Using databases to search for public health information can be a challenge: they don’t all look and act the same way. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, “Database search results are like a box of chocolates... You never know what you’re gonna’ get.” To help busy public health practitioners find the information they are looking for, public health librarians have created pre-programmed or pre-formulated searches on a variety of public health topics.

Hot Topics in Public Health, a service of the Minnesota Department of Health’s RN Barr Library, provides an extensive list of pre-programmed PubMed searches on a variety of public health topics, including health disparities, health promotion, and health communication.  Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce’s HP2010 Information Access Project offers a similar service using pre-formulated PubMed searches focusing on Healthy People 2010 topics.

If you would like to learn how to be a more effective PubMed searcher, read Using PubMed in Public Health: An Introduction Manual (2004), developed by librarian Melissa Rethlefsen, or visit PubMed at the UW. If you would prefer customized, one on one training, or just need to figure out how to tweak a search, email me for an appointment.

Finally, keep in mind that while PubMed is attempting to improve its public health coverage, it does not contain everything. Public Health information often lurches in the “grey literature.” Grey literature includes non-conventional publications, including, but not limited to: reports (pre-prints, preliminary progress and advanced reports, technical reports, statistical reports, memoranda, state-of-the art reports, market research reports, etc.), theses, conference proceedings, technical specifications and standards, non-commercial translations, bibliographies, technical and commercial documentation, and official documents not published commercially (primarily government reports and documents). The Grey Literature Report, the New York Academy of Medicine’s bi-monthly publication of public health grey literature, is one place to track down those illusive, information items.

Obtaining the full text of article citations, once you find them, can also be a challenge. If you are a University of Washington affiliate (UW staff, faculty or student), you can use your UW NetID to log in to restricted resources. If you are not affiliated, you may want to apply online for a free library card at King County Public Library or Seattle Public Library and search their ProQuest database, which contains many public health oriented, full text electronic journal articles. If you still cannot find full text of your chosen article, do not despair: I’m happy to assist both UW affiliates and non-affiliates learn to log in to their respective resources and find what they are looking for.