Life West Library

25001 Industrial Blvd. Hayward, CA 94545

Directions to Life West

Location of the Library

Circulation
  (510) 780-4507
Reference
  (510) 780-4599
  ext. 2730

HOURS
Please call to confirm hours.

Monday to Thursday
7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Friday
7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday – Sunday
12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Current quarter calendar
Extended hours pre-finals, open hours during break, and closures for special events.

Library : Research Databases

USING THE DATABASES

Most subscription databases are Web-based, accessible from any computer on campus, including laptops with wireless capability.


Several databases are open-access, free from anywhere in the world.

 


PubMed search tip
To restrict search results to Life West holdings, “copy & paste” this phrase at the end of your search statement:     
AND (loprovlifewlib [sb] OR free full text [sb])
You will retrieve citations for all FREE articles + all articles from our paid journal subscriptions.

See also more tips about finding chiropractic in PubMed.

More Databases

These links will open a new browser window.

BioMed Central Quick Search | about  free

CAM on PubMed | about  free

Centre for Reviews and Dissemination | about   free
Google Books | about  free 
Google Scholar | about   free  
Green Books | about  campus
NCBI Bookshelf | about   free
NLM Gateway | about   free
PEDro (PT evidence) | about   free 
ToxNet | about free

ToxSeek | about  free 
TRIP Database | about  free 

Database Descriptions & Tutorials

Alt*Health Watch
Campus
Citations, abstracts and articles on alternative care, many in full-text.  Indexes journal articles and newsletters from many fields of "alternative" health care. Full-text for most citations. Use Advanced Search option to restrict search to peer-reviewed titles. 

BioMed Central Quick Search |  Open-Access Journals List
free
Open-access to full-text research articles, archived in BioMed Central or PubMed Central. BioMed Central publishes open access, online journals covering all fields in biology and medicine - from life sciences and ecology to clinical medicine. All of the original research articles in journals published by BioMed Central are immediately and permanently available online without charge or any other barriers to access.  Authors retain copyright.  BioMed Central supports PubMed Central and other digital repositories.  BMC also hosts other services, some by subscription. 

CAM on PubMed
free  
Automatically sets PubMed "Limit" feature to complementary and alternative medicine

Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
free 
Abstracts and summaries of literature evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of health care interventions.   This interface searches the following databases individually or as an aggregate:  DARE (Cochrane) for interventions, NHS EED for economic evaluations, and HTA for health technology assessments.

Cochrane Library | Help | Demo [scroll to Cochrane]
Campus
Full-text reviews of healthcare interventions. World-wide collaborative project aims to disseminate meta-analyses, by combining the findings of qualified research for an intervention.  A useful resource for evidence-based health care. The research article is followed by a description of the methodology.

Google Books | more about
free 
Search engine for words or phrases found in books.  Includes complete full-text of works in the public domain, and only selected pages from books still under copyright.

Google Scholar | Help
free
Search for citations to scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources. Google Scholar is a subset of the full Google search engine, currently with no advertisements. The content includes peer-reviewed abstracts, journal articles, technical reports, dissertations, book chapters, theses, and more from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities. Search results include a useful "Cited by" link.

Green Books
campus, in reference desk alcove
Complete set of the historical chiropractic series in PDF format. Search engine identifies location of words and phrases in the complete set of the historical chiropractic series, plus some additional classic texts not generally considered “Green Books”.  Authors include the Palmers and several other pioneering teachers.   Compiled by Robert Sinnott, D.C.  

Index to Chiropractic Literature | ICL's Blog | Twitter | Search tips + Help tab | Life West video tutorial
free
Citations and abstracts, 1985-present.  The database is produced as a public service by the Chiropractic Library Collaboration. It includes citations for peer-reviewed and selected trade journals in chiropractic.. Search by author, subject, or title keyword.  Citations for recent years include abstracts and links to online articles, when available as open-access or by subscription.   The latest features include:  ability to e-mail or export citations; live links to authors, titles, subjects and journals in every record; and Hold Citations feature similar to PubMed's Clipboard. Researchers are able to keep current with new indexing and new features by visiting ICL's blog or subscribing to ICL news on Twitter.

ICL has become a gateway to resources on the Web.  Its Open Access Library links to free articles, books and more. 

 

MANTIS on campus |  | more about MANTIS | FAQ
MANTIS off-campus | Advanced Search recommended
Campus; Off-campus (Life West users: see librarian)
Citations and abstracts of journals articles and proceedings in MANTIS; and reviews at ChiroAccess.  The Manual Alternative and Natural Therapy Index System MANTIS is part of ChiroAccess, a site focused on chiropractic research and clinical evidence in alternative health care and chiropractic. Use the Advanced Search option for the most flexible features. Searches can be restricted to a specific discipline such as chiropractic, acupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy, medicine, naturopathy, nursing, osteopathy, or physical therapy.

Off-campus use requires registration which is pre-paid for Life West students and faculty. Afflilated users are responsible for establishing their own registration and password at http://www.chiroaccess.com/registration.aspx

 

NCBI Bookshelf | FAQ
free

Online biomedical books with keyword search, a growing collection sponsored by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

NLM Gateway | Factsheet | HelpFAQ
free
Federated searching of databases at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). The current Gateway searches MEDLINE/PubMed, TOXLINE Special, NLM Catalog, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov, DIRLINE, Genetics Home Reference, Meeting Abstracts, HSRProj, OMIM, and HSDB.
Tip:  From within NLM Gateway, authorized users of the Loansome Doc service can automatically route requests for photocopying the full text of articles they have selected. Fees for document delivery apply.

PEDro | FAQHelp | Tutorial
free 
Citations and abstracts for physical therapy evidence, with links to full-text when available.  PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database, an initiative of the Centre for Evidence-Based Physiotherapy (CEBP) in Australia.  It has been developed to give rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. Most trials on the database have been rated for quality to help you quickly discriminate between trials which are likely to be valid and interpretable and those which are not.

PubMed @ LCCW | PubMed tutorial | Quick Tours for PubMed, MeSH, and My NCBI | Life West video tutorial
free
Citations and abstracts, from about 1950-present. PubMed is the National Library of Medicine's index to 11 million citations and abstracts of journal articles in the biomedical literature. By going to the customized link given above, instead of www.pubmed.gov, searchers will be able to see icons indicating which articles are found in both the print and online journal collection at Life West library. The icons are viewable only in "abstract" display mode.

Tip for ordering articles:  From within PubMed, authorized users of the Loansome Doc service can automatically route requests for photocopying the full-text of articles they have selected.  Fees for document delivery apply.

Tip for restricting search results to articles available today at Life West library:  Limit search results to Life West subscriptions + free, open-access articles by appending this phrase to the search strategy:  AND (loprovlifewlib [sb] OR free full text [sb])

Example:
Multiple Sclerosis [MeSH]   AND (loprovlifewlib [sb] OR free full text [sb])
Note: Most researchers do not restrict search results to the locally held journals because many relevant articles would be omitted. The librarians can obtain such articles via interlibrary loan.

Tips  for finding articles about chiropractic:  In order to focus search results on articles about chiropractic, build your search by combining all appropriate MeSH terms for chiropractic AND the MeSH term for the topic in question.  See examples #1, #2, #3 or #4 below.

Example #1: (to retrieve articles published in 2001+)
"Manipulation, Chiropractic"[MeSH] OR "Chiropractic"[MeSH] AND "Low Back Pain/therapy" [MeSH]
This example combines the two major currently authorized subject headings for chiropractic, using OR. The authorized subject heading for the topic is appended, using AND.

Example #2: (to retrieve articles published in any year)
"Manipulation, Chiropractic"[MeSH] OR "Chiropractic"[MeSH] OR "Manipulation, Spinal"[MeSH] OR ("Manipulation, Spinal" [MeSH] AND chiropractic [tw]) AND "Low Back Pain/therapy" [MeSH]

This example adds the phrase enclosed in parentheses ("Manipulation Spinal [MeSH]" AND chiropractic [tw]) to the terms used in the previous example.
Why is this needed? "Manipulation, Spinal" was the search term assigned to articles about any kind of manipulation, including chiropractic, in the years 1999-2000. This search phrase, amended to include chiropractic as a textword, will retrieve articles about Spinal Manipulation that at least mention Chiropractic in the title, abstract, or subject headings, regardless of the year of publication.

Example #3: (for a broad, unfocused search)
"Low Back Pain/therapy" [MeSH] AND chiropractic [tw]
This example looks for any articles about Asthma that mention chiropractic anywhere in the title, abstract, or subject headings.

Example #4: (for a very broad search that might or might not apply to chiropractic)

"Low Back Pain/therapy" [MeSH] AND "Musculoskeletal Manipulations" [MeSH]

This example will retrieve articles mostly about non-chiropractic manipulation.  This is useful for comprehensive searches, and in cases where the specifically chiropractic literature is undeveloped.

ToxNet | Help | FAQ
free   
Databases of citations with selected full text on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health, and toxic releases. From the National Libary of Medicine, Division of Specialized Information Services (SIS).   
See also: Factsheet about SIS and the SIS Portal: Environmental Health and Toxicology for searching ToxNet embedded in the portal that shows the wide array of services offered by the Division of Specialized Information Services.  Any health issues in the national news are commonly addressed here.

ToxSeek | more about | Help
free
Metasearch engine for searching toxicology and environmental health databases and Web sites.  Selected articles full text. From the National Libary of Medicine, Division of Specialized Information Services.

TRIP Database
free, but supported by unobtrusive advertising
Abstracts and summaries of medical evidence, organized and filtered from many databases to support clinical practice.  Has simple and advanced search.  List of medical specialties leads to ability to filter searches to specialized journals, latest news, and most popular searches.  Results can be sorted by year or relevancy.  Along with search results, TRIP displays how many related references are found in the “Filter by”   and Medline categories.  The categories are designed to be most useful to clinical practice.