It has come to our attention that some people are unable to access their NCBI accounts from off-campus.  Occasionally, access from on-campus is also not working. With this problem, attempts to log into NCBI accounts result in the page failing to load completely. Sometimes, there is a notice at the bottom of the screen that you can click to allow the page to completely load, but that isn’t always the case.

It turns out there is a problem with the way that the library’s proxy server is interacting with the NCBI login page.  (The proxy server is what makes the links to full-text work.) The issue is being addressed, but in the meantime, if you want to use your NCBI account through the Hardin Library website, please use the following link: PubMed NCBI. You should use this link instead of the link at the top right of the PubMed website.

Once you are logged into NCBI, you can access PubMed by using the link at the bottom of the page as shown in this image.

If you continue to have problems accessing your NCBI account or have any other questions, please contact Hardin Library.

If you are a RefWorks user, you may notice that when you log into your RefWorks account and select tools,  you will see that a new version of WNC 4 was released Jan 4, 2013. There are new features and bug fixes in this version. However, this newest version does not work with Microsoft Office 2013.

Office 2013 users should continue using earlier version of WNC 4 if you already have it installed. You could also use WNC 3 or One Line/Cite View to format in-text citations and bibliographies.

We have asked RefWorks for an estimated time of release of updated WNC version compatible with Office 2013, and they are unable to project. They have confirmed that WNC 3 will continue to be supported/updated for some time.

Also, we have updated the webpage that appears when the RefWorks link from the Hardin Library home page is selected. The information previously on this page has all been moved to a new display format, with a news/updates box at top of page. Note other important link relocation in below screenshot.  

Please continue to contact the reference desk or your  librarian liaison if you have questions or problems with RefWorks or WNC. We will direct you to RefWorks technical support when necessary.

Do you use Web of Knowledge or Web of Science? Some new enhancements were added to the abstract and citation database this week, including improvements to the Author Search (previously known as Author Finder), editing results sets, ReseacherID, Citation Alerts and the new Data Citation Index.

The Data Citation Index allows cross-disciplinary searching and easier connections to data sets.

To learn more, view this short video or read the Web of Knowledge upgrade announcement.

If you need additional help with Web of Science, please contact your librarian.

Coinciding (approximately) with their 100 millionth search, Trip has announced that the latest version of their website has been released.

It’s a complete overhaul with a new design (including logo), new features and some powerful new tools (including a PICO search interface). They have produced a brief screencast to demonstrate some of the new features http://www.screenr.com/mCj8 but it’s probably best to try the site yourself – http://www.tripdatabase.com

If you aren’t familiar with Trip, it’s a free online database designed to provide integrated results from a variety of clinical resources including evidence-based synopses, systematic reviews, guidelines and original articles. Trip searches multiple resources, including but not limited to PubMed, National Guideline Clearinghouse, NICE, and Cochrane.

You’ll notice that there’s an option for creating an account for Trip, but it isn’t required. You can simply click the “x” on the top right corner of the pop-up box and start searching.  Since Trip includes both free and subscription based resources, you may need to locate full text in Hardin Library resources after identifying the citation in Trip.

As always, if you have any questions of comments, don’t hesitate to Contact Us.

If you’ve had any experiences with systematic review or writing dissertations/theses, you may have heard of grey literature.

Grey  literature is unpublished and can be hard to find.   Some examples include:

• Pre-Prints
• E-Prints
• Academic Works
• Commission Reports
• Committee Reports
• White Papers
• Technical Reports
• Government Reports
• Conference Reports
• Technical Standards
• Dissertations
• Theses
• Working Papers
• Market Surveys
• Data Sets

Recently, librarians from Main, Sciences and Hardin Library have put together a guide to help people get started with locating and using grey literature.  You can access this guide at http://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/graylit

As always, if you have questions about grey literature, please do not hesitate to contact Hardin Library.

The EBSCOhost Mobile Application for iPhone provides you with the ability to search the EBSCOhost databases that the University of Iowa subscribes to via the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch without having to enter your HawkID and password every time you search. This app is available at no cost to University of Iowa affiliates since the University of Iowa Libraries pay for access to EBSCOhost resources.

To download this app, simply go to an EBSCOhost database (like CINAHL) and you’ll see a link at the bottom of each database page where you can register your email to download the app. Make sure you pick an email account that can be accessed on the mobile device where you plan to download the app. If you don’t get a chance to download the app within 24 hours, simply go back into an EBSCO database and register for the app, again. Keep in mind that you must be connected to a cellular network or WiFi to use this app, but you will not have to enter your HawkID and password. You will have to register for a new authentication key every nine months.

On the Home page, you will see options for retrieving recent searches (up to 25), saved searches, saved articles, Help, and Legal. At the bottom of the screen, there are navigation options for Home, Search, Settings, Recent, and Saved.  From the Search screen, you can run keyword searches and take advantage of truncation and nesting. Once a search is run, the default is 20 results per page but there is an option for loading more results.  In instances where there is a PDF available through EBSCOhost, an icon will appear near the bottom right of the citation. Clicking on a result gives options for viewing an abstract when available, saving the citation (or PDF if available) to the Save section of the app, checking for full text via InfoLink, emailing the citation (and PDF if available), and other similar functions. When PDFs are available, there is an option to save them to another app on your device. Examples include Kindle, Stanza, iBooks, Mendeley or Dropbo which also provide options for printing articles. Near the top of the Search screen are buttons to Refine or Save.  The options for Refine change a bit depending on which databases are activated.  For example, options for CINAHL Plus included limiting by journal, SubjectMajor, SubjectAge, and SubjectGender. The Save button allows the user to save the search indefinitely. Unfortunately, the app cannot be connected to a personal EBSCO account.  This means that users are unable to save searches in a way that would be accessible through another device later on.

The Settings screen, allows you to choose which EBSCO databases you would like to search. The default is for the app to search all the databases available through the University of Iowa, but this can easily be changed using check boxes to the left of each database. You can also use the Settings page to set search options such as limiting to: full text, peer-reviewed, publication name (the title must be entered manually) or publication date.

If you don’t want to download another app, you can also use EBSCO through your mobile device by simply going to the Hardin Library homepage.  However, you will have to authenticate using your HawkID and password every time you use the database this way. You also won’t have the ability to save searches and articles/citations as you would if you were using the app.

There are some nice features available through the mobile site that are not available in the app as well. For example, if one is searching CINAHL Plus via the mobile website, there are search options that allow for limiting to “pre-CINAHL” or to “exclude MEDLINE records.” In addition, a list of field codes is provided in Mobile EBSCO for the advanced searcher. The app searcher can use field codes, but must find them elsewhere.  Finally, the Mobile EBSCO version allows searchers to email results by screen rather than having to email citations one at a time. Both the Mobile EBSCO and the EBSCOhost for iPhone contain simplified versions of EBSCOhost databases and neither allows for access to My EBSCOhost accounts.

As always, if you’d like assistance with using the EBSCOhost app, website, or any other library resource, please do not hesitate to contact Hardin Library.