Fee based health info may be free online through your library’s Web site

The Internet has a wealth of health information from trusted, reliable sites.
(I’ve noted quite a few in this blog and at my Google site – Health and Medical News and Resources)

However, it is not always easy to locate health information, especially on specific topics.

Your local public or academic library just may have the online sources you need.
Although quite a few online resources require paid subscriptions, your library may have included them at their Web site.
All you have to do is register for borrowing privileges (get a library card) at your local library.
Alternatively, you may be able to just go to the library and get access through their computers.

At my local library, I discovered the following…some or all just might be at your library also…ask a reference librarian or check the library’s Web site

• Alt Health Watch 
  Offers information about Alternative Health issues, including complementary, holistic and integrated approaches to health care and wellness. Provides full text articles form a number of sources, including: journals, reports, consumer newsletters, pamphlets, booklets, special reports, original research and book excerpts. This database is provided by OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network.
• ConsumerReports.org
  Ratings and reviews, recommendations and buying advice for thousands of products and services. Users will also find in-depth advice, tips and trends written by Consumer Reports experts. Frequently updated articles, blogs and video content allow consumers to peruse the latest consumer news — whether they’re looking to learn more about budget-friendly home improvement plans, understanding the benefits and risks of retirement options, or searching for the latest recalls of baby products. This database provided by the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.
• Health & Wellness Resource Center
  Provides up-to-date reference material as well as full-text magazines, journals, and pamphlets from a wide variety of authoritative medical sources. Includes streaming videos featuring medical experts plus links to key health websites.
• Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
  Provides scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines and featuring the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, which covers 1,300 generic drug patient education sheets with more than 4,700 brand names. This database is provided by OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network.
• MEDLINE
  Offers medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system and pre-clinical sciences among many subjects. This database is provided by OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network.
• Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection
  Covers many psychological topics, including emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry and psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods. This database is provided by OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network.

Related Resources

• How to obtain free/low cost medical and scientific articles(jflahiff.wordpress.com)
  • Some publishers which provide free or low cost articles (via PatientInform)
    • Elsevier Patient Research provides single copies of articles for $4.95. Elsevier publishes over 2,000 journals.
    • AACR’s (American Association for Cancer Research) policy for free patient access to medical articles—“If You Need It, You Can Read It”—can be found under Information for Readers/Subscribers.
    • The Endocrine Society For Patients page provides information on how to obtain free articles from its six endocrine research journals.
• “Summaries for Patients” and other plain language summaries help patients and others understand medical studies and guidelines (jflahiff.wordpress.com)

Related articles

• Search the Office of Minority Health’s Library Catalog Online | Health Information Literacy – for health and well being (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• A Consumer Health Toolkit for Library Staff and the Rest of Us(jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Cochrane Reviews – A Great Source for Sound Medical Evidence(jflahiff.wordpress.com)

• Free Databases from the US Government (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Health Information from the US National Library of Medicine (NLM)

Locating Health and Medical Information – An Updated Library of Congress Guide

This Science Reference Guide includes information in the following areas

• Safe Searching
• Information about Doctors
• Medical & Health Information
• Dictionaries, Abbreviations, Syndromes, Eponyms
• Medical Tests & Examinations, Dealing with Doctors
• Information on Drugs
• Complementary & Alternative Medicine, Wellness, Nutrition
• Hospitals, HMOs, Nursing homes
• Magazines, Newsletters
• Selected Web Sites
• Resources For Online Books, Journals & Articles

ebrary Offers Free Breast Cancer Searchable Information Center

From an ebrary news announcement (via a Resource Shelf item)

September 29, 2010 12:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, ebrary®, a leading provider of digital content products and technologies, today announced it has collaborated with librarians from other organizations to create an open access database of breast cancer publications. The site is available today at http://site.ebrary.com/lib/breastcancer.

“Breast cancer strikes over 1.3 million women around the globe each year and is the leading cause of cancer death in women, according to the American Cancer Society”

ebrary’s Breast Cancer Searchable Information Center features a range of authoritative fact sheets, posters, and other materials from government agencies such as the National Cancer Institute, National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, United States Food and Drug Administration, Office of Women’s Health, and other authoritative sources.

“Breast cancer strikes over 1.3 million women around the globe each year and is the leading cause of cancer death in women, according to the American Cancer Society,” said Christopher Warnock, CEO of ebrary. “We hope that by using our technology to make some of the most important information contained within government documents more discoverable, and by making DASH! available to others who wish to contribute relevant materials, we can provide a helpful resource for anyone who needs information on this prevalent disease.”

ebrary’s Breast Cancer Searchable Information Center is just one of a growing number of open access collections created by ebrary staff and customers. For a listing of additional databases visit http://www.ebrary.com/corp/accessCollections.jsp.

All ebrary products and services include powerful tools for making the research process quick and efficient including:

• Available anytime through any web enabled device including the iPad — no cumbersome downloads.
• Multiple options for searching, navigating, and browsing.
• ebrary InfoTools™, which turns every word into a portal to additional information on the web.
• Notes and highlights that are automatically stored on a personal bookshelf.
• Ability to copy/paste and print text with automatic citations and URL hyperlinks back to the source.
• Personal bookshelves with moveable folders that can be shared with others.
• Much more!