This week we look at the resources available to students and faculty of Harcum’s Animal Center Management and Veterinary Nursing programs.

Animal Center Management and Veterinary Nursing each have their own library guide specifically crafted to the research needs of each program. Students and faculty are encouraged to bookmark these guides.

To begin with, each guide has the library hours, contact information and the Ask-a-Librarian chat window. Please contact the library if you experience any difficulty using our resources or need help finding information. We are happy to help.

All passwords for any of the resources mentioned in this post are located in your Harcum Hatch.  Log into Harcum Hatch and go to Quicklinks and scroll down to "Library Database Password List". Keep these passwords handy as you begin searching. 

Each guide has a search box for EBSCO Discovery Service. This is a great first-step in your search because it allows you to search a number of subscription databases at once. Search results often include a variety of formats including academic articles, trade magazines, eBooks and video.  Below is an example of a search I ran in EBSCO Discovery. I used the left-hand menu to limit the results to just eBooks. From here I can browse a PDF version of the book by clicking on PDF Full Text or I can see more details of the book by clicking on the linked title. 

Once you have exhausted the results of a search in EBSCO Discovery Service. You can move on to other databases that were not included in your Discovery search results. 

For academic articles there are a number of options. Students are encouraged to look at the suggested list of databases on the Databases tab. PubMed, Paperity and BioOne are three excellent sources for scientific articles. Each of these databases are open access. You do not need a password to search. However, you may not be able to access every article you find. If you need the full text of any article you can submit the details to us and we will order the full text through interlibrary loan

If you need films or videos, check the Kanopy Films & Documentaries tab. A curated selection of films and documentaries are listed on that tab but you can also go to Kanopy and search for your topic. The Kanopy tab details how to access Kanopy from home. If you have any difficulties accessing Kanopy, please contact the library

A few search tips:
Search keywords instead of phrases. For example, if my research is on the diet of cockatiels I would search using keywords like  cockatiel or Nymphicus hollandicus and diet or nutrition or feeding. Try searching for both the common and scientific names and using synonyms if your initial search terms do not yield the results you need. Combining keywords will give you fewer but focused results. 

Please reach out if you need any assistance finding resources. 
 

 

 

Roxanne Sutton

Reference and Special Collections Librarian

rsutton@harcum.edu

610-526-6022