Research Guides: School of Public Health Liaison Guide: Home

Popular Resources

Evidence Based Public Health Guide
Evidence-based practice for public health involves using the best available evidence to make informed public health practice decisions.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
Huge biomedical literature database maintained by the National Library of Medicine.

Cochrane Library
Systematic reviews & practice guidelines for evidence-based medicine.
Finding Health Statistics
This guide provides resources for finding health statistics by type, location, population group, and health topic. Web resources for analyzing, querying, and understanding statistic sets are also made available.
ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
Archive of social sciences data files, very useful for research in public health.
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For more information about how to use this resource contact UAB representative Brooke Becker at 205-934-6364 or babecker@uab.edu.
Systematic Reviews LibGuide
New UAB Libraries guide to planning and conducting systematic reviews of the literature, by the librarians at UAB Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences. Includes numerous tools and tips for your reviews!
Chat with a librarian
Got a question? Ask a librarian to help you find the answer!

Hours

News You Can Use

SoPH Liaison Librarian Kay Smith Retires!

After more than 25 years with UAB Libraries and 17 as Library liaison to the School of Public Health, Kay Smith has announced her retirement in 2021! UAB Libraries will be conducting a nationwide search for a public health liaison librarian following Kay's departure in mid-summer. Please contact the Lister Hill Library Reference Department for more information or monitor the Library Liaisons page for updates. Kay is grateful for her work with the SoPH faculty, staff and students and wishes you all the best!

Public Health Information Literacy Certificate Course to Return Fall Semester 2021!

The free certificate course (Category B, non-credit) in public health information literacy will once again be available for asynchronous learning via Canvas in the fall. With the retirement of Kay Smith, UAB Libraries Liaison to School of Public Health (see above), the course this year will be led by Jill Deaver, course co-instructor and head of Reference at Lister Hill Library. The goal of this course is to promote lifelong library research skills with a focus on public health research domains and challenges. The sessions focus on everything from basic searching in bibliographic databases to epidemiological resources and locating test instruments, searching for systematic reviews and related areas of interest, such as psychology resources and bibliographic citation management. (Note: This year there will a slight change in that the environmental health module will not be available as one of the course offerings. This is due to the numerous changes to and elimination of longstanding public health resources relevant to this field such as TOXNET and DisasterLit over the past year. Attempts to keep the module updated in the face of these frequent changes have been tabled for this year in the hopes that more stable information resources for environmental health may be identified and the module restored next year. An informational handout of environmental health sources currently available will be posted for download from the course. As a result of this decision, the Advanced Searching module will be one of the primary modules available for selection by course attendees this year rather than as a supplementary module as traditionally offered.) The course is self-directed, and registrants should complete five of the eight sessions for the certificate. Register at Public Health Information Literacy Certificate Course. Contact Jill for more information about this course.

Try BrowZine to Read Journal Articles on Your Tablet or Phone!

Another new tool available to you through UAB Libraries is BrowZine, allowing easy access to online journals subscribed to on your behalf on your smartphone or tablet! With BrowZine, you can:

Read complete scholarly journals, optimized for your tablet or phone
Add your favorite journals to your "bookshelf"
Save articles for later reference and offline reading
Get alerts when new issues of your favorite journals are published

Download BrowZine for free for your phone or tablet!
Select University of Alabama-Birmingham, and use your BlazerID and password when prompted.

What's New at Lister Hill Library?

Looking for new books (including e-books) and other resources at Lister Hill Library?

Check out our new LHL Guide for New Resources!

Lister Hill Library News for You

Library Buildings now require OneCards to Access

University Libraries moved to key card access as Part 1 of 3 phases of the building security measures that are being put in place across campus in Fall 2018. Key Card access to the main building entrances was implemented October 1, 2018 with all phases to be completed by June 30, 2019 campus-wide. Please make sure you have your OneCards on you at all times to gain access into the libraries. More details have been posted in the eReporter here: https://www.uab.edu/reporter/resources/employee-safety/item/8373-new-building-security-measures-to-begin-this-fall.

Study Room Reservations at UAB Lister Hill Library

Lister Hill Library has 19 study rooms available for individuals to reserve on a first-come, first-serve basis. Due to COVID-19, all persons must wear a face mask while occupying a study room.

Students can reserve a room online, by phone or in person at the Reservation Kiosk located across from the Lister Hill Library HUB Service Desk. To avoid long lines and to practice safety precautions, students are encouraged to make their reservations online at https://libcal.library.uab.edu/booking/study prior to coming to the library. Reservations can be made the same day or one day in advance.

All study rooms are locked and require key access. Students should report to the LHL HUB Service Desk to present their OneCard to confirm their room reservation and to gain entrance into the room.

All rooms provide a network connection, access to the UAB WIFI, a glass board, markers and an eraser.

Room 149 provides access to a VIA Media Collaboration station with teleconferencing capabilities, and a computer. Rooms 128, 131, 175, 177, and 181 also contain a computer with internet access.

Reservations are limited to 3 hours per person, per day and may ONLY be made 1 day in advance.

Room reservations are ONLY held for 15 minutes; students reporting to the desk after that time forfeit their reservation.

Thank you for your understanding! To reserve a study room, or to learn more about Sterne Library policies, go to http://library.uab.edu/reserve-spaces.

Welcome!

Welcome to the UAB Libraries liaison page for the School of Public Health. As your liaison I am here to make sure that you are getting the help you need with library resources, databases, searches, and training and instruction. Feel free to call me, stop by, email me, or even send an instant message to me using the box to the right. I look forward to working with you!

Some of the things your library liaison can do for you:

group or classroom instruction
individual consultations
research support
database searching assistance and instruction
library materials acquisition
whatever else you need assistance with. And if I can't assist you, I can always put you in touch with someone who can!

Also, I have reference hours in Ryals PHB from 8 AM to 11 AM every Tuesday. Please stop by!

- James Gilbreath

COVID-19 Update: UAB Libraries Now Open

To protect the health and safety of the UAB community, the UAB Libraries buildings were closed from mid-March until August 17, 2020 while still providing reference services online including chat, email, and text through our website at www.library.uab.edu. The Libraries reopened August 17 with slightly modified hours of operation. Visitors to the Libraries are asked to abide by guidelines created specifically for this pandemic era.

Please note: UAB OneCard, HealthCheck Passport and face mask required to gain entrance to the Libraries!

Users wishing to check out print books from the Libraries' collections are encouraged to make use of the curbside checkout process. Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is available for both electronic items as well as physical books. For more information on library services available please go to UAB Libraries Help Page: https://library.uab.edu/help.

COVID-19 Data Hub

COVID-19 Data Hub
Free resource page from Tableau that includes relevant data visualizations about the spread of COVID-19 and the public health response.

Worth a Look

New open textbook on public health in pharmacy practice!

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-public-health-in-pharmacy-practice/

From Special Libraries Association biomedical division:

Covvey JR, Arya V, DiPietro Mager N, Gilman N, Herring M, Lukas S, Ochs L, Waddington L, eds. Public health in pharmacy practice: a casebook. 1st ed. Genesco, NY: Open SUNY Textbooks; 2020.

Looking for health datasets and registries?

re3data
A global registry of research data repositories.
Clinical Study Data Request
A database of study data from a number of major companies such as Lilly and GSK.
Data.gov Data Catalog
The catalog on Data.gov provides the ability to search and browse datasets, data series, tools, and products.
Yale Open Data (YODA) Project
Allows for responsible clinical research data reuse.
PHPartners
A collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries. (NOTE: NLM to cancel this site 9/14/21. Info will be available via other sources.)
LHL Health Statistics Guide
Other places to look for health statistics.

Need help communicating your data to the public?

Making Data Talk: A Workbook
Provided for free by the National Cancer Institute, this workbook provides help for effective communication of health stats to consumers, including tips to help avoid confusion.

Looking for up-to-the-minute guidelines and information about emerging epidemics or natural disasters?

ASPR TRACIE
The Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange (TRACIE) was created to meet the information and technical assistance needs of regional ASPR staff, healthcare coalitions, healthcare entities, healthcare providers, emergency managers, public health practitioners, and others working in disaster medicine, healthcare system preparedness, and public health emergency preparedness.

Interested in finding out more about mHealth projects worldwide?

mHealth Evidence Database
Produced by K4Health, this database will let you find literature on mHealth project effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and program efficiency. mHealth is the use of mobile information and communication technologies such as SMS texting to improve health, especially in underserved areas.
K4Health
The Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project shares accurate, up-to-date knowledge and tools to strengthen family planning and other public health efforts worldwide.

Interested in the issues surrounding health inequities?

Expanding the Boundaries: Health Equity and Public Health Practice
Dialogue4Health is providing free access to the recorded presentation, slides and other resources for the Expanding the Boundaries: Health Equity and Public Health Practice web forum and book (see below) of the same name. The purpose is to create discussion and facilitate change around the issues of health inequities and their consequences.
Expanding the Boundaries E-Book
You can download the full text of the Expanding the Boundaries e-book here. Look for the button labeled "Download Resource" to access a PDF version.

Need information about chemical hazards and emergencies?

Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management (CHEMM)
CHEMM is a free Web-based resource provided by the National Library of Medicine that can be downloaded in advance to Windows or Mac computers to ensure availability during an event if the Internet isn't accessible. The most recent version has some new and updated information, including: 1) updated and enhanced content on decontamination procedures, discovering the event, and training and education; 2) a toxidromes outreach plan to raise awareness and encourage use of the toxidromes throughout the stakeholder community; 3) content to enable emergency responders to recognize and handle events dealing with toxic gases generated by combinations of consumer products or common household chemicals; and more.
Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER)
WISER is a downloadable tool that incorporates the content from CHEMM into a system designed to assist emergency responders in hazardous material incidents. WISER is available for PC, iPhone, Android devices, and Blackberry devices.

Looking for epidemiologic research?

Epidemiologic Survey Methodology
Tulane University's Rudolph Matas Library of the Health Sciences has created a LibGuide on Survey Methodology for an epidemiology course at their school of public health. There are some wonderful resources and search strategies for locating data collection tools and data sets for epidemiologic research. Take a look!
Rudolph Matas Library of the Health Sciences (Tulane University)

Need health surveillance data?

Project Tycho
Project Tycho is a freely available resource for health surveillance data from the University of Pittsburgh that provides historical statistics on contagious diseases in the U.S. from the past 125 years. The data are available in a range of levels reflecting the varying nature of reporting requirements at the time.

Trying to focus a search to developing countries?

UNC Global Health Toolkit
The UNC Health Sciences Library has created a search hedge for global health literature reviewers to add to searches that include a focus on developing countries. Unfortunately PubMed and other databases do not include articles indexed under individual developing countries in its "developing countries" MeSH heading. This search hedge addresses that shortfall. To copy and paste this search string into your searches, go to the UNC Global Health Toolkit and click on the link under "Developing Country / Low-Middle Income Searches."
UNC Health Sciences Library

Need resources about Ebola?

Ebola Communication Network (ECN)
The ECN, launched by the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3), is an online collection of Ebola resources, materials and tools from and for the global health community. The ECN is populated with more than 120 resources, including not only social and behavior change communication materials such as posters, brochures and infographics, but also demographic and health surveys of affected regions, customized maps and peer-reviewed journal articles. The site is responsive to mobile devices and optimized for low-bandwidth situations. Its search feature allows users to find materials based on language, type (e.g., public service announcements, posters and fact sheets), topic (e.g., prevention, treatment, safe burial practices), audience (e.g., community health workers, governments, HCPs) and other facets. Users can also upload their own materials, which are posted after a brief review process.
Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3)
HC3 is a five-year, global project funded by USAID. It is designed to strengthen developing country capacity to implement state-of-the-art social and behavior change communication (SBCC) programs.

Interested in a tool that incorporates the impact of your research beyond published journals?

ImpactStory
This tool describes the current research into "altmetrics," or alternative metrics of scholarly impact based on online use. Developed by Jason Priem, a doctoral student at UNC Chapel Hill (with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation), this initiative has the potential to revolutionize scholarly communication - or, as Priem himself puts it, "bring scholarly communication out of the 17th century."

Are you planning a health program? Monitoring or evaluating a program?

Measuring Success Toolkit
The Toolkit, developed by the Measurement Learning & Evaluation Project (MLE) for the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative, provides a framework to help you identify what kinds of questions research, monitoring and evaluation can answer to guide program design and implementation. It also provides links to resources to put ideas into action. (Users with limited or no Internet access can order the Toolkit on CD - email contactus@urbanreproductivehealth.org to inquire.)
Measurement Learning & Evaluation Project (MLE)
The Measurement, Learning & Evaluation (MLE) Project is the evaluation component of the Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (Urban RH Initiative), a multi-country program in India, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal that aims to improve the health of the urban poor.

Need literature and resources that focus on Africa?

African Index Medicus
This resource is an index to African medical literature and information, and is made available by the WHO/AFRO Library. It addresses a notable gap in health and biomedical information sources focusing on the African continent. Approximately 156 journals are indexed in this database currently, and dissertations and grey literature are included as well.

Need information on effective risk communication?

Communicating Risks and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User's Guide
Effective risk communication is essential to the well-being of any organization, public or private, and those people who depend on it. Ineffective communication can cost lives, money and reputations. This resource provides the scientific foundations for effective communications in an easy to use format, and is freely available from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Librarian

James Gilbreath

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Subjects: CCTS, Graduate Biomedical Sciences & JHS Departments, Public Health

Chat with a Librarian

Contact us:
Lister Hill Library
2nd Floor
205-934-2231

Sterne Library
HUB Desk
205-934-6364