramento Instruction Session: PubMed Advanced Hands on

———————————————-
RSVP by Monday, July 25th to Judy Bolstad at
jbolstad@library.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-2510.
———————————————-

* Want to learn more about finding and using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)?

* Want to know how to effectively use MeSH subheadings?

* Want to learn how to use “evidence-based medicine” filters?

* Want to learn about using PubMed’s Topic-Specific Queries, such as Comparative Effectiveness, Healthy People 2010, Health Disparities, Toxicology, and more?

* Need to know if a specific journal is indexed in PubMed?

* Interested in other advanced features of PubMed?

If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions, then please come to the Sheldon Margen Public Health Library’s PubMed Advanced Hands-On class!

Topics covered will include:

1. More about MeSH
2. Using MeSH Subheadings effectively
3. Clinical Queries
4. Topic-Specific Queries
5. Journals in NCBI Databases
6. Using LibX for CDPH

Class: PubMed Advanced Hands-On
When: Wednesday, July 27, 2011, 10:30-12 pm
Where: CDPH Sacramento Campus, 1500 Capitol Ave, Enterprise Computer Training Room 72.169

Audience:
This class is intended for CDPH staff who are already using PubMed and wish to learn some advanced features. It is recommended that you have already taken the PubMed Basics class or already have a basic understanding of and ability to search PubMed. This class will not cover what was covered in the PubMed Basics class.

Supervisors: Please encourage your staff to attend, if appropriate.

If you wish to attend, please RSVP by Monday, July 25th to Judy Bolstad at jbolstad@library.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-2510.

Please note: This class is limited to 12 participants.  A waiting list will be created, if necessary, for an additional class.

These hands-on training sessions are free to CDPH employees. Please obtain your supervisor’s approval to attend.


Ovid E-Books Now available

Starting July 1, 2011, some electronic books from Ovid will be  available for CDPH use. These E-Books were selected based on usage during our Ovid E-Books trial late last year and on comments from CDPH staff.

The electronic books available are:

  • Essentials of Epidemiology in Public Health (2nd edition, 2008)
  • Evidence-Based Public Health (2nd edition, 2010)
  • Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice (9th edition, 2009)
  • Lippincott’s Nursing Procedures (5th edition, 2008)
  • Manual of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests (8th edition, 2008)

Links to these e-books will soon appear on the Public Health Library’s CDPH Electronic Books web page and in the web portal. In the web portal, log in and click the “Electronic Books” link on the right side.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Debbie Jan at (510) 642-2510 or Debbie.Jan@cdph.ca.gov.


Ovid E-Journal Changes

Also starting July 1st, two new electronic journal titles will become available for CDPH desktop use:

  • Clinical Infectious Diseases
  • Journal of Infectious Diseases

These are both highly used journals, and we are happy to be able to offer them for your use.

Based on comments from CDPH staff, one discontinued electronic journal title will have access restored:

  • Journal of Pediatrics

Unfortunately, due to cost increases and low use, several Ovid e-journals will be discontinued:

  • AIDS Patient Care & STDs
  • American Journal of the Medical Sciences
  • BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics &
  • Gynaecology
  • Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology
  • Diabetes Care
  • JOGNN – Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing
  • Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
  • Journal of the National Cancer Institute
  • Mayo Clinic Proceedings
  • MCN, American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing
  • Nursing Research
  • Occupational Medicine

During the past 3 years, each of these journal titles averaged less than 24 downloaded, full-text articles annually. These changes will soon be reflected on the Public Health Library’s CDPH or web portal’s Full Text Electronic Journals web page.

See:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/cdph/dhsjournals.html
http://publ.lib.berkeley.edu

However, please note that this does NOT mean that articles from these journals are unavailable to you; it just means that you will not have desktop access to them. You can still request them from your web portal or the Public Health Library document delivery form.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Debbie Jan at (510) 642-2510 or Debbie.Jan@cdph.ca.gov.


Decade’s Top 10 Public Health Achievements

In a recent press release, the CDC says that the U.S. is making strides in the fight against AIDS and other diseases, as well as in areas such as infectious disease prevention, tobacco control, maternal and child health, traffic deaths and injuries, heart disease, cancer prevention, lead poisoning prevention, and public health preparedness. Check out the story at:

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/p0519_publichealthachievements.html


National Academies Press Books

As of June 2, 2011, all PDF versions of books published by the National Academies Press (NAP) are downloadable free of charge to anyone. This includes the current catalog of more than 4,000 books plus future reports published by NAP. Free access to online content supports the mission of NAP to improve government decision-making and public policy, increase public education and understanding, and promote the acquisition and dissemination of
knowledge in matters involving science, engineering, technology, and health. Like no other organization, the National Academies can enlist the nation’s foremost scientists, engineers, health professionals, and other experts to address the scientific and technical aspects of society’s most pressing problems through the authoritative and independent reports published by NAP.