London Health Libraries
Information Search Skills Training Programme
Produced by:
Mary Last, Clinical Support Librarian
Bloomsbury Healthcare Library
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
July 2006
2
Getting started
What is the Internet? 4
What is a web site? 4
Connecting to the World Wide Web 4
Understanding the tool bar 4
Navigating the World Wide Web 5
Changing your home page 7
Adding sites to ‘Favorites’ 7
Printing web pages 7
Saving web pages 8
Other file formats 8
Overview of local and national NHS resources
HILO 9
KA24 9
Athens 10
National Library for Health 11
Electronic journals 11
Search engines
Using Google 12
Understanding web addresses 13
Meta-search engines 14
The invisible web 14
Evaluating a web site 15
Advanced searching on search engines 15
Images on the web 16
Web directories 19
Subject gateways
Intute (Health and Life Sciences) 21
National Library for Health (NLH)
Finding your way around 24
Coverage of NLH 25
Look and feel of NLH resources 25
Summary of NLH resources 26
Further support
Useful web addresses 31
Online Internet tutorials 32
Books 32
Glossary of Internet terminology 34
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a worldwide network of millions of computers that allows electronic communication via email and the exchange of information through the World Wide Web.
The World Wide Web (WWW) allows us to access all kinds of information from around the world, including health care databases, government information and train timetables, to access and use services such as Internet banking, and to exchange information through discussion lists.
What is a web site?
A web page is a single document on the WWW that can be any length like a document on a word processor. A group of web pages belonging to one individual or organisation is called a web site.
The first or introductory page of a web site is known as the home page from which other pages branch off.
When you first connect to the web the first page you see on your computer is also called the home page and is usually your organisation’s own web site, eg Tower Hamlets PCT, or that belonging to the company which provides your Internet connection, eg AOL. You can change this home page to one of your choice (see page 7).
Connecting to the Internet
You will have an icon on your computer desktop that allows direct access to the Internet. Double clicking on this brings up a web browser. This is the frame within which the documents on the Internet will be displayed to you. It has a toolbar that helps you move around the WWW.
Understanding the tool bar
Back a page Stop current action Return to home page Lists your favourite sites
Forward a page Refresh - reloads History - shows latest Print current page
current page sites visited
Navigating the WWW
Each web page has a unique address that you can see in the Address box. If you know the address of the web page you want to view type in into this box and either hit the return key on your keyboard or click go.
Most web addresses start with www. You do not need to type in http://
This is the home page of Aidsmap.
The web page has its own tool bar allowing you to move around the site.
A good web site like this one will give you clear navigational aids. On its tool bar there are buttons that say home and about us. There is also a site map and a search facility.
Each section has its own menu system. It is always clear where you are. In the case of this web site each section is also colour coded. The main menu structure appears on every page.
Topics are listed on the left hand side. When you run your mouse pointer over a heading it will change to a hand to show you that it is a link to another page within the site. The whole web can be navigated by using links like these, known as hyperlinks. Hyperlinks can be text or pictures. Often they are underlined in blue but are not always that obvious to see. When you have visited a link it usually changes colour.
Sometimes when you click on a link the new web page will open in a new browser window. In this case the back button on your browser tool bar will not allow you to return to the previous page. You will need to close the new window down by clicking on the x in the top right hand corner of the window.
If the new page comes up but doesn’t fill the whole screen, click on the middle of the three buttons at the top right hand corner of the window.
You can always see how many windows you have open at the bottom of your screen
You can click on these to return to that particular window.
Changing your Home Page
If you access a page regularly you might want to make it your home page.
· Open the page you want to set as your home page, eg www.library.nhs.uk
· Click on Tools on the tool bar
· Select Internet options
· Click on ‘Use current option’ under the Home Page box
· Click apply
· Click OK
NB It is likely that you won’t have permission to do this on your Trust network.
Adding web sites to ‘Favorites’
You can save the addresses of the sites you visit most frequently in your Favorites folder.
· Access the web page you want to save, eg www.hilo.nhs.uk
· Click on Favorites on the top tool bar
· Select Add to favorites
· Check the name in the box is something you will recognise, ie the name of the site
· Click OK
Now when you click on Favorites all the sites you have saved will be appear in alphabetical order. Run your cursor down the list to select the one you want.
Printing web pages
You can print web pages by clicking the print icon on your toolbar or by going to File and Print.
It is often worth looking in Print Preview before printing a page to check that the whole page is going to print out. It is very annoying when the right hand side of the text is missing! Changing the page orientation to landscape under Print Setup should solve this problem. Also be aware that if the web page you have open uses frames, ie the screen is split in two, sometimes only half the page will print, usually the frame you don’t want!
Saving web pages
You can save whole web pages in html format (the formal language of web pages). You can then view a page without having to be online.
· Select File from the tool bar
· Select Save as
· Give the file a name
· Select the location for the file, eg My Documents or on a floppy disk via the A:\ drive
· Click Save
Saving images is covered in the Images on the Web section on page 18.
Other file formats
Often full text documents or journal articles are stored on the web as PDF (portable document format) files. You can only open these files if you have Adobe Acrobat loaded onto your PC.
If you want to print, save or navigate around these documents you should use the new icons on the tool bar that appeared with your document, not the icons on your web browser.
HILO (Health Information London Online) – www.hilo.nhs.uk
HILO is the London gateway to healthcare resources. It is the point of entry for the KA24 service (see below) and provides links to local library listing and the cumulative book and journal catalogues as well as nationally available electronic resources.
KA24 - Knowledge Access 24 hours a day
KA24 is the local name of the nationally available collection of databases and full text journals which you may hear called the National Core Content.
KA24 is a collection of eight, searchable health care databases with links to full text articles from over 1,000 journal titles. Once you have registered to use the service you can access it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any computer connected to the Internet - at work, home, a library or Internet café.
The databases provide references of the printed journal literature. Most records contain abstracts, short summaries of the article. Some of the databases also reference other publication types, including book chapters, theses and reports.
Before you can search KA24 you will need a username and a password. You can now register yourself from any computer connected to the Internet. Try to do this from a work computer. This means that your account will be activated almost immediately. If you use your computer at home it could delay the process for a fortnight.
To register for the service click on the Registration button on the HILO home page.
The databases are accessible via the Databases link. The Journals link lists all nationally available full-text journals titles plus any additional titles purchased for the London region.
Athens – www.athens.ac.uk
The username and password you are given to use KA24 is known as an Athens account. Athens administers single log-on password systems for the health care and academic sectors. This means that your KA24 username and password will also entitle you to use any other resources for NHS staff requiring you to log in. These include:
· British National Formulary
· Images.MD - a database of images
· Electronic journal collections (eg Proquest; Ebsco)
· E-books (NetLibrary; MyiLibrary)
From the Athens web site you can view your account, change your password and directly access all the resources to which you are entitled.
Ø Go to www.athens.ac.uk and click on the link MyAthens towards the top left hand side of the screen. Then log on using your KA24 username and password.
The Resources screen lists all the resources to which you are entitled using your Athens password, including individual collections of full-text journals and the KA24 service (National Core Content) via the Dialog DataStar link. You can tick some of them to be stored under the Favourites tab.
A similar list of resources can now also be seen on the National Library for Health MyLibrary space (see page 30).
National Library for Health – www.library.nhs.uk
The National Library for Health (NLH) is the national gateway to a wealth of electronic resources. The full scope of the NLH is covered in the section of this guide starting on page 24.
Electronic journal access
KA24
A list of the 1,000+ KA24-linked journals only can be found on the HILO web site - www.hilo.nhs.uk - under the orange Journals button. This list includes any titles purchased to link to KA24 for London NHS users only.
National Library for Health
A similar list can be found in the Journals and Books section of the National Library for Health - www.library.nhs.uk - but this link only provides details of nationally available titles.
Local collections
You may also have additional titles available to you on a local Trust or collaborative basis which may be listed on your organisation’s web site or Intranet.
It is now possible to link all regional and local full-text holdings into the KA24 databases.
If you don’t know the address you need or are looking for information on a particular topic you will need to go to a search engine.
A search engine is a web site where you can put in a word or phrase to obtain lists of relevant pages related to that query. Search engines search millions of World Wide Web sites and other Internet resources to match key descriptive words. Many of them also rank the hits in order of relevancy, making it easier to know which sites are likely to be most helpful.
There are a number of different Search Engines, some of which are listed below:
· AltaVista www.altavista.com
· Ask Jeeves www.ask.co.uk
· Excite/AOL www.excite.com
· Google www.google.co.uk
· HotBot www.hotbot.com
· Yahoo www.yahoo.co.uk
Using Google – www.google.co.uk
Google is a good search engine to try first. It is fast, relevant and has one of the best systems for ranking search results.
Understanding web addresses
A web site address (or URL) can tell you a lot about the source and type of the information you have found. The first part of a URL is called the domain.
.ac / Academic site in the UKExample: www.bton.ac.uk
University of Brighton
NB academic sites in the US end with .edu
.nhs / NHS organisation
Example: www.bhrhospitals.nhs.uk
Barking, Havering & Redbridge Hospitals
.gov / Government organisation
Example: www.dh.gov.uk
Department of Health
.co or .com / Commercial organisation in the UK or abroad
Example: www.uhs.co.uk
Universal Hospital Supplies Ltd
.net / Commercial company which may be providing internet related services
Example: www.londoncareers.net
A site with information on jobs in London
.org / Non profit and voluntary organisations, eg charities
Example: www.bpassoc.org
The Blood Pressure Association
Country Codes
.au / AustraliaExample: www.melbourne.edu.au
University of Melbourne
.jp / Japan
Example: www.honda.co.jp
Honda Web Site
.de / Germany
Example: www.dhm.de
German Historical Museum, Berlin
NB sites from the US usually don’t have a country code.
Example: www.harvard.edu, Harvard University
www.amazon.com, commercial book company
Meta- or multi-search engines
Meta-search engines perform a search across a number of different search engines. This improves the comprehensiveness of your search. Examples of meta-search engines are: