Skip to main content
It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results.

You can still access the UC Berkeley Library's services and resources. Here's how.

PH 217C: Aging and Public Health: Home

Class Guide URL

        Course URL:  http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/ph217c

        Presented by:   Debbie Jan  (djan@library.berkeley.edu)

        Bioscience, Natural Resources, and Public Health Library

        Monday-Thursday Phone: 510-643-8615
        Friday Phone: 510-643-7254

Starting the Library Research Process

Is your topic researchable?
  » Elderly adults and transportation vs. Safety of crosswalks for elderly adults

Describe your topic
  » What are the main concepts of your topic?
  »  Are there synonyms?

What causes disease?
For any "disease" or condition, you could start by considering interactions among environmental and social factors.
  » Poor diet, resulting from food choices, "causes" nutritional deficiency or obesity in a population

But consider:
  » Is it "caused" by historical distribution of land use, including (in developing countries) during colonial times?
  » Or by the regulatory environment, including crop subsidies, food inspections, etc.?
  » What about the role of NGOs, IGOs, aid networks?
  » What about infrastructure, such as food distribution networks, transportation, etc.?
  » Is the status of women/girls a factor?
  » What is the role of commercial activity?
  » What about the healthcare and health insurance system?

Indexing

Let's talk about indexing! 

  • Do you want articles on labor or articles on labor? Or is it labour? 
  • Do you want articles on HIV (a virus) or articles on HIV diseases (such as AIDS)? 
  •  Is epidemiology a concept relating to the causes and distribution of diseases, or is it what epidemiologists do? 
  •  Is lead a noun or a verb?

Indexing facilitates more precise search statements, especially for topics that are vague or ambiguous.

  • Using index terms also helps you avoid the need to think of every possible synonym or alternate spelling of your search terms.
  • Indexing means the citations in the database are assigned terms from a controlled vocabulary (Not all databases use a controlled vocabulary, however)
  • Index terms are sometimes called descriptors or thesaurus terms; in PubMed they are called Medical Subject Headings, or MeSH 

Off-campus Access

We offer two ways to access UCB licensed library resources from off-campus:

EZProxy 
When accessing a library licensed resource via links found on OskiCat, Start your Search, or our Databases A-Z list, you will be prompted to authenticate via CalNet or via your PIN / Cal 1 card number. If you normally search via non-licensed UCB resources (such as Google Scholar), you may need to install our bookmarklet in order to authenticate.
Note: EZProxy will replace the library's previous proxy solution. More information on EZProxy can be found on our EZProxy guide. 

VPN (Virtual Private Network) 
After you install and run the VPN client software on your computer, you can log in with a CalNet ID to establish a secure connection with the campus network.