The Electronic Newsletter of the Palm Beach County Library System

Contents:
1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes
2/ CHIS – ElderHealth
3/ Database of the Month – The New York Times
4/ A Quick Byte – Alphabetizing Your Favorites
5/ In Next Month's Issue

1/ Introduction to Books & Bytes

Welcome to the October issue of Books & Bytes. This month we will tell you how to find information for seniors in the ElderHealth section in our Community Health Information Service. In addition, we will show you how to access the many offerings from The New York Times in our Electronic Databases. Finally, “A Quick Byte” will show you how to alphabetize your Favorites.

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 - ElderHealth

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 resources for seniors on our ElderHealth page:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/health-elderhealth.htm

ElderHealth provides a list of great web sites that address a wide range of issues, including these topics:

Discounted/Free Medication Programs
Help for Caregivers
Local Services for Seniors
Long-Term Care and Insurance
Medicare
Senior Wellness

One site to highlight on the ElderHealth page is “Florida's Prescription Drug Prices.” It is hosted by the Florida Attorney General’s office and allows you to search for drug prices in any city in Florida.

The web site provides pricing information for the 50 most commonly used prescription drugs in Florida. This is the price that an uninsured consumer, with no discount or supplemental plan, would normally pay. Prices at your local pharmacy may change daily, so this web site is only meant to help you compare prices at different pharmacies, and does not provide a guaranteed price. For example, a search for the drug Celebrex in West Palm Beach came up with over 30 different pharmacies that supply this drug. Prices for 30 capsules of this drug ranged from $91 to $127.

Note: all the links that we provide are to free, high-quality web sites. So when you need to locate health sites for seniors, you will find great information on the Community Health Information Service web site at:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/health-elderhealth.htm

3/ Database of the Month – The New York Times Databases

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 it now offers. There are in fact five different ways to access New York Times information. They can all be found through our Electronic Databases pages located on our web site at:
http://www.pbclibrary.org/edb/ss2004_new_york_times.asp

New York Times Advance Sunday: An exact digital reproduction of the Sunday Arts & Leisure, Real Estate, Book Review, and Travel sections.

New York Times Current: Full text articles from The New York Times, from 1999 to present.

New York Times Historical: Covers The New York Times from its first issue in 1851 all the way to 1999 with digital reproductions of every page from every issue - cover to cover.

New York Times Magazine: An exact digital reproduction of the printed edition, all pages, including advertising, photos, and graphics.

Today's New York Times: An exact digital reproduction of today's printed Metro edition, and back issues beginning April 24, 2005. All pages, including advertising, photos and graphics are included. (Sunday editions do not include Arts & Leisure, Real Estate, Book Review, Travel)

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

4/ A Quick Byte – Alphabetizing Your Favorites

Most people use Internet Explorer to browse the Internet. One of the most useful tools in IE is the ability to add Favorites, basically a way to bookmark your favorite web pages. One problem with this tool is that the sites are listed in the order that they were added. This can make it harder to locate a desired page. To make this list easier to use, it is recommended to sort them alphabetically. To do this, open up your Favorites menu with a left click, and then right click anywhere on the list. On the option menu that appears, choose “Sort by Name.” This will list the Folders and loose Favorites in alphabetical order. It should make your Favorites much more useful as a result.

5/ Next Month in Books & Bytes

Next month we will explain how to find information on Complementary and Alternative Medicine 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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