.Information Literacy in the Health Sciences

So your professor has assigned a science information project. What do you do now? How can you start?

Health Science Help from the ISU Library

Well, you may always ask the health science librarian for help, of course. Look up Your Department Librarian.

In addition, the ISU Library has Research Guides which provide tips and information for completing known ISU assignments.

Beginning health science courses often cover dogma--well-established and accepted facts within the health sciences. Paper assignments in the 100/200 level courses often cover already known health science dogma. Health science dogma tends to be in health science textbooks and reference works/books.

Look in the textbook for your course to see if it covers basic information about your topic. BUT the ISU Library also holds some textbooks that may explain things in a different way that works for you. Even an older textbook can sometimes explain science dogma well.

1. You may use the Library Catalog to find health science textbooks owned by the ISU Library. A search will find textbooks in both print and online.
2. Textbooks are usually located at the beginning of a call number range (e.g., RT 100-200) so you may go to that location in the ISU Library and just look. Textbooks are often called "Fundamentals of Occupational Therapy" or "Introduction to Nursing" or "Physical Therapy" or some other exciting title like that.

The ISU Library uses the Library of Congress Classification System to establish where to locate physical items.

GV1-1860 Recreation. Leisure
RA1-1270 Public aspects of medicine
RA421-790.95 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive medicine
RA565-600 Environmental health 
RC952-954.6 Geriatrics 
RC1200-1245 Sports medicine 
RD99-99.35 Surgical nursing
RD792-811 Physical rehabilitation
RE88 Ophthalmic nursing
RJ52-53 Pediatrics. Therapeutics
RJ245-247 Nursing of children. Pediatric nursing
RM300-666 Drugs and their actions
RM671-671.5 Nonprescription drugs. Patent medicines
RM695-893 Physical medicine. Physical therapy. Including massage, exercise,  occupational therapy, hydrotherapy, phototherapy, radiotherapy, thermotherapy, electrotherapy
RM930-931 Rehabilitation therapy
RM950 Rehabilitation technology 
RT1-120 Nursing
RT89-120 Specialties in nursing

Using Health Science Books and Reference Works

Health science books and reference works can be a little scary for a students. They may include a lot of information still unfamiliar to you. Be patient with yourself as you learn how to make use of them. Below are a few tips.

1. Look up unfamiliar terminology in a medical or health science glossary, dictionary, or the Internet. It will take time for the language of the professionals to become familiar to you. And there will always be words you don't know. Just look them up. Be patient with yourself – you’re learning new terminology, which takes time! 
2. Use the index at the back of print books to find information. Your topic may be in multiple parts of the book and the index will point you to them. If it is not in the index, perhaps this is not the best book for this topic.
3. Use the search of e-books to find information. Your topic may be in multiple parts of the book and the search will point you to them. However, the ISU Library e-book interface searches for only the EXACT string of characters that you enter. So a search for "experiment" will not retrieve "experiments." Take that under consideration.
4. Also, use the Table of Contents of the book. Your topic may be listed in a dedicated section of the book.
5. Skim over the images, tables, sidebars, figures, etc. of the book. They can be very helpful for understanding complicated information.