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For more information, contact the Librarian for Nursing. To find this webpage, click on the "Science & Technology Library" link (left side of Libraries Home Page) and find the subject, "Nursing." Click on "Christen Cardina," Librarian for Nursing.

Many of the online resources listed on this page are for UAkron students, faculty, and staff only.
For detailed information on connecting from off-campus, see: Connecting to Online Resources.

University Libraries Home Page

Libraries Home Page:

• Article Indexes and Databases
• Resources by Subject
• Renew Your Library Materials and View Your Library Record
• Ask A Librarian
• Connect to Online Resources from Home

Background Information

Background Information provides an overview of your topic.

A Subject Encyclopedia is a good place to begin. It focuses on a particular discipline. The follwoing are some examples of nursing encyclopedias that we have in the Science and Technology Library Reference Collection:

• The Gale encyclopedia of medicine 5 volumes / Science Reference RC41 .G35 1999
• The Gale encyclopedia of alternative medicine 4 volumes Science Reference R733 .G34 2001
• The Gale encyclopedia of nursing & allied health Science Reference RT21 .G353 2002 5 volumes
• Encyclopedia of nursing research Science Reference RT81.5 .E53 1998

Catalogs

A Library Catalog contains a list of materials owned by the library including:

• Books
• Periodicals (called "periodicals" since they are published over a period of time. Examples: newspapers, magazines, professional journals). Periodicals may be in bound form on the shelves (they look like books), unbound in the "Current Periodicals Room" (across from the circulation desk), or in electronic form (link to it online).
• Government Documents
• Electronic Resources

A library catalog does NOT LIST ARTICLES found in periodicals (journals or magazines). You must find the title of the periodical, and check to see if we have a subscription to the journal at the time the article was published.

• Univeristy of Akron's (UA)Libraries Catalog (ZipLINK). This is the first catalog to search when looking for materials.
• OhioLINK Central Catalog: a statewide library and information network which allows sharing of library resources among dozens of Ohio colleges and universities. This is the second catalog to search when the University of Akron's (UA) Libraries Catalog does not have what you need. You can request available materials online through OhioLINK and pick them up in about 3 to 5 working days.

• Search UA Libraries Catalog by Title, Author, Author/Title, Subject, Keyword (Word), and others such as call number.
  
  • Subject Searching: finds materials about a particular topic. They are usually based on subject headings that are standard terms assigned by indexers, librarians, or authors.
  • Keyword Searching: allows you to search anywhere in the catalog's list of records for the words you enter. It will search titles, authors, subject headings, and more.
  
  

• BOOLEAN SEARCHING
  • "And" narrows your search results since all terms must describe the results: obesity and heart disease
  • "Or" broadens your search since either term may describe the results: obesity or heart disease

  To understand the difference between Keyword (WORD) and Subject searching enter:

  • Human Anatomy as a WORD search

  See the

  • Title List
  • Number of Records Found (305)
  • Links from Title to Full Record
  • Subjects in Full Record
  
  
  • Human Anatomy as a SUBJECT search

  See the

  • Title List (25 Subjects related to "Human Anatomy")
  • Number of Records Found by clicking on "Human Anatomy:151. (This is about half of the records found in the WORD search. It finds only records whose Subject Heading is "Human Anatomy")
  
  

  OhioLINK may be searched the same way.
  

• Interlibrary Loan (named ILLiad): Use when neither ZipLINK or OhioLINK have the materials you need. Use online order form. You will always use interlibrary loan to get journal articles not available at the Unviersity of Akron. Length of time to obtain materials varies depending on availablity of material and the institution providing it.

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Online Databases

• CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health) Database.
  
  - Covers virtually every nursing journal published.
  - Search for references by entering the topic in the Keyword or Phrase field - Make sure the Check keywords in thesaurus box is checked. The thesaurus is a list of "controlled" vocabulary." These are terms (subject headings) which describe individual concepts, and show relationships between those terms. They are the words that the database recognizes for certain concepts. For example, CINAHL does not recognize the word "cancer." It uses "neoplasm" for that term. Remember this if you get no results from the search terms you are using!

  
  Example: Find a recent article about nursing as a career choice:
  
  - Enter Career into the keyword box (make sure thesaurus is checked)
  
  - Click on search
  
  - See thesaurus entries for career
  
  - "Careers in Nursing" looks promising
  
  - Click on that
  
  - See "Subheadings"
  
  - Click Continue to search without limiting to a subheading
  
  - View Title List
  
  - Limit Language to English; Year from 1999 to present; Journal Subset to "Core Nursing Journals"
  
  - Choose, "Academic education. New graduates: a precious critical care resource"
  
  - Click on full record by clicking on the highlighted article title
  
  - Click Find a Copy on the right navigation bar to see if we have a subscription to this journal.
  
  - A new window pops up, giving you the option to check our library catalog holdings.
  
  - It shows that we have access to an online copy of the article indicated by "View full text of this article at EBSCO"
  
  - Look at another article.
  
  - Choose "Careers. Nursing has its own rewards"
  
  - Click on full record by clicking on the highlighted article title.
  
  - Click Find a Copy on the right navigation bar to see if we have a subscription to this journal.
  
  - A new window pops up, giving you the option to check our library catalog holdings.
  
  - It shows that we have a subscription to the journal at the Science Library for the year of this article's publication: 2002. So we can find the article in the bound journal section of the library.

• Health Source: Nursing Academic Edition emphasis on nursing and allied health. Access to many full text journals as well as indexing and abstracts for over 600 journals

  
  Example: Find a recent example about nursing as a career choice:
  
  - Click "Choose Databases" tab at the top of the page
  
  - Check boxes next to the databases you wish to use (click no others)
  
  - Click continue at the bottom of the page
  
  - Enter search term "careers in nursing"in box
  
  - Limit to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals by checking the box
  
  - Limit to articles published since 1999
  
  - Click search
  
  - Results: Only six articles
  
  - Need to BROADEN the search
  
  - Click Tab "Refine Search"
  
  - Try "Role of Nurse" in search box
  
  - Lots of articles - Too Many?
  
  - Click Tab "Refine Search"
  
  - Limit to articles from 2000: fewer
  
  - Click Tab "Refine Search" again
  
  - Limit to type of nursing: pediatric
  
  - Enter "role of pediatric nurse"in search box
  
  - Click title for article, "Stress in Children: Can Nurses Help"
  
  - View full text
  
  - See BIBLIOGRAPHY at the end of the article
  
  - This will help you find MORE articles.
  
  - Print article (HTML: text only); (PDF: graphics included)
  

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Online Journal Resources

• EJC (Electronic Journal Center): Provides full text articles online

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Style Guides

• APA Resources and Help including a Color Coded Guide
  • Includes: APA Style Color Coded Guide

• APA Style Resources Updated, 5th Edition.
  • Includes: APA Style - U of Southern Mississippi

• APA Style Electronic References

The author would like to acknowledge the help and information provided to develop this resource from the following: Aimée deChambeau, Jo Ann Calzonetti, Christopher Laursen, and the creators of The Five Colleges of Ohio Information Literacy Tutorial.