The UCB Library provides access to The Cochrane Library - "the best single source of reliable evidence for healthcare decision-making" - via Wiley InterScience. Wiley has made available several short online tutorials to help you learn how to use the Cochrane Library, including:

1. The Cochrane Library - an introduction (8 min.)
2. Tips on Advanced and MESH searching (7 min.)
3. Setting up Saved Searches and e-mail Alerts (7 min.)

An 8-page Quick Reference Guide (pdf) is available, as is a PowerPoint presentation.

The Cochrane Library consists of:

• Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Cochrane Reviews)
• Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (Other Reviews)
• Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Clinical Trials)
• Cochrane Methodology Register (Methods Studies)
• Health Technology Assessment Database (Technology Assessments)
• NHS Economic Evaluation Database (Economic Evaluations)

Wiley also hosts live virtual webinars (click the Upcoming tab) on The Cochrane Library.

Please take advantage of these resources to help you learn how to use The Cochrane Library!

Librarians at the Public Health Library have been busy adding new or newly discovered resources to our web site. Here's a sample of the latest; more may be found on our What's New and Updated web page.

California County Scorecard of Children's Well-Being

This scorecard tracks 26 indicators by county of the wellbeing of California's children. View results by county or by indicator. The data here comes in large part by analysis done by Children Now of 3 surveys: the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey, California Health Interview Survey and California Healthy Kids Survey. From our Statistical/Data Resouces and our Maternal and Child Health web pages

Foreign Dissertations Search (CRL) (Access limited to UCB faculty, staff and students)

Provides access to doctoral dissertations from around the world which have been submitted to institutions outside of the U.S. and Canada. Allows limiting to specific languages. From our Dissertations and Theses web page

From Exposure to Illness: Community Health Studies and Environmental Contamination

The Environmental Health Investigations Branch of the California Department of Public Health has created an online guide for those who want to study the link between environmental exposure to chemicals and the health effects experienced by a community by conducting a health study. The information gives the basics about health studies, discusses when a health study is appropriate, and offers examples and alternatives to health studies. From our Toxicology/Occupational Health Resources web page

Geography (Access limited to UCB faculty, staff and students): The Geography database covers over 2000 international journals, monographs, books, conference proceedings, reports, and theses in geography (including GIS). Covers 1990 to the present. From our Public Health GIS Resources web page

Our lives are filled with chemical exposures. How do we discover more about these chemicals for ourselves and our organization? The National Library of Medicine's Environmental Health and Toxicology Portal provides access to numerous databases that can help you explore environmental chemicals and risks. NLM just produced a new guide, TOXNET and beyond: Using NLM's Environmental Health and Toxicology Portal (pdf). This guide conveys the fundamentals of searching the NLM's TOXNET system of databases in chemistry, toxicology, environmental health, and related fields. In addition to TOXNET, it highlights various resources available through the Environmental Health and Toxicology Portal.

Resources covered include:

• ChemIDplus
• Hazardous Substances Data Bank
• Toxicology Literature Online (TOXLINE)
• Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System
• Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology Database
• Genetic Toxicology Data Bank
• Integrated Risk Information System
• International Toxicity Estimates for Risk
• LactMed
• Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and TOXMAP
• Haz-Map
• Household Products Database

and more! And, all these resources are free!

Want more public health news to come your way? Here's just a few of the public health blogs that are available for your reading pleasure.

Effect Measure is a "forum for progressive public health discussion and argument..." Recent posts include "Flu and the news business" and "Regulating peanut butter (and lots more): good for business."

The Pump Handle is "a place for people interested in public health and the environment to discuss the issues that interest us, particularly when they’re not getting the treatment we think they deserve in the mainstream media." Recent posts include "Obama Frees Agencies from White House Interference" and "OMG! MSDSs N.G. Rx?."

Wall Street Journal Health Blog: Public Health, "Health and the Business of Health."  Recent posts include "Beware of Reused Syringes When You Get a Shot" and "Feds Accuse Georgia Plant of Knowingly Shipping Bad Peanut Butter."

Karen Grepin's Blog, "Exploring global health and public health issues." Ms. Grepin is a Ph.D. Candidate in Health Policy (economics) at Harvard University. Recent posts include "What would we want in the US HIV/AIDS Czar?" and "Cholera situation in Zimbabwe is continuing to worsen."

Secret Ingredients is Andrew Schneider's (of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer) blog on public health and worker safety. Recent posts include "The Chinese kill their food poisoners. What about the U.S. peanut butter execs who know salmonella was present 12 times" and "U.S. pigs and farmers carry MRSA but federal food safety agencies are doing little to see if the pork is safe."

Let me know about more!

UC-eLinks is a technology that helps you get the full text of an article - whether online, in print, or by request from another library. And thanks to the efforts of the California Digital Library (CDL), it is now easier than ever to link directly to an article using UC-eLinks!

In most cases where full-text can be identified, UC-eLinks will now load the full text of the article automatically, framed by the new UC-eLinks banner.

This banner serves two purposes:

• Displays citation information to help you navigate to the article on the journal website if it does not load automatically.
• Provides a link back to the full UC-eLinks menu in case you want to use other UC-eLinks services.

When full-text cannot be identified, it will present you with the full UC-eLinks menu to find a print copy, request it from another library, add the citation to a bibliography (via RefWorks), or get help.

For more information, please see the guide on Getting Started with UC-eLinks.

This post originally appeared in the Science and Engineering Libraries News blog