The Electronic Newsletter of the Palm Beach County Library System

Contents:
1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes
2/ CHIS – Complementary and Alternative Medicine
3/ Database of the Month – New York Times Advance Sunday
4/ A Quick Byte – Adding a Desktop Icon
5/ In Next Month's Issue

1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes

Welcome to the November issue of Books & Bytes. This month we will tell you how to find information on Complementary and Alternative Medicine in our Community Health Information Service. In addition, we will show you how to access The New York Times Advance Sunday supplements in our Electronic Databases. Finally, “A Quick Byte” will show you how to add a desktop icon.

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 - Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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 research services, CHIS provides an excellent web directory that links users to the best health web sites online today. In this issue, we will be showing you how to find Complementary and Alternative Medicine:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/health-alternative_health.htm

Complementary and alternative medicine is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine. The Complementary and Alternative Medicine web page is divided into two sections – General Overview and Herbs and Supplements.

The General Sites provides links to several government and university web sites that provide useful information on this topic. For example, one site that is featured is MedlinePlus, which is famous for its drug information. It provides the latest news, definitions on different types of therapies and medicines, along with links to good alternative medicine organizations.

The Herbs and Supplements page provides links to authoritative web sites. For example, the American Council on Science and Health has a web site which provides information on the dangers of supplement and drug interactions.

Note: all the links provided are to free, high-quality web sites. So when you want to find good sites on alternative and complementary medicine, take a look at the Community Health Information Service:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/health-alternative_health.htm

3/ Database of the Month – New York Times Advance Sunday

The New York Times has long been a preeminent newspaper in the United States. The library has been proud to offer access to it for many years. Now, access to The New York Times has expanded due to the many different databases now available. This month we will feature the New York Times Advance Sunday which can be found through our Electronic Databases pages located on our web site at:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/edb/ss2004_new_york_times.asp

The New York Times Advance Sunday is an exact digital reproduction of the Sunday Arts & Leisure, Real Estate, Book Review, and Travel sections from the venerable newspaper. It is available for viewing in the library and at home. Be sure to have your library card handy if you want to view it from home, as you will be asked to enter your number.

To see the magazine, a special plug-in will activate called iBrowse. Depending on your connection, it may take a minute or so for the issue to load. Once on your screen, you will be able to leaf through the pages of the supplement, zoom in and out on a page, or even search the magazine for a particular word or phrase. You may even print pages that you wish to keep on hand.

It may take a little bit of time to become comfortable with the interface, but it is well worth the effort. The pages have been beautifully scanned in with a high quality of detail, not to mention the access to the award-winning content.

We will profile different New York Times databases in great detail in future issues. For now, simply visit them on our Electronic Databases page to experience them yourself:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/edb/ss2004_new_york_times.asp

4/ A Quick Byte – Adding a Desktop Icon

Desktop icons are very useful tools on a Windows computer. The desktop icons provide you with quick access to files or programs on your computer. Icons are usually added to the desktop when you install a new piece of software. However, if you wish to add an icon it is very easy to do. First, click on the Start button and then browse through the menus to find the listing of the program you wish to add. Instead of left-clicking (which would open the program), right click. This will produce an option menu. On the menu, select “Send To” and then “Desktop”. This will place an icon for that program on your desktop. Now, your program is only a double-click away.

5/ Next Month in Books & Bytes

Next month we will explain how to find information on mental health in the Community Health Information Service. Then we will look at how to search The New York Times Magazine in our Electronic Databases.

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

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