The Electronic Newsletter of the Palm Beach County Library System

Contents:
1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes
2/ CHIS – Looking Up Your Doctor
3/ Database of the Month – “Science Reference Center”
4/ A Quick Byte – E-mail Notification
5/ In Next Month's Issue

1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes

Welcome to the August issue of Books & Bytes. This month we will tell you how to find information about your doctor and other medical professionals through our Community Health Information Service. In addition, we will show you how to search for science news and facts in a database called Science Reference Center. Finally, “A Quick Byte” will show you how to set up e-mail notification for your library card account.

We hope you enjoy receiving Books & Bytes. Please let us know what you think of our publication by writing to: webmaster@pbclibrary.org

2/ CHIS - Looking Up Your Doctor

If you are looking for up-to-date, unbiased health information, look no further than the Community Health Information Service (CHIS) of the Palm Beach County Library System. In addition to telephone and e-mail reference service, CHIS provides an excellent web directory that links users to the best health web site online today. In this issue, we will be showing you how to research your doctor and other medical professionals by looking at the Doctors page:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/health-doctors.htm

Choosing a good doctor is one of the most important health decisions that we make for ourselves and our families. Therefore, it is important to be educated on how to locate a reputable doctor. The Doctors page in the CHIS section of our web site is broken down into three helpful sections:

* Doctors' Credentials
* How to Choose a Doctor
* How to Talk to Your Doctor

One of the key resources linked to on this page is License Lookup, which is a service of the Florida Department of Health. License Lookup allows you to search for information on any licensed medical practitioner in Florida, including doctors, nurses, dentists, and more. Additional information on some medical professionals, such as education, years of practice, and any disciplinary proceedings, can be found in the accompanying Practitioner Profiles. The Doctors page also contains links to helpful guides to choose the right doctor and how to understand medical jargon.

When you need to select a doctor or simply want to learn more about your current physician, please visit the CHIS Doctors page at: http://www.pbclibrary.org/health-doctors.htm

3/ Database of the Month – Science Reference Center

Do you have questions about science, such has how quickly things fall, how fast is the speed of light, or the chemical number of gold? Whether you are a high school student, an academic, or simply have a curious mind, you can find answers to all your science-related questions in the Science Reference Database. It can be found through the library’s Electronic Databases page: http://www.pbclibrary.org/edb/patronlinks.asp

This database provides full text information for a variety of topics on science and technology. This product is designed to make useful science information easily accessible for learning and research. The articles are supplemented with over 10,000 periodical articles and more than 800 images. All encyclopedia articles are indexed by title, keyword, and person’s name, to facilitate easy searching.

Searching the database is straightforward. For example, a search for “Comets” produces 160 full-text articles, including some for the most recent astronomy journals. Searches can also be limited to people, subjects and images, and even encyclopedia entries. All results can be saved, printed out, or sent to other people by e-mail.

The Science Reference Center is a great tool to answer all your science queries. To use it, simply visit our Electronic Databases page at: http://www.pbclibrary.org/edb/patronlinks.asp

4/ A Quick Byte – Email Notification

The Palm Beach County Library System offers a choice of three different methods of hold or overdue notification: e-mail, or auto-mated telephone or paper notices. If you have an e-mail account that you access regularly, why not choose e-mail?

E-mail notification is not only faster than a paper notice, and more informative than an automated telephone call, it also offers the added bonus of courtesy pre-due notices for material with 14-day or 28-day loan periods. These notices will arrive in your in-box a couple of days before your library materials are due to remind you to either renew them or bring them back to the library. If you have access to the Internet and your e-mail, you can log on from a computer anywhere and manage your library account.

E-mail notices remain in your in-box until you decide to delete them, unlike telephone messages which others can mistakenly erase. They also provide you with the title and the author of the item on hold or overdue.

Please stop by the circulation desk at any Palm Beach County Library System branch and allow us to designate e-mail as your preferred method of notification.

5/ Next Month in Books & Bytes

Next month we will demonstrate how to find information on diseases and medical conditions in our Community Health Information Service. Then we will look at TCR Connections for Kids in our Electronic Databases.

Books & Bytes is published on the third Monday of each month.

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