Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Looking for BioMedical Information? A New Free Database May Help




In addition to Rice Library’s excellent subscription databases focused on nursing and health professions and those devoted to science and engineering, users may be interested in trying a new free biomedical search site This site, known as BioMedSearch.com, combines Medline/PubMed data with data from other sources to make it one of the most comprehensive biomedical literature databases available. It includes theses, dissertations, and other publications not found anywhere else.

The database includes simple and advanced search options along with a sophisticated search syntax, which if mastered, should help users to narrow their search strategies to produce more satisfactory results. Additionally, users are allowed to browse by subject clusters (e.g., Clinical Trials, Nursing Care and Education) as well as establish their own accounts, thus giving them access to greater functionality.

Although the database contains some full-text materials, it is not largely full text, and it does not automatically link to Rice Library’s
ILLiad (interlibrary loan) service. Therefore, users will need to check the library’s catalog and Journal Finder to determine availability of items retrieved via BioMedSearch.com. If needed items are not available in Rice Library’s collections, users may request them by copying and pasting the bibliographical information into the appropriate ILLiad forms in order to submit an interlibrary loan request.
For help with this or other library resources and services, contact the Rice Library Reference Desk: (812) 464-1907, (800)246-6173,
libref@usi.edu, or in person on the 1st floor.

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