What Are Library Resources?

Library resources are a collection of mostly electronic materials drawn from websites that group credible resources for educational purposes. These types of websites are called databases, and the school pays money for these resources to provide high quality educational materials to support your learning. They require use of search strategies to sort through a large volume of materials and find those relevant to your research interests. This takes a little more time up front than an internet search, though the assurance that materials come from trustworthy sources and have a level of review to ensure their educational purpose and validity are worth the time. With a little practice you learn to use the library resources more easily and find what you are looking for more quickly.

Which Library Resources are Good for Public Health?

We have a number of databases that have good collections of resources for public health. You will find them through the Explore Databases link on the library webpage. Databases that provide good public health peer-reviewed, evidence-based research include:

CINAHL (Ebsco) - prioritizes nursing and allied health
Cochrane Library - includes groupings of research in meta-analyses
EbscoHost - large volume of peer-reviewed research on wide range of topics
ScienceDirect - physical, health, life, and social sciences

Also, you may want to browse public health journals. From the Library Search choose A-Z eJournals along the top. Type in public health or the name of a specific journal you have in mind. If we have access to it you will see it in a list. You can add a search term of a topic or browse by issue.

King County Library System (KCLS)

We have a relationship with KCLS allowing use of library materials. This vastly expands the materials available to you beyond our library. Your library card is a unique login and password created from your LWTech username and password.

Login: LWTs-first.last
Password: Last 4 characters of the above login

Note that capitalization is important! If your last name is cut off in your student email address, be sure to cut it off in the same place for this login.

Public Health Resources at KCLS

KCLS has a Science and Health webpage with resources that may be valuable for public health, including:

Consumer Health Database - large volume of medical journals and magazines
PTSDPubs - research specific to PTSD

Other Public Health Resources

Other reputable, freely available resources for public health research include:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - government website with good reference information by disease or condition
MedlinePlus - consumer information for health conditions by the National Institute of Health
PubMed - free, full-text biomedical and life sciences archive, discussed more on the next page