Library Help Guides

Help Guides 

This page offers directions for accessing library materials from the Intercollegiate College of Nursing library and from a variety of bibliographic databases.These directions may be used in the Intercollegiate College of Nursing library or Computer Laboratory, or from your home computer. You will need your WSU Network ID, a library PIN (see Griffin for more info) for some functions, and may want your e-mail address to obtain articles through these indexes.

Betty M. Anderson Library

The Library home page gives you access to the three major sets of resources you¹ll need to complete course assignments:

I.  the books and journals in the Intercollegiate College of Nursing collection (and in many other libraries)

II.  the on-line indexes you¹ll use to identify and, in many cases, read journal articles supporting your assignments

III.  Names, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers of library staff

I. Library Catalog (Griffin) leads to books and journals in our collections.  It lets you look at your own circulation record.  You can request delivery of books not on our campus.  Complete issues of many journals listed in the catalog are accessible electronically via a "hot link" in the catalog record.  Search for the title, and click on the link (see Cancer genetics and cytogenetics for an example).  If you want guidance through the catalog, go through the part of the English 101 module starting here.  This gives you more information about using the catalog itself.  For more guidance on resources for the research process, you are welcome to go through any of the WSU Libraries' tutorials.

Reserves/required readings lists required readings for all courses.  Some are in electronic form; this file offers some instructions.

II. The Find Articles and Magazines at WSU link on our home page allows you to choose among a number of different indexes so you can find journal articles on specific subjects. You'll need to choose from a list, or search by name, or choose "Nursing" or other subjects to see lists of recommended databases.  When searching from off-campus, you'll use your network ID to log on to any WSU database or electronic journal.

We recommend, in order, searching the following indexes:

CINAHL  specifically indexes nursing journals and nursing articles, using subject terms derived from nursing practice. We¹ve included a guide to the most useful things to remember.

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) (which appears under a number of labels in the A-Z list) offers a large number of journal articles, many of them with full text attached to the citations. There¹s a short guide, too.

MEDLINE via PubMed offers the widest range of health science journal citations. There are links to many (but not all) full text journals to which we subscribe. Use the MEDLINE or PubMed choice from Find Articles and Magazines at WSU to connect.  Links to full text, when available, show in the "Abstract" display mode, and are at this link:    Use the help screens to focus your search results, or try the NLM Quick Tours . Students and faculty may also register as a Loansome Doc user with our library, to make it easier to request copies of journal articles not in full text.

There are many other databases available, on a variety of subjects. Browse the A-Z list, or look at the broad subject categories in Databases by Subject to find more articles.

III. Links to Library staff

Critique and Review of Papers:

There are a number of ways to get help with the writing requirements at the college.  One of the major sources of help is the WSU Online Writing Lab

When in doubt you can always ask for assistance, by phone at 509-324-7344, by e-mail to Bob Pringle or Mary Wood, or in person.

Students close to Yakima can ask about resources in the Reference Room, by calling 509-494-7901.

Those near Tri-Cities can get in touch with Harvey Gover at 509-372-7204.

Southwest Washington students can communicate with Linda Frederiksen at WSU Vancouver, 360-546-9683.

Ask Your Librarian!