Reference / Bridge / Databases / Newspapers
Online Resources / Citation Styles / Interlibrary Loan

Reference Collection

   The reference collection provides background information on your topic and other topics that relate to it. Use these books to place your topic into broader contexts (historical, literary, and social- to name a few) and remember to consult the bibliographies for further reading!

The Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders and Birth Defects [RR RB155.5 .W96 2000]
Almost out of date by medical standards, but a handy and well organized reference for information on specific disorders.

Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine 5 vol. [RR RC41 G35 1999]
Very informative entries covering the broad spectrum of medical disorders, conditions, tests, and treatments. A brief bibliography accompanies each entry. This encyclopedia is an excellent starting point.

Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders 2 vol. [RR RC334 .G34 2005]
A good source for information on "diseases, syndromes, drugs, treatments, therapies, and diagnostic equipment" that avoids the overindulgence of medical jargon.

You can search the catalog by clicking on the icon above. While you may want to start searching BRIDGE by keyword, eventually you might want to search using Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Here's a convenient way to find relevant Subject Headings: Begin with an initial search using keywords and click on a title that seems appropriate to your research. On the information screen for that title, you will find a list of subjects located below the location and call number information. These subjects are hyperlinks and clicking on them will take you to a list of other books that are organized under that general subject.

Here are some subjects that might help you get started:

Genetics
Genetic Disorders
Human Genetics

Also, Genetics might show up as a subheading of another subject- particularly in reference to individual organs or diseases- so watch out for subjects like:

Cancer -- Genetic Aspects
Diseases -- Genetic Aspects
Heart -- diseases -- Genetic Aspects

Note: subject headings often have many other subheadings, so be sure to browse the list to see what looks best for your topic. For example:

Human Genetics -- Moral And Ethical Aspects
Medical Genetics -- Law And Legislation -- United States

To locate books, journals and magazines not available at St. Olaf or Carleton, try searching WorldCat. WorldCat catalogs items in libraries across the country and around the world. You can request items through Inter-Library loan from here or check to see if something is available in a library nearby.

Databases

Biology and Natural Science

Biological Sciences
An index to literature in biomedicine, biotechnology, zoology, ecology, and some aspects of agriculture and veterinary science. Includes many specialized databases including Genetics Abstracts, Human Genome Abstracts, Immunology Abstracts, and Nucleic Acids Abstracts.

Medline
An index to 3,500 journals in all aspects of medicine: clinical, dentistry, administration, nursing, nutrition, pathology, psychiatry, toxicology, and veterinary medicine. Covers 1997-present.

Science Direct
Full-text articles from over 1800 journals in the fields of health and life sciences, physical sciences, and social and behavioral sciences. Coverage is from 1995 to present.

Web of Knowledge
Provides access to Web of Science (which includes: Science Citation Index Expanded; Social Sciences Citation Index; and Arts & Humanities Citation Index) and MEDLINE.

Other Subjects

  Psychology

PsycINFO
Compiled by the American Psychological Association (APA). It indexes articles from over 1,800 professional journals in psychology and related disciplines. Contains over 2,000,000 citations. The vast majority of these records refer to items published between 1980 and the present.

  Nursing

Cinahl
An index to nursing and allied health journals covering 1982 - present. An excellent resources for exploring symptoms and treatment of diseases.

  Sociology

Sociological Abstracts
An index to 2600 sociology journals plus book abstracts and review citations. Covers 1963-present.
     Print index also available in the Basement level Reference Storage collection from 1953 - 1994.      [RR HM1 .S6]

General / Interdisciplinary

Academic Search Premier
A multidisciplinary database with access to over 8040 scholarly and popular publications, many in full-text. Covers 1975 to present.

CQ Researcher
Provides in-depth coverage of health issues, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. Includes overviews, pros and cons, and lengthy lists of other sources.

Expanded Academic ASAP
Another multidisciplinary database that includes scholarly journals, news magazines and newspapers with many articles in full text.

---

Newspapers

ProQuest Newsstand Complete
Collects newspaper articles from over 750 publications (including the New York Times and Wall St. Journal). Coverage of some titles goes back to 1977.

LexisNexis Academic
Provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information. Excellent source for full-text articles in national and international newspapers.

Google News
Searches current newspapers and news magazines. Search the Google News Archive for results dating back 200+ years. Includes both free and pay-per-article content. For articles that aren't freely available, look for them in the library's other newspaper databases or request a copy from interlibrary loan.

---

Online Resources

Genethics.ca
A fascinating blog about ethical issues created by a Professor in the Bioethics Programs of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, in the School of Public Health at the Université de Montréal.
     From the web site: "The goal of this site is to serve as a clearing house for information on the
     social, ethical and policy issues associated with genetic and genomic knowledge and technology."

Genetics Home Reference
A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, this web site provides consumer-friendly information about the effects of genetic variations on human health.

Genomics.energy.gov
From the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy. This organization was the founder of the Human Genome Project. A good source for research updates, news, and ethical issues.

Citation Guides

Consult the Citation Guides and Style Manuals page on the library web site for examples of how to cite various types of resources (articles, books, web sites, etc.) in a number of different style formats, including MLA

---

Interlibrary Loan

Any item not owned by St. Olaf or Carleton may be ordered through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) provided you allow enough time. Articles requested through ILL typically take from 2-7 days to arrive, while books can take quite a bit longer. Allow for 2 weeks of delivery time when requesting books. If you are using our ILL software, ILLiad, for the first time, you will need to register on the login page before you can request materials. Contact the ILL office at ill@stolaf.edu if you have any questions.