Public Health Library: Redesigned Library Services Website Unveiled

The Sheldon Margen Public Health Library is happy to announce the unveiling of our redesigned library services website for OEHHA! The new site has a neater, up-to-date design. You’ll also notice that all the pages now have a clean print-friendly version. And the new site is viewable on mobile devices! All URLs remain the same, so your bookmarks/favorites need not be revised. Please note this revision does not affect the web portal site.


PubMed Filters Sidebar Replaces Limits Page

PubMed has moved its Limits feature to the results page to make them more visible and accessible. You may now select limits for your search on the Filters Sidebar on the left of your results page. Default filters that appear on the search results screen include publication date, species, article type, and language. Other useful limits such as sex and age are available by clicking the *Choose additional filters* link at the top or bottom of the list. Remember to click *Clear all* under the Results number or at the bottom of the Filters Sidebar when you are done or your limits will remain in effect for future searches. Several examples of ways to use these are available to help.


Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS)

The CHDS researches the way that health and disease are passed on in families, looking at genes as well as social, personal, and environmental surroundings. Data was collected from 15,000 families who were members of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in Oakland between 1959 and 1967 and who voluntarily enrolled when a woman first thought she was pregnant. Researchers may apply to use the data files. CHDS is a project of the Public Health Institute and is supported with funds from the National Institutes of Health.


Books Online

The number of books available full text online is increasing daily, but how do you find them? A few of the best places to look are listed below. Unfortunately, there is no single source to locate all available free online books.

The National Academies Press publishes reports from the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health. PDFs of nearly all NAP books are freely available.

NCBI Bookshelf is a searchable collection of online healthcare and life science books and other documents. In addition to some classic biology and medical textbooks and monographs, it also includes books and databases produced by the National Library of Medicine and the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Grey Literature Report, from the New York Academy of Medicine Library, is one of the best databases of free online unpublished literature in the health and medical fields. It is updated regularly, and includes reports from government, industry, and non-profit entities.

Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive and funded in part by the California State Library and the Kahle/Austin Foundation. Their stated goal is “one web page for every book ever published,” and they currently host over 1 million full-text books (out of over 20 million book records available on the site). Most of the full-text books are out of copyright books and reports.

WorldCat is a library catalog and portal to the catalogs of over 10,000 libraries of all types worldwide. WorldCat also include records from PubMed, ERIC, and more. WorldCat records often include a link to the online version of books and/or to the Google Books (or other) online version/preview.


World Library of Toxicology, Chemical Safety, and Environmental Health

This free web portal is designed to give the scientific community and the public links to major government agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities, professional societies, and other groups addressing issues related to toxicology, public health, and environmental health. It makes the partnership of national and international organizations more possible by contributing scientific information resources in toxicology and environmental health to users around the world. The overall goal is to improve global public health.

The World Library is compiled by an international group of scientists called Country Correspondents who are responsible for the selection and maintenance of reliable, quality resources for their respective countries. A Review Panel of toxicologists and other professionals oversees the site’s completeness, quality, reliability, and ease of use.

The World Library of Toxicology, Chemical Safety, and Environmental Health was originally developed by Division of Specialized Information Services (SIS) of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is currently being developed and maintained as a partnership between Toxipedia, the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX), and NLM.


Now Here! New Features in the Web Portal

The Public Health Library added some new features to the web portal. Did you check it out?

Now you can search your Document Delivery requests, so you will easily be able to learn if you requested a particular article or book, and when. Other new features include the ability to sort online lists of your requests by title, author, or date requested, to view a list of books checked out to you (with one-click online renewing), and to get a list of your canceled Document Delivery requests.

The log-in page includes a link to an outline of the new features. Take them for a test drive if you haven’t already! Then send us your comments and suggestions for any other web portal features you’d like to see.

Not yet a web portal user? The web portal to contract services provides a custom online interface to request services from the Public Health Library, such as journal articles and literature searches. Online request forms are pre-populated with your personal information (name, email, etc.) You can also view requests you have made in the past, as well as pending requests. The web portal also includes a link to electronic journal passwords, so you can more easily access these resources from anywhere.

To obtain your web portal username and password, please send an email to Sarah at sngo@library.berkeley.edu, or call (510) 642-2510. She will need your name, address, phone and fax numbers, email address, and unit, branch, or program name.


New Books!

The Public Health Library has the following new books available:

1. WHO guidelines for indoor air quality : selected pollutants.
By World Health Organization. Copenhagen : WHO, 2010.
Call number: TD883.17 .W465 2010.

2. Chemical food safety. By Leon Brimer. Nosworthy Way, Wallingford,
Oxfordshire, UK ; Cambridge, MA : CABI, 2011. Call number: RA1258 .B75 2011.

3. Handbook of systems toxicology. By Daniel A Casciano and Saura C Sahu.
Chichester, West Sussex ; Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2011.
Call number: RA1190 .H36 2011.

4. Cigarette smoke toxicity : linking individual chemicals to human diseases.
By David Bernhard. Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2011.
Call number: RA1242.T6 C536 2011.

5. Pesticide biotransformation and disposition. By Ernest Hodgson, editor.
London : Academic Press, 2012. Call number: RA1270.P4 P343 2012.

Please note that these books are only a small selection
of what is newly available. If you are interested in
checking out any book(s), submit a request using our
online form (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/oehha/BookReq.html)
and we will mail the book(s) to you.

If you do not currently possess a UC Berkeley library
card, you will need to apply (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/oehha/libcardappl.html)
for one before we can check out a book to you.


From CDL – Guidelines about Acquisitions, 2012

Earlier this year, CDL made the following announcement:

“CDL will be negotiating with a number of important publishers in 2012 on behalf of UC campuses … CDL requests that campuses consider holding off on local acquisitions until a final agreement is reached.”

For more information, including a list of publishers with whom we are actively negotiating, see Guidelines for Campus Acquisitions, 2012 (password protected).

Selectors should go ahead and place an order (via the e-order form) for resources from any of these publishers; before moving forward, however, licensing or acquisitions staff will ask CDL to consider incorporating that resource of into their consortial discussions.