LIBRARY RESEARCH BASICS
To skip directly to the class handout with specific resources on it, click here.
- If you want to find information about someone (i.e. literary criticism of an author, biographical information), try a Subject search.
- If you are searching for information on topics, try a Keyword search.
- Use the connectors AND, OR, or NOT to join more than one topic/keyword.
Note: In the Library Catalog, two asterisks ** are needed for truncation, whereas in many databases only one asterisk * is needed--but ALWAYS CHECK THE HELP SCREEN IN EVERY DATABASE to learn how to do the best (and fastest) searches!
Finding Articles in the Library Databases |
To search for articles using the library databases, go to the Tisch Library Website
and select Databases and Articles under Searching.
Type in the name of the database in the search box or use the A-Z list to locate it. |
Finding Materials at Other Libraries |
Books
- If you want to search for books on your topic beyond what's available at the Tufts University Libraries use WorldCat. You can access this database on the Databases & Articles page.
- If you want to borrow a book that is not available at Tufts University Libraries, follow these steps:
- Search the Boston Library Consortium Virtual Catalog by clicking on its link along the top menu of the Library Catalog. This catalog contains the book holdings at most of the BLC libraries. Users can directly request books through the catalog and pick up the books at Tisch Library. You can also search the holdings of each individual BLC library.
- If the book is not available through the BLC Virtual Catalog, Submit an online request through the document delivery service - ILLIAD. Users are notified when the material arrives at Tisch. You can sign up for an ILLiad account by clicking on First Time Users at the ILLiad home page.
Articles
- Articles not available in full-text through our libraries' databases and print collections can be requested through ILLiad. You can sign up for an ILLiad account by clicking on First Time Users at the ILLiad home page.
- You can also use ILLiad directly within the databases by clicking on the
button.
- For guidelines on using the Chicago Bibliographical Citation Formats, see this page (or get the PDF here)
- Need more detail on citing with Chicago? come to the Reference Desk and ask to use the Chicago Manual of Style.
- RefWorks can save you time in creating your bibliographies, and will help you organize your citations. Find out more here and sign in here.
REFWORKS SESSIONS IN SPRING 2008 (all will take place in the ERC in Tisch Library):
Friday Feb 1, 12 - 1:30
Monday Feb 4, 4:30 - 6
Monday Feb 11, 12 - 1:30
Go here to register for these or other library sessions. |
Professor Phillips
Spring, 2008
Ancient Medicine and its Transmission Seminar
History of Medicine Research
Library Instruction by
Abigail Cross, Reference Librarian
Tisch Library, January, 2008 |
All materials are located in Tisch Library Reference area, unless otherwise noted.
A 
by an item means it is a recommended source.
Table of contents:
| Encyclopedias and Dictionaries |
Kiple, Kenneth F., ed.Cambridge World History of Human Disease. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
R131.C233 1993
- This resource contains 8 sections: Medicine and Disease: an Overview, Changing Concepts of Health and Disease, Medical Specialties and Disease Prevention, Measuring Health, the History of Human Disease Outside Asia, The History of Human Disease in Asia, the Geography of Human Disease, and Major Human Diseases Past and Present. The entries on specific diseases in this last section include information on topics such as history, geography, distribution, incidence, clinical manifestations, and others.
Kohn, George C., ed. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence. New York: Facts on File, c2001.
RA649 .E53 2001
- The main body of the book is organized alphabetically by geographic location, and includes more than 700 entries on epidemics. Three appendices organize the information by disease, chronologically by region, and chronologically in one worldwide timetable.
Bynum, W. F. and Roy Porter, eds. Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine. London: Routledge, 1993.
R131.C65 1993 vol. 1 and 2
McGrew, Roderick E., ed. Encyclopedia of Medical History. New York: McGraw Hill, 1985.
R133.M34 1985
Sebastian, Anton. A Dictionary of the History of Medicine. New York: Parthenon Pub.Group, c1999.
R121.S398 1999
Aufderheide, Arthur C. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, c1998.
R134.8 .A93 1998
Walton, John et. al., eds. Oxford Companion to Medicine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
R121.O88 1986 vol. 1 and 2
Bynum, W. F., ed. Dictionary of the History of Science. Princeton: Princeton University Press, c.1981.
Q125.D45 (Also in Tisch Bookstacks)
The Merck Index of Chemicals and Drugs. Rahway, N.J.: Merck and Co.
RS51.M4 1996
Morton, Leslie T. A Chronology of Medicine and Related Sciences. Aldershot, England: Scolar Press; c1997.
R133.M717 1997
Hellemans, Alexander. Timetables of science: a chronology of the most important people and events in the history of science. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988.
Q125.H557 1988
Corsi, Pietro and Paul Weindling. Information Sources in the History of Science and Medicine. London: Butterworth, 1983.
Signed 2-3 page articles with extensive bibliographies; example chapter titles are "the history of American science and medicine," "Islamic science and medicine," "science, technology and medicine in the classical tradition," "the historiography of medicine," and others.
R118.2.I5
Balay, Robert et.al., eds. Guide to Reference Books. 11th edition. Chicago: American Library Association, 1996.
Ref Desk Z1035.1.G89 1996
Lane, Nancy D. Techniques for Student Research : A Comprehensive Guide to Using the Library. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, c2000.
Z710 .L36 2000
Chen, Ching-Chih. Health Sciences Information Sources. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1981.
(See section on History )
Z6658.C44
Hurt, Charlie Deuel. Information Sources in Science and Technology. 2nd ed. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1994.
Q158.5.H85 1994
Williams, Renee et. al. Information Searching in Health Care. New York: Slack Inc., 1992.
R118.2.W675 1992 (Tisch Bookstacks)
| Biographical Dictionaries |
Gillespie, Charles Coulston, ed., Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Scribner (1970-1981). 18 vols.
Q141.D5
Kaufman, Martin et. al. Dictionary of American Medical Biography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1984.
2 vols.
R153. D53 1988
Muir, Hazel, ed. Larousse Dictionary of Scientists. New York: Larousse, 1994.
Q141.L368 1994
More general multi-volume encyclopedias are the Dictionary of American Biography (E176.D56) and, for British biography, the Dictionary of National Biography (DA28.D48).
Bibliography of the History of Medicine. No.1-, 1965-. Bethesda, Maryland: U.S. Public Health Service, 1966- Annual, with quinquennial cumulations (each volume supercedes the last). Latest volume is 1990-93.
Z6660.B582
L'Année Philologique: Bibliographie Critique et Analytique de l'Antiquité Greco-Latine. Paris: Societe d'Edition "Les Belles Lettres," 1924/26 - (1995) Indexes scholarly books, book chapters, essays, and articles written during the time period of the volume.
Z7106.A5
Isis Cumulative Bibliography: A Bibliography of the History of Science. 1-90, 1913-65. Magda Whitrow, ed. (London) Mansell, in conjunction with the History of Science Society, 1917-84. 3 vols.
Z7405.H6 I2
"Current Bibliography of the History of Science and its Cultural Influences" in Isis, v.46, June, 1955-- Annual (in every June issue).
Tisch Bound Periodicals Isis (Q1. I7)
International Medieval Bibliography. Leeds, England: University of Leeds, 1967- (1998) - Annual bibliography.
Z6203.I63
Norman, Jeremy M. Morton's Medical Bibliography: An Annotated Check-list of Texts Illustrating the History of Medicine. Aldershot, Hants, England : Scolar Press, 1991.
R131.Z99 M67 1991
Erlen, Jonathon. The History of the Health Care Sciences and Health Care 1700-1980: A Selective Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland, 1984.
R148.E74 1984 (Tisch Bookstacks)
| Online Collections of Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Handbooks |
Oxford Reference Online
Includes hundreds of reference sources from the Oxford University Press. Specific medical titles include:
The Oxford Companion to the Body
A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition
Concise Medical Dictionary
An A-Z of Medicinal Drugs
The Oxford Companion to Medicine
A Dictionary of Nursing
A Dictionary of Psychology
A Dictionary of Public Health
The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine
Credo Reference
A variety of standard reference resources from numerous publishers. Specific medical titles include:
Baillière's Midwives' Dictionary
Black's Medical Dictionary, 41st Edition
Churchill Livingstone's Dictionary of Nursing
Collins Dictionary of Medicine
Dictionary of Medical Acronyms & Abbreviations
Dictionary of Medicine, Peter Collin Publishing
Dictionary of Optometry and Visual Science
Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary
International Dictionary of Homeopathy
Macmillan Dictionary of Toxicology
Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary, Revised Edition
Mosby's Dental Dictionary
Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Mosby's Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, & Health Professionals
Mosby's Emergency Dictionary
Mosby's Handbook of Herbs & Natural Supplements
Natural Medicine Instructions for Patients
Pharmaceutical Medicine Dictionary
Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary
Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary
The American Heritage Medical Dictionary
The Cambridge Historical Dictionary of Disease
The Royal Society of Medicine Health Encyclopedia
The Royal Society of Medicine: Medicines
Webster's New World™ Medical Dictionary
| Online Indexes and Bibliographies |
NLM Gateway
Searches across multiple NLM databases, including PubMed, MedLine, the NLM catalog, and others.
PubMed. National Library of Medicine, 1966-
(Freely available) Includes over 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s.
LOCATORplus
Catalog of books, journals, and audiovisuals in the NLM collections
L'Année Philologique
Online edition of the annual bibliography of classical studies, containing, as of January 2007, entries from 1949-2005. Future updates will add both more recent entries as well as earlier volumes.
- Includes scholarly books, book chapters, essays, and articles in multiple languages
- A couple of useful guides on using AP: Vanderbilt ~ Davidson
MEDLINE (via Ovid, 1966-present)
This database for international literature of biomedicine indexes over 3000 journals. It contains the online counterparts of Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature, and International Nursing Index. Most recently it has incorporated much of what was formerly contained in the specialized database HISTLINE, which the National Library of Medicine is no longer publishing as a separate source, but which from 1965 until recently served as the online counterpart of the Bibliography of the History of Medicine.
(Links to articles in full-text Ovid biomedical collections are provided from within a number of the Ovid databases, including MEDLINE.)
Related Print Resource: Medical Subject Headings. Annotated alphabetic list. (MESH). National Library of Medicine: Mational Technical Information Service. 1998.
Ref Desk Z695.1.M48 U52c
This is a list of terms used in searching Medline.
History of Science Technology and Medicine
This database provides references to journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, and medicine and allied historical fields. It covers 1975 to the present.
Gnomon Bibliographische Datenbank (CD-ROM) : Internationales Informationssystem für die klassische Altertumswissenschaft. München : C.H. Beck
Includes the reviews, personal notes, obituaries, and quarterly bibliographic appendices of the journal Gnomon. Available as a CD that may be signed out from the Reference Desk for use at stand-alone CD-ROM workstation. (Call number: PA3 .G62 – update 13 (04/2007) The disc contains the full bibliographic file as versus the very partial file made available on the Web via the library catalog.
International Medieval Bibliography
An international index to medieval topics (400-1500) in literature, language, history, archaeology, art, music, theater, Arabic and Islamic studies, and religion and philosophy. IMB covers 4,500 journals and over 5,000 miscellany volumes in 30 languages
Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
An index of interdisciplinary journal literature on the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Includes citations for articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts, and discographies.
Historical Abstracts, 1969-
Historical coverage of the world from 1450 to the present, excluding the U.S. and Canada.
America: History and Life, 1964-
Historical coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.
| Other Online Indexes and Bibliographies (General and Tangential) |
Infotrac
A source of information on health and other topics of interest in several periodical databases. Includes the Health Reference Center, Academic, General Reference Center (Magazine Index), and Expanded Academic ASAP, good starting databases for many topics.
Web of Science, Institute for Scientific Information, 1992-
Provides access to the ISI citation databases: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Updated weekly. (These indexes are also available in print in Tisch Indexes and Abstracts. Arts and Humanities Citation Index will be found at (HUM) AI3 .A63.)
BIOSIS Previews (via ISI Web of Knowledge. 1980-present)
Covers original research reports and reviews in traditional biological and biomedical areas. It also covers references to primary journal literature on vital biological research, medical research findings, and discoveries of new organisms.
CINAHL (via Ovid, 1983-present)
A database providing access to more than 900 English-language journals in the areas of nursing and allied health.
PsycINFO (via Ovid, 1986-present) Research literature in psychology and psychiatry.
Earlier years are covered in print Psychological Abstracts. Arlington, Virginia: American Psychological Association, v.1, 1927--
Tisch Indexes and Abstracts (SOC) BF1.P65
Lexis-Nexis
Major full-text resource. Includes articles from the major American newspapers in addition to many regional papers. Also includes company financial information, country and state profiles, company news, medical and health topics, and biographical information. Major source for federal case law, the U.S. Code, law reviews, and state legal research. Newpaper coverage rarely goes back before 1980 or so; therefore print indexes for individual newspapers must be consulted for earlier articles. For example, see the New York Times Index, 1851-- at Tisch Indexes and Abstracts (GEN) AI21.N44.
Dissertation Abstracts (via FirstSearch, 1861-present)
Selectively covers masters theses and dissertations (has over 2 million records) including dissertations from Canada, Great Britain, and Europe; updated monthly.
Dissertations and Theses Full-Text
A comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world offering over 2 million titles, more than 930,000 of which are available in PDF format for immediate download. New full-text titles are added weekly. Only a few dissertations of the Sackler School are included. TUSDM theses are not included.
GPO. Monthly Catalog of Government Publications. (via FirstSearch, 1976-present)
WorldCat (via FirstSearch)
WorldCat is a catalog of materials held by libraries worldwide, including books, periodicals, sound recordings, musical scores, videos, manuscripts, and maps. It is a good database to search when looking for a specific item not available at Tufts, especially if you need to go beyond the BLC.
| Selected Journals held at Tisch Library |
Current issues, arranged alphabetically by title, are in the entrance-level hemicycle area of Tisch Library (at the back of the main floor); the bound periodical volumes containing the older issues are arranged by call number on shelves that begin in the entrance-level hemicycle area and continue on the lower levels.
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
(TISCH BOUND PERIODICALS: R131.A1 J6) Issues from 1996- are also available electronically
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
(TISCH BOUND PERIODICALS: R11.B93) Issues from 1996- are also available electronically
Medical History
(TISCH BOUND PERIODICALS Q125 .H63)
Issues from 1998- are also available electronically (via PubMed)
Medical History is most useful for the history of medicine (but not often for the period of antiquity).
| Selected World Wide Web Sources for Medical History |
Use the following URLs for access to medical history sources assembled at the Web sites of certain governmental and educational institutions:
Also, starting from the Tisch Library homepage, under "Searching" choose "Research Guides By Subject" - "Health" - "Web Sites" to locate additional Web sites pertaining to medicine and medical history.
| Sources for Locating Images |
- National Library of Medicine History of Medicine Division: Images
- MedHist In particular, look for online exhibitions and virtual museums to find images in this database.
- Images.MD Over 70,000 high-quality images spanning all of internal medicine, all derived from Current Medicine Group LLC's renowned series of illustrated atlases. Each image is accompanied by detailed and informative text written by over 2,000 contributing experts.
- Google Images
- ARTstor An image database of architecture, painting, photography, sculpture, decorative arts and design, and archaeological and anthropological objects- with associated catalog data - from many major collections. Users are able to register themselves via the tools in the ARTstor Library.
| Additional Sources for Classics |
A short list of sources, including important web sites, will be found at the "Classics" link within "Research Guides by Subject" at the Tisch Library home page.
| Area Library Resources beyond Tufts |
Boston Library Consortium:
See information at http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/blc_policies.htm
Countway Library
10 Shattuck St., Boston
(Countway Library allows non-Harvard students to use the library for a daily fee of $35.)
| Phone Numbers of Interest |
Tisch Reference Desk 7-3460 (from on-campus) 617-627-3460 (from off-campus)
email: tischref@tufts.edu
Abigail Cross, Reference Librarian 7-2092 (from on-campus) 617-627-2092 (from off-campus)
email: abigail.cross@tufts.edu
Tufts Hirsh Health Sciences Library
Reference Desk 6-6705 (from on-campus) 617-636-6705 (from off-campus)
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