Community Faculty: Library Resources and Services

Connecting to BU Services and Resources
BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID
Library Facts & Services

Electronic Journals

Electronic Textbooks and Reference Tools

CourseInfo

Campus Map and Directions to the Boston University Medical Campus

Obtaining Your University ID Number (UID Number)

Before obtaining access to campus-wide resources and services, Community Faculty must apply for a UID Number and UID Card.

In order to obtain your UID Number, contact Peter Reich, Office of the Dean, 617-638-5302 or preich@bu.edu, or Emily Stuckey, Office of the Dean, 617-638-7178 or emilys@bu.edu.

Obtaining Your Terrier Card (UID Card)

Community Faculty who carry UID Cards are eligible for access to a variety of campus-wide resources and services including access to Boston University libraries, Medical Campus and Charles River campus facilities, discounts at certain athletic and cultural events, and entrance to the Boston University Faculty Club at 775 Commonwealth Avenue. Community faculty with a UID Card also receive discounts at the BU Barnes & Noble bookstore, including a 20% discount on hardcover books (40% off on hardcover bestsellers), and a 10% discount on professional reference books and paperbacks (30% off on paperback bestsellers).

After you have obtained your UID Number, you are immediately eligible to receive a UID Card, or "Terrier" Card. UID Cards are available at the Boston University Medical Campus, room C-212, Monday - Friday, between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm.

Opening a Boston University Account

In order to use BU resources from home or office computers, you must first establish a BU account (BU Username and Kerberos password):

  1. Complete the BU account application on the Web at http://www.bu.edu/computing/accounts/proxy-med.
  2. After completing the online application, contact Ron Tate ((617) 638-4576 or rtate@bu.edu), Selim Hascelik ((617) 638-6696 or hascelik@bu.edu), Lenny Parker ((617) 638-4279 or parkerl@bu.edu), to finalize the account and receive proxy server or VPN client set-up instructions.
  3. For more information about BU accounts, contact Ron Tate at (617) 638-4576 or rtate@bu.edu.
Research and Reference Assistance

Librarians are available to answer questions about specific information resources, perform literature searches, provide training in the use of MEDLINE, the Internet, and other resources, and help with accessing materials through interlibrary loan or other channels. Feel free to contact the reference desk or any of the reference staff listed below for assistance:

Reference and Education Services
(617) 638-4228
Monday - Friday, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
E-mail your questions to refquest@bu.edu

Joseph Harzbecker, MSLS, MA, AHIP
(617) 638-4205
harzbeck@bu.edu

Megan Bresnahan, MSI (LIS)
(617) 638-6706
bresnaha@bu.edu

Kate Bronstad, MSIS
(617) 638-9183
bronstad@bu.edu

David Flynn, MS (LIS)
(617) 638-4271
dflynn@bu.edu

Konstantin Starikov, MLIS, MPhil, MA
(617)638-4239
kstar@bu.edu

Interlibrary Loan

Journal articles, books & book chapters, and other materials not held at the Alumni Medical Library are available through interlibrary loan (ILL). Interlibrary loans cost $3 for each item ordered, and usually take 5 - 10 working days to arrive.

Rush and fax fees vary, but typically cost between $15 - $25 each, depending on charges from the lending library. Rush requests are available Monday through Friday only, and usually take 24 - 48 hours to arrive.

Payment options for ILLs include cash, check, departmental account numbers, or grant numbers. Library staff will contact you when the requested item arrives. Interlibrary loan materials can be sent via U.S. mail, fax, or electronic mail, or held at the Circulation Desk for pick-up.

Submit interlibrary loan requests by completing an ILL request slip at the Circulation Desk, or via the Web at http://medlib.bu.edu/forms/illrequest.cfm.

For more information on interlibrary loan, contact the library ILL Department at illmed@bu.edu or (617) 638-4270.

Another option for finding materials not owned by the Alumni Medical Library is take advantage of Boston University's membership in the Boston Library Consortium (BLC). Membership in the BLC entitles you to use many of the collections of other Boston Library Consortium libraries, including those at Tufts University, Northeastern University, University of Massachusetts and many others. [Note: Harvard University Countway Medical Library is NOT a member of the BLC.] Be sure to get your BLC Card at the Reference Desk before going to other BLC libraries. Click here for links to BLC libraries' Web sites & online catalogs.

Photocopy Machines and Services
Self-Service Photocopy Machines

Seven photocopy machines are available at the Alumni Medical Library for use during all regular library hours. Only copycards are used, the machines do not accept coins.

A self-serve copy card dispenser/encoder is installed next to the Circulation Desk. Initially, a copy card costs $1.00 ($.50 for the card plus 6 copies). Thereafter, the cards can be encoded in the following amounts: $1, $5, $10, $20. As the amount of money that is encoded on the card increases, the number of copies received per dollar also increases. The copy card machine accepts bills only, and does not give change. Receipts are not issued for copy card machine purchases. If you need a receipt, you can purchase a copy card at the Circulation Desk.

Photocopy Service

A photocopy service is also available at the Alumni Medical Library. Library staff will photocopy pages from materials located in the library's collection for a fee of $.20 per page copied. Copies are usually ready within 2-5 days. Payment options include BU, Harrison Ave. or East Newton St. Campus grant or account numbers, personal checks or cash. No credit cards are accepted. Rush requests for in-house journal articles and book chapters cost an additional $6.00 per article and takes 24-48 hours to fill.

Photocopy request forms are available at the Circulation Desk or on the Web at http://medlib.bu.edu/forms/illrequest.cfm. One photocopy request form must be submitted with each item requested. Library staff will contact you when the requested item are ready. They can be mailed to you, or held at the Circulation Desk for pick-up.

BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID

BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID is Boston University Medical Center's in-house MEDLINE literature search system. BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID provides access to the MEDLINE, CINAHL (nursing and allied health), and several Evidence Based Medicine databases. Each database provides full searching capabilities using the OVID, Inc. search interface.

BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID is available for use by faculty, staff and students of the Boston University and the Boston Medical Center.

The system can be accessed from terminals in the Alumni Medical Library without entering an individual login name or password. Eligible users may also register for individual login names and passwords that will allow remote access from home or office computers. BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID is on the Web at: http://med-libinfo.bu.edu/ovid/ovidweb.cgi.

BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID Database Descriptions
MEDLINE

The MEDLINE database is produced by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and covers the fields of medicine, dentistry, psychiatry, public health, pharmacy, nursing and other biomedical sciences. BUMC MEDLINE contains the full MEDLINE database with over 11 million citations to world-wide journal literature from 1966 to the present. BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID also includes access to 1500 full text journals.

CINAHL

CINAHL [Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature] dates from 1982 to the present, and contains more than 200,000 citations to 550+ English-language nursing and allied health journals. CINAHL also provides citations to new books and pamphlets in nursing and allied health fields, audiovisual materials, dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of professional practice and educational software. The CINAHL database corresponds to the printed Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature.

Evidence Based Medicine Reviews Collections

BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID contains Evidence Based Medicine Reviews, a collection of evidence-based healthcare resources designed for use by clinicians and researchers. Reflecting current practices in the medical field to base clinical practices on accumulated evidence from the primary medical literature, Evidence Based Medicine Reviews provides content from several premier sources. These resources can be identified via the limit to All EBM Reviews option in MEDLINE, searched independently, or searched altogether in the Evidence Based Medicine Reviews collection.

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (COCH) contains reviews of current medical research. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (COCH) includes the full text of the regularly updated systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare prepared by The Cochrane Collaboration. The reviews are presented in two types:

Each issue of COCH contains new and updated reviews and protocols. COCH is unlike other "journal" or "serial" publications in that once a review is published it will appear in every issue thereafter. Because of this, each Review or Protocol includes a section about how to cite that document if needed.

The ACP Journal Club (ACP) from the American College of Physicians consists of two journals ACP Journal Club, a publication of the American College of Physicians, and Evidence-Based Medicine, a joint publication with the British Medical Journal Group. The editors of ACP Journal Club screen the top clinical journals on a regular basis and identify studies that are both methodologically sound and clinically relevant. They write an enhanced abstract of the chosen articles and provide a commentary on the value of the article for clinical practice. Using this source, clinicians can quickly understand and apply to their practice important changes in medical knowledge, without having to read and synthesize for themselves thousands of journal articles.

The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR) contains over 300,000 bibliographic references to controlled trials in health care. Cochrane groups and other organizations contribute their specialized registers; and these registers�together with references to clinical trials identified in MEDLINE and EMBASE � form the CCTR database. of definitive controlled trials. These controlled trials have been identified by the distinguished contributors to the Cochrane Collaboration. They and others, as part of an international effort to search the world's health care journals (and other sources of information) systematically, have combined results to create an unbiased source of data for systematic reviews.

The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE) is a full text database containing critical assessments of systematic reviews from a variety of medical journals. DARE is produced by the expert reviewers and information staff of the National Health Services' Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (NHS CRD) at the University of York, England, and consists of structured abstracts of systematic reviews from all over the world. DARE records cover topics such as diagnosis, prevention, rehabilitation, screening, and treatment.

BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID System Features

BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID boasts a number of unique features including:

BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID Login Names and Passwords

Community faculty are eligible for access to BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID. Simply make a personal appearance at the Alumni Medical Library in order to register for your account and establish your password. Please note that in order for us to process your BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID account application, you will need to present a valid BU identification card or your letter of appointment.

For more information on BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID accounts, contact Ana Caballero at (617) 638-4230 or acaballe@bu.edu.

Connecting to BUMC MEDLINE PluS/OVID From Home or Office Computers

To access BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID from your home or office, you will need a valid login name and password, issued by the Alumni Medical Library. Remote users can access BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID on the Web at http://med-libinfo.bu.edu/ovid/ovidweb.cgi.

MEDLINE TRAINING

Training is offered by appointment to individuals and groups of faculty, staff and students. Content, scope and scheduling of sessions can be individualized to meet the needs of each individual or group. To schedule a training session at your convenience, contact The Reference Desk at (617) 638-4228 or refquest@medlib.bu.edu.

Electronic Textbooks and Reference Tools
Click here for access to a variety of electronic textbooks that are licensed for use by Boston University Medical Center faculty, staff, and students.