Health sciences (Medicine)

• Basic medical sciences attempt to discover and describe how human body functions. Include:
• Anatomy
• Biochemistry
• Biophysics
• Embryology
• Endocrinology
• Genetics
• Microbiology
• Pathology
• Pharmacology
• Physiology
• Psychology
• Clinical medicine two broad specialities: preventative; public health
• Many other medical specialities including
• Dentistry
• Nursing
• Rehabilitation
• Textbooks become reference books
• Practitioners heavy users of handbooks
• Use of handbooks especially heavy in pharmacology
• Huge increase in popular medical literature
• Growth in area of alternative medicine
• The focus of traditional medical informatics is shifting from health professionals to consumers

Eysenbach, G. Consumer health informatics. BMJ 2000; 320: 1713-1716 http://www.bmj.com/content/320/7251/1713

Health information seeking studies

• Licciardone, Smith-Barbaro, and Coleridge (2001)
• 32% of respondents used Internet as primary source for health information
• Other sources used: newspapers, magazines, TV
• Fox, Rainie and Horrigan et al. (2000)
• 55% of U.S. Internet users search for health info
• 91% physical illness
• 26% mental illness
• Rely on search engines
• 58% reported checking for company or organization providing info (likely some college)
• Users with high school or less unlikely to check Web site’s source info
• Taylor (2001) http://media.theharrispoll.com/documents/Harris-Interactive-Poll-Research-Cyberchondriacs-Update-2002-05.pdf
• 80% of all adults who are online (i.e. 53% of all adults) sometimes use the Internet to look for health care information. However, only 18% say they do this “often”, while most do so “sometimes” (35%), or “hardly ever” (27%)
• This 80% of all those online amounts to 110 million cyberchrondriacs nationwide. This compares with 54 million in 1998, 69 million in 1999 and 97 million last year.
• On average those who ever look for health care information online do so three times every month
• A slender majority (53%) of those who look for health care information does so using a portal or search engine which allows them to search for the health information they want across many different websites. About a quarter (26%) go directly to a site that focuses only on health-related topics and one in eight (12%) goes first to a general site that focuses on many topics that may have a section on health issues.
• G. Eysenbach and C. Kohler. How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the world wide web? Qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests, and in-depth interviews. BMJ, March 9, 2002; 324 (7337): 573-577. http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7337/573
• Users of the Internet explore only the first few links on general search engines when seeking health information
• Consumers say that when assessing the credibility of a site they primarily look for the source, a professional design, and a variety of other criteria
• In practice, internet users do not check the “about us” sections of websites, try to find out who authors or creators of owners of the site are, or read disclaimers or disclosure statements
• Very few internet users later remember from which websites they retrieved information from or who stood behind the sites
• Fox and Fallows (2003). http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2003/Internet-Health-Resources.aspx
• Half of American adults have searched online for health information
• Go online for information, prepare for appointments and surgery, share information, seek and provide support
• Women primary consumers of online health information
• Fox and Rainie (2002) . http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2002/Vital-Decisions-A-Pew-Internet-Health-Report.aspx
• Internet health search interests
• Disease information (93%)
• Nutrition, exercise or weight control (65%)
• Prescription drugs (64%)
• 48% alternative or experimental treatments or medicines
• 39% mental health issues (e.g. depression, anxiety)
• 33% sensitive health topic
• 32% info about a particular doctor or hospital

Consumer health information
National Library of Medicine reports:

• Health information in top 5-10 topics of interest
• 2/3 of libraries estimate that health requests account for up to 20% of reference requests
• When MEDLINE made freely available on the Internet usage increased from 7 to 220 million searches per year (estimated that 1/3 of searches by public)

MEDLINEplus most frequent requested health topics, November 1999

• Diabetes
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Arthritis
• Back pain
• Breast cancer
• Kidney diseases
• AIDS
• Nutrition
• Cancer
• Fibromyalgia
• Thyroid disease
• Skin diseases
• Heart disease
• Cholesterol

Canadian Health Network (CHN)

• National, bilingual Internet-based health information service
• Developed in partnership with Health Canada
• Network of health information networks (over 600 health information providers contribute resources)
• Gathers and organizes quality information

Consumer Health Information Service (CHIS)

• Based at Toronto Public Library, Reference Library
• Funded by Ontario Ministry of Health
• Walk in consumer reference collection and reference desk service by librarians
• Offers phone, fax, and e-mail service to users throughout the province
• Information packages compiled and sent out province-wide

Consumer & patient health information service https://web.archive.org/web/20050207083021/http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/health/reference/chis.shtml
To help Manitobans learn more about health and medical topics, the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library offers the Consumer and Patient Health Information Service. This service provides information on health and medical topics such as:

• Symptoms and descriptions of diseases
• Drugs and drug therapies
• Medical tests
• Current treatments and therapies
• Nutrition
• Surgical procedures
• A librarian, not a health care professional, provides the information

Abstracts and indexes

• PubMed (free)
• Medline (electronic)
• most important indexing source for medical research
• computerized counterpart of
• Index Medicus
• Index to Dental Literature
• International Nursing Index
• records added pre-1975 no abstracts
• >59% records post-1975 have abstracts
• EMBASE
• print equivalent Excerpta Medica publications
• more pharmacology and psychology, European and Asian journals than Medline
• c. 80% of records from recent years contain abstracts
• Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL)
• covers English language nursing journals
• includes such allied health fields as:
• covers English language nursing journals
• cardiopulmonary technology; medical/laboratory technology; medical records; occupational therapy; physical therapy/rehabilitation; radiologic technology; respiratory therapy; social service in health care
• selective abstracts available since 1986

Using the Biological Literature Web Resources

Using the Biological Literature Web Resources http://www.library.illinois.edu/bix/biologicalliterature/intro.html

Agriculture

Malinowsky, H. R. Reference Sources In Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Agriculture. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1994. p. 216.

Agriculture is the science of raising crops and livestock for food. It is an old discipline with the word coming from the Latin agar meaning field and cultura meaning cultivation. Agriculture is an applied science using all of the physical sciences as well as some areas of engineering. In addition to it being concerned with plant and animal production, it includes the machinery and materials needed to produce, process, manufacture, and market all of the plant and animal products. 

In the area of plant production there are specialized subdivisions, including:

• Agronomy—the study of field crops.
• Floriculture—the production, marketing, and sale of bedding plants, cut flowers, potted plants, foliage plants, flower arrangements, and home gardening.
• Forestry—all aspects of maintaining forests.
• Horticulture—the science of growing flowers, vegetables, and fruits.
• Landscape Architecture—the study of the use of plants in garden architecture.
• Plant Breeding—the development of better plants. 

Animal husbandry pertains to the raising of domestic animals and includes their care, breeding, and feeding. Originally veterinary medicine was used only for the medical care of domesticated animals. It is now much more comprehensive and includes the health of all livestock, including poultry, wild birds, pets, wildlife, furbearing animals, zoo animals, aquatic mammals, and fish. It is also concerned with the some 200 diseases of animals that can be transmitted to humans. The animal industry is large and highly technical and includes the raising of poultry, cattle, swine, goats, sheep, fur-bearing animals, fish, shellfish, and the wide array of domestic pets. 

Until recently, the literature for the agricultural areas was spread among many reports published by a myriad of institutes. Most of this literature is now accessible through the Bibliography of Agriculture Index. Medicus and Biological Abstracts are also key sources of information. Handbooks and manuals are common, especially in areas of environmental concern, such as using pesticides and herbicides.

Biology, Botany, Zoology and Earth Sciences

Malinowsky, H. R. Reference sources in Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Agriculture. Phoenix, Ariz. : Oryx Press, 1994. pp. 39-40.
Biology, Botany, Zoology and Earth Sciences

Biology
Biology is the study of all living organisms whether microscopic bacteria, giant whales, or Sequoia trees. Two subdivisions of biology—botany and zoology—have separate sections in this chapter. As with all science disciplines, biology can be subdivided into many specialized fields which include:

• Cell biology—the study of the individual cells that make up whole organisms.
• Ecology—the study of organisms in relation to their environment.
• Embryology—the study of the early development of organisms.
• Evolution—the study of the historical development of organisms.
• Genetics—the study of the genes and heredity of organisms.
• Morphology—the study of the form and structure of organisms.
• Physiology—the study of all the vital functions of organisms that makes them total and unique.
• Taxonomy—the systematic naming of living organisms.

The prefix “bio” means “life” or “living organism.” Science dictionaries list many entries with this prefix, including bioacoustics, bioassay, biocatalyst, biocenology, biochemistry, biocide, biodiversity, bioelectronics, biofeedback, biogenesis, biogeography, biomass, biostatistics, biotic, and biozone. As with other science categories, the boundaries of biology fade as technology and other fields of science become involved in biological research. 

The reference sources for biology appear with new editions on a fairly regular basis. Access to the world’s research is found through Biological Abstracts. Dictionaries and encyclopedias are numerous and handbooks are very important. 

Botany
The term “botany” comes from the Greek for “herb,” botanikas, which signifies that part of biology concerned with plants. Botany includes the study of plants’ physical and chemical makeup, evolution, environmental impact, and interaction with other organisms. Researchers may study the genetic relationships between plants, the growth and development of plants in hostile environments, ways to protect crops from diseases and pests, and new methods for increasing crop yields. Of primary concern to researchers are methods for growing plants without chemicals, producing hardier crops, maintaining rain forests, and protecting endangered species. Botanists generally study either the function and development of plants, or they study plants by types. There is a lot overlap between the distinctions, however, and studying functions and development of the total plant community (or type) is not unusual. 

The function and development of plants are studied in these fields:

• Plant anatomy—the physical makeup of the plant.
• Plant chemistry—the chemical processes that occur in plants.
• Plant cytology—the study of the plant cells.
• Plant embryology—the study of plant development from seeds.
• Plant genetics—the evolution of plants.
• Plant physiology—the study of how plants function and grow.
• Plant taxonomy—the systematic naming of plants.
• Ethnobotany—the study of the physical differences between plants.
• Paleobotany—the study of fossil plants.

For the study of plants by type of plant, there are

• Agrostology—the study of grasses.
• Algology or phycology—the study of algae.
• Bryology—the study of mosses.
• Mycology—the study of fungi.
• Pteridology—the study of ferns.

For reference purposes, a large number of sources identify plants. Detailed field guides, handbooks, and encyclopedias are important to researchers and laypeople alike, and taxonomic dictionaries are essential. Biological Abstracts is the main source for accesses the research literature. 

Zoology
Zoology is the branch of biology that deals with all animals from the microscopic to the wales. The study of zoology is based on the structure and function of the animal, usually broken down to a particular class. These structures and functions include

• Physiology—the living processes that make up the whole animal.
• Embryology—the development and new life of animals.
• Genetics—the area of heredity and variation.
• Parasitology—animals living in or on other animals.
• Natural History—behavior of animals in nature.
• Ecology—relation of animals to their environment.
• Evolution—origin and differentiation of animal life.
• Taxonomy—classification and naming of animals.

As experts, zoologists may cover a particular class of animal:

• Entomology—the study of insects.
• Ichthyology—the study of fishes.
• Ornithology—the study of birds.
• Mammalogy—the study of mammals.
• Herpetology—the study of snakes, lizards, crocodiles, turtles, dinosaurs, frogs, toads, and salamanders.

Zoology is intriguing to most individuals because of the wide variety of exotic animals that live on this planet. The literature that has accumulated through the years is voluminous and the access has become more and more sophisticated. Biological Abstracts continues, however, to be the primary source for searching this literature. Handbooks are numerous, but field guides and encyclopedias predominate. 

Earth sciences
Earth sciences covers all of the disciplines concerned with the earth’s origin, composition, physical features, and atmosphere. It encompasses all the forces that have changed and are changing its makeup. It is related to cosmology, the study of how the universe has evolved, because clues about the origins of things in space provide information about how the earth itself was formed. Earth sciences also include the study of physical geography, which is called geomorphology, the study of landforms, their description, classification, origin, history, and ongoing changes. Subfields of geomorphology include glaciology, soil mechanics, remote sensing, fluvial geology, karst landscapes, and to some extent, cartography. 

By far the largest branch of earth sciences, geology is the study of the planet from its beginning to its future. The term “geology,” however, is now considered too restrictive and has been replaced with geoscience. Other disciplines within earth sciences are:

• Geochemistry—the study of chemical processes within the geological process.
• Geodesy—the science of surveying and mapping the earth’s surface.
• Geophysics—the study of the physical forces on and within the earth.
• Mineralogy—the study of minerals found in the earth.
• Petrology—the study of the three types of rocks found in and on earth: igneous or volcanic, metamorphic or pressure changed, and sedimentary or eroded.
• Meteorology—the study of the atmosphere which includes Climatology or the study of the climates.
• Oceanography—study of seas and oceans, including the shores and beaches, subsurface rocks and sediments, waves and related forces, chemistry, and all life that depends on the oceans and seas for survival.
• Paleontology—the study of all fossil life, including Paleobotany, Paleozoology, Invertebrate Paleontology, and Micropaleontology.
• Hydrology—the study of the forces of water on the earth. 
• Stratigraphy—the study of the layers of sediments that make up the surface of the earth.
• Economic Geology—the study of all materials that are mined from the earth.

Because earth sciences is a popular discipline for the layperson, guidebooks to landforms and fossils abound. The Bibliography and Index of Geology is the major indexing service for this discipline.

Zoology

Hurt, C. D. Informational Sources in Science and Technology, 3rd ed. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1998. pp. 71-72.

Traditional science made a simple distinction between zoology and botany; botany deals with plants, zoology deals with animals. This definition has been stretched somewhat in modern times. Zoology still is concerned with animals, and this is the largest area of zoology. However, zoologists now extend the definition to organisms that are not animals. They now study organisms such as monera, protista, and fungi. 

Zoology and botany have a great deal in common. In effect, they are now branches of the same tree—studying the life forms of the Earth. They are also similar in that each is very old. The ancient Egyptians had a rudimentary understanding of blood circulation, functions of the organs, and disease. Aristotle laid the foundations of what we now call zoology. His contributions in taxonomy, anatomy, physiology, and genetics form an excellent base for the modern zoologist. These four areas are still the pillars of zoology. This does not mean, however, that zoology is a stable discipline in which to work. As an example, great debate rages about the origin, physiology, and demise of the dinosaur. This is one example of many in zoology that suggests a lively intellectual climate. Such climates are excellent breeding grounds for generating large amounts of literature. 

Zoology, like other areas of science, borrows from all of science and technology. The electron microscope is one tool the zoologist might use to determine the cellular structure of a particular animal to differentiate it from another animal. Like botany, however, the borrowing from other disciplines is not as intense as it is in other fields. 

Zoologists tend to publish in a relatively narrow group of journals. Their conference activity is high, but the results of conferences are disseminated relatively quickly and efficiently. For zoologists interested in taxonomy, there are few outlets, and these tend to be highly traditional. Zoologists tend to use monographic literature more than do other scientists. This is partly the result of having a systematized schema that has weathered well. 

Bibliographic control in zoology is better than in most of science. The premier abstracting and indexing service in zoology, Zoological Record, has been published since 1865, and is available as an online database. The crossover areas in zoology are the ones where bibliographic control is difficult. Finding material that is published in a chemical journal about a zoological subject remains hard. 

The future for zoology appears to be a continuation of the present. A consistent and well-developed research program in the traditional four areas of zoology will certainly continue. The melding of zoology and other areas such as physics, chemistry, and environmental sciences will also continue. The result will be a rich literature that can only partly be controlled bibliographically.

Botany

Hurt, C. D. Informational sources in Science and Technology, 3rd ed. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1998. pp. 57-58.

Botany can be approached from a variety of perspectives. As an example, there can be several classification systems employed within botany. A substantial literature discusses and argues the merits and faults of the various classification systems.

Plant diseases, heredity, form, and structure are examples of areas within botany. The range of areas within botany is a direct function of the immense variety of plants and plant-related issues. Like a number of other fields in science and technology, this means the botanist is forced to specialize. Unlike a number of other fields, the rampant specialization is not as widespread. This has the very positive effect of allowing specialists to see the work of other specialists in botany. The assumption, and it is a large one, is that such exposure leads to a certain level of interest. 

In terms of bibliographic control, two characteristics set botany apart from other disciplines. First, the number of journals devoted to botany is relatively small. Therefore, the bibliographic control is better in botany than it is in most of science. The major abstract and indexing service for botany is Biological Abstracts. Botanical Abstracts was an excellent tool but was merged with Biological Abstracts in 1926. Depending on the speciality area, abstract and indexing services in agriculture such as AGRICOLA and CAB Abstracts will be invaluable. 

Second, the scope of botany is not as wide as that of other disciplines. Relatively speaking, botany does not borrow from other areas as heavily as do other scientific disciplines, although borrowing does frequently occur, as botany incorporates some elements of chemistry, physics, zoology, and agriculture. 

At the present time, there appears to be two basic camps in botany. The first camp is the more traditional. This camp is concerned with refining the classification systems and fitting all categories of plants into the proper place. The second camp seems less interested in refining the building blocks of the field and more interested in moving forward and furthering new knowledge. One such area is the discovery (rediscovery, some would argue) of natural drugs from plants around the world. The pharmacological value of plants, rare or common, is a hot topic in botany and pharmacy. In keeping with the theme of interdisciplinary work, this last area of study is an example of a fundable project at the national level: it includes at least two fields and has a practical outcome. The future will see more of both camps, although it appears that funding levels and funding interest are more in tune with the goals of the second camp. 

Botany seems to be an area ripe for explosion in a variety of ways. If this is true, then botany will become just as difficult to control bibliographically as any other science.

Biology

Hurt, C. D. Information Sources in Science and Technology, 3rd ed. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1998. pp. 39-40.

Biology
Biology is an old and venerable discipline. Evidence from approximately 3000 BC suggests that people had a reasonable knowledge of living systems and basic biological principles. The Greeks brought biology to the level we now would call a science. The Arabic world was responsible, as it was for so many other areas, for retaining, refining, and adding to the store of knowledge regarding biology. The reawakening during the Renaissance was an impetus to biology, and new advances came more frequently. Work by Pasteur and Koch laid the groundwork for microbiology. Hook’s work opened the doors to cellular biology. Mendel laid the foundations for genetics. Through all the examples above, there is a thread. Each scientist used techniques or apparatus from other fields to further biology. Indeed, the use of chemistry and physical models led directly to the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Perhaps because it is an old discipline, biology is also multifaceted and multidisciplinary. “Biology” as a term is thus inadequate to describe the field. Investigators generally focus on one aspect of the field. In this, biology shares a great deal with physics. The trend in biology to specialize will continue. One effect of this specialization is the splintering of biology literature into outlets (journals and other forms) that match or attempt to match the specialization. This means that the questions put to the information specialist will continue to be more specialized.

The structure of the biological literature is placing increased emphasis on interdisciplinary tools and literatures. In some sense, it appears to the outsider that biology has opened Pandora’s box of the rest of science and technology and is using all that it can find. This perception is not far from the truth. Biology has considerable cross-pollination with other disciplines, for two reasons. First, interdisciplinarity is now part of the culture of biology. Chemists, for instance, find it relatively easy to move into and through major portions of the biological literature. The second reason is a phenomenon that spans all areas of science and technology: the changes in government funding that reward interdisciplinary work. Biology is “ahead” in this regard because it already has a culture that accepts interdisciplinary work. An example of an area in which biology has received both attention and funding is the human genome project.

The human genome project is important for another reason. Biologists determined early in the project that offering the results of the mapping process in paper form did not convey the results in the most suitable manner. Thus, the project results are now available via the World Wide Web. Although some specific issues of interpretation and technique are discussed in the traditional literature, this is an example of a major scientific project that is making good use of electronic resources.

Bibliographic control in biology is a function of frustration. The focus on specificity is maddening to most traditional librarians. This specialization, combined with the subsuming of other discipline specialities, makes the control of its literature difficult. However, the biological literature is generally well documented. The print source Biological Abstracts and the online version BIOSIS are renowned for their coverage.

Recently there has been some attempt to rein in the proliferation of biological journals as they develop into ever-smaller specialities. This movement has met with some resistance because the journal proliferation mirrors the proliferation of specialization in biology itself.

Biology is journal-driven for the most part. The major advanced and continuation literature are published in the traditional archive journal. Good use is made of conference literature, because in a field that moves so rapidly, conferences are one way to disseminate information widely. The number and range of conferences parallels the specialization movement in biology. As with all conference proceedings and conference literature, there are problems of access and identification. Moreover, conference literature in biology is elusive and poorly controlled.

Biology is an old science with a venerable history. It is also a rapidly evolving discipline that is changing before our eyes in terms of both research and dissemination of research.