A Virtual Health Reference Library

Need to locate authoritative information on a health topic? The Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) continues to grow with new updates of their popular health encyclopedias. Whether on campus or somewhere else with Internet access, you can now investigate maladies in the latest editions of The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine and many other titles.








These same titles are also included as part of Gale's Health and Wellness Resource Center and can be searched along with full text articles, dictionaries, and other encyclopedic information about health.


Salem Health, another reference publisher, also produces several multi-volume health encyclopedias including Magill's Medical Guide, Salem Health: Psychology and Mental Health, Salem Health: Genetics, and Salem Health: Cancer. UCC Library has the print volumes along with an online database of the same encyclopedias. The database includes information about diseases, disorders, genetics, treatments, procedures, specialties, anatomy, biology, and related issues, with sidebars addressing recent developments in medicine and concise information boxes for all diseases and disorders.

What Journals Do We Subscribe To??

You may have noticed our diminishing display shelves for new issues of magazines? Paper magazines/journals are seeing less use every year for research (and recreation). Some have gone out of business; others are neglected. Then we cancel the subscription. However, our magazine collection is bigger than ever. Aggregators, companies such as EBSCO and Gale, have thousands of full text titles in their databases and the UCC library has dozens of these databases. Our biggest database of magazine/journal articles is EBSCOHost Academic Search Premier but Gale, CQ Researcher, and LexisNexis also provide access to tens of thousands of articles. Meanwhile, both EBSCO and Gale produce many subject databases, some with unique journal titles.

What if you are looking for a specific journal? How are you supposed to know which database includes that title? Well, EBSCO has a database for that:

It's name is A-to-Z Index and it looks just about as plain as its name:



But it does get the job done: type in the name of a journal and the results of your search will give you a list of those databases where your journal is available in full text.

In "advanced search" you can search general subjects like children or crime or music to see a list of journals on that topic and which database provides the full text.

Obviously, it should be said that if one of our database subscriptions does NOT have the full text of the journal you are looking for, then there will be no results for your search. (Check for typos or ask the library staff for help at any time!)

Global Road Warrior? Credo?

What stereotypes of Venezuelans are accepted by foreigners? What is the literacy rate in Ireland? What is the main religion in Iceland? The UCC Library recently picked up a new subscription to "Global Road Warrior", a new database, that answers these questions and provides easy-to-find information about countries and cultures around the world.

Choose a continent:


Click on a country:


From the country profile, you can choose a subject on the left, print screens, and grab the citation by clicking on "Cite this document".

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The library is also subscribing--on a trial basis--to Credo, a database of 348 reference books. This is a great place to start researching any topic to learn more about it. All 348 books are available completely online and can be searched simultaneously. Or you can search books by subject. If you find a book you like, you can browse it by its table of contents, look through the images in the book or search through it by keyword.

To give you an idea of the variety of ways you can approach the books in Credo, here's an index of some of the pictures found in "The Encyclopedia of Folk Art":


When you zero in on a topic in Credo, note the list on the left side of the screen. You'll find a list of related entries elsewhere in Credo, as well as a list of related resources. The related resources provide a list of other library databases, including the library catalog. Click on a resource to carry on your search outside of Credo. Kinda cool.

New Library Proxy Server: Fewer Passwords!

Great news! The UCC Information Technology Dept. has helped the Library set up a proxy server for easy off-campus access to our collection of online subscription resources. Unshackle your research from the neon-pink Library database Username/Password list-- here's how:

1. Sign on to UCC Life.
   (Don't have a UCC Life account? If you're a UCC student, contact the Help Desk at: 440-7808)
   
2. Go to the Library tab.
3. Click on the name of the database you want to access.

It's that easy! Even better, LexisNexis Academic, C.Q. Researcher, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Encyclopedia Britannica Online are now available off-campus!

What is a "proxy server"?
It is a computer that acts as a go-between each time someone tries to contact certain sites (like our Library databases), so you don't have to login to each site individually.
A more detailed definition, from intel.com:

A proxy server is used in larger companies and organizations to improve network operations and security. It can be used to prevent direct communication between two or more networks. The proxy server forwards allowable data requests to remote servers and/or responds to data requests directly from stored remote server data.

I'm on the Library website and I still can't get into the database. Why?
You need to login to UCC Life first, and go to the database from the Library tab.
On the website, the database cannot tell if you are affiliated with UCC, but once you're signed in to UCC Life, the proxy will handle all authentication and let you "in" to the database automatically.

I click on the database name in UCC Life and wait...and wait. What's wrong?
The first time you use the proxy server in a browsing session, there may be a delay while the computers confer with each other. Just be patient; once the proxy finishes its work, every database you sign into after that should load more quickly (as long as you use the same browser window).

Can I use the usernames/passwords on my handout instead of UCC Life?
Yes. The usernames/passwords for the databases will still work from the Library website. Please note that LexisNexis, C.Q. Researcher, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Encyclopedia Britannica DO NOT allow password access; to get to these resources off-campus you MUST login through UCC Life.

I think this is awesome/awful! Who can I contact?
Your librarians always love to hear what you think about this or any of the services we offer!