Healthcare professionals read journal articles in PDF format constantly. You may be wondering what are the alternatives to printing out a hard copy for highlighting PDFs and e-texts electronically.

iAnnotate is an application written for the Apple iOS. It can run on iPads and iPhones. Reviews by medical students and the Chronicle of Higher Education have been positive. The iAnnotate app enables touch screen highlighting of PDFs on an iPad with the ability to add a note using the pop up keyboard. iAnnotate integrates your annotations directly into the PDF such that they are able to be read on a standard PDF reader like Adobe Reader or Preview, provided that you download the free Aji PDF Service software to your PC or Mac. This app has the added ability to transfer PDFs via email. Although this video shows someone using their finger, this would work better and feel more natural using a stylus such as the POGO sketch. At the time of writing, the app publisher Aji does not offer a version of iAnnotate for other operating systems such as Kindle or Nook e-readers.

Highlighting e-texts is a similarly enticing proposition. Nook and Kindle both enable highlighting of e-texts that are in their respective proprietary e-text formats (.pdb & .azw files), but the interface is clunky and relies on button clicks to place the cursor and highlight text one...character...at...a...time. iPad uses the iBook application to download, view, highlight and annotate e-books in the EPUB format purchased from iTunes, but it has as yet not the breadth of B&N and currently makes available popular reading titles not textbooks.

Laptops and Netbooks continue to offer viable alternatives to iPad. The Chronicle of Higher Education published an excellent article and follow-up article recently on software that lets you highlight and annotate PDFs on PC and MAC. Barnes and Noble recently released NOOKstudy for download to computers running Windows or Mac OS. The software has various tools including the ability to highlight text using a mouse, and to add notes, but only for e-texts you buy or rent from B&N in their e-reader (.pdb) format.

As this is a rapidly changing area, keep up to date with new developments by reading the Chronicle of Higher Education, CNET and the New York Times Personal Tech section.

GIDEON, a publisher of reputable online health information, has released a book on infectious diseases in Haiti. The book was already in progress when the recent earthquake occured in Haiti and its development was accelerated afterwards.

The Infectious Diseases of Haiti is offered freely by GIDEON for use by health care professionals. Infectious Disease of Haiti offers snap-shot data and clinical informtaion for the 198 human infectious disease which are known to occur in Haiti. For each infectious agent, a table provides key data including vector, vehicle, incubation period, diagnositic tests, and adult and pediatric treatment protocols. Additional clinical information including original references are also provided.

Do you need a comprehensive resource on clinical trials? If so, the Wiley Encyclopedia of Clinical Trials, now available online, is an excellent choice. Whether you are a student writing a paper or preparing for an epidemiology class, or a researcher working on clinical trials, you will find this resource of use.

The Wiley Encyclopedia provides information on many aspects of clinical trials. The overarching topics are clinical data management, clinical fields, device trials, ethics, genetics, methodology/analysis, regulatory issues, safety/toxicity and study design (phases I though IV). As an example, the Methodology/Analysis topic is further broken down into nearly 50 sub-topics ranging from absolute risk reduction and aligned rank test to the Wei-Lin-Weissfeld Method for Multiple Times to Events.

The Wiley Encyclopedia is a great starting point for concepts relating to clinical trials, as well as a superb quick reference source. The Wiley Encyclopedia of Clinical Trials is available in full-text online format, and can be accessed from on- or off-campus locations.

Himmelfarb Library welcomes recommendations from faculty, students and staff members for materials of all types that we may want to add to our collection. Because of your research, clinical, and educational expertise, you may be aware of an information resource that would be valuable to our collection, and we want to hear from you!

Although the final addition is dependent upon a number of factors, we depend upon your input to identify high-quality materials. Once a request is made, we will review the specific title, balance it with the other titles in the same area, and keep you aware of the final disposition. We will also provide any training necessary.

Please do not hesitate to contact us to make us aware of your request. You can submit requests and recommendations:

• Purchase Request Form
• By contacting the individual responsible for that area of the collection:
• Books: George Paul (202-994-3682, mlbgpp@gwumc.edu)
• Journals: Steve Brown (202-994-9756, mlbswb@gwumc.edu)
• Audiovisuals: Catherine Harris (202-994-9453, mlbcrh@gwumc.edu)
• Software: Alexandra Gomes (202-994-1825, mlbawg@gwumc.edu)
• Databases and Electronic Textbooks: Laura Abate (202-994-8570, mlblea@gwumc.edu)
• By making your request known to your Library Liaison.

Please help us with your special knowledge as we try to make our collection one of the best available.

PsychiatryOnline provides a single portal to access high-quality psychiatry information for clinical care, research, and education by providing full-text access to the DSM-IV, seven core psychiatry textbooks, six journals, APA practice guidelines, patient education information, and self-assessment quizzes.

PsychiatryOnline provides access to the current edition of the DSM, the DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It also provides full-text access to prior editions of the DSM going all the way back to the original edition. These prior editions are provided for reference only, so information from them won't be included in your search results. In addition to the DSM, PsychiatryOnline provides access to resources to assist you in clinical work:

• DSM-IV-TR Handbook of Differential Diagnosis (First, 1st ed.): A succinct reference to help ensure that all important diagnoses that need to be ruled out during a clinical evaluation are considered.
• Symptom Index: An important tool for differential diagnosis, taken from DSM-IV-TR Handbook of Differential Diagnosis.
• Cases from DSM-IV-TR Casebook and Its Treatment Companion (Spitzer, 4th ed.): Real-world cases that bring DSM diagnostic criteria and treatment to life.

PsychiatryOnline provides access to the current editions of a core set of textbooks published by American Psychiatric Publishing. All textbooks are available in full-text format, and can be searched or browsed for information. PsychiatryOnline's textbook collection includes:

• American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Geriatric Psychiatry (Blazer, 4th ed.)
• American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry (Hales, 5th ed.)
• American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychopharmacology (Schatzberg, 4th ed.)
• American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Substance Abuse Treatment (Galanter, 4th ed.)
• Gabbard's Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders (Gabbard, 4th ed.)
• Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology (Schatzberg, 6th ed.)
• Textbook of Psychotherapeutic Treatments (Gabbard, 1st ed.)

All American Psychiatric Association journals are provided in full-text format beginning with the 1997 issues and continuing through the present. You can also link to the full-text journals from databases including PubMed, MEDLINE, and Scopus. PsychiatryOnline's journal collection includes:

• American Journal of Psychiatry
• Psychiatric Services
• Psychosomatics
• Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences
• Academic Psychiatry
• Psychiatric News

PsychiatryOnline provides full-text access to the APA's practice guidelines. The APA guidelines are intended to provide evidence-based recommendations for the assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders.

To help patients understand psychiatric diagnoses and therapies, PsychiatryOnline provides access to a set of materials created specifically for patients and their families. PsychiatryOnline's patient educations materials include:

• What Your Patients Need to Know About Psychiatric Medications (Chew, 2nd ed.)
• Helping Parents, Youth, and Teachers Understand Medications for Behavioral and Emotional Problems: A Resource Book of Medication Information Handouts (Dulcan, 3rd ed.)

You can use PsychiatryOnline's self-assessment area to evaluate your knowledge of subject matter in different areas. The self-paced, online quizzes are based on content in four of the core online textbooks.

Access to PsychiatryOnline is provided via the Himmelfarb Library website. Remote access is available to all GWUMC faculty, students, and staff; information and instructions for remote access are available from the Library's Off-Campus / Wireless Access webpage. PsychiatryOnline can also be accessed via Blackberry/Treo PDAs/smartphones. Users will automatically be re-directed to a web version which is optimized for viewing on mobile devices.

Before your first mobile visit, you will need to create a free personal "My PsychiatryOnline" account. To create an account, access PsychiatryOnline from the Library's website using a desktop or laptop computer, then click the "My PsychiatryOnline" link and follow the instructions for creating an account. Your "My PsychiatryOnline" username and password will then give you access to the mobile site.

A new web tutorial, MS3 Clerkships: Information Resources, is available for 3rd year medical students which links to information resources relevant to each of their clerkships. The tutorial provides a tab for each clerkship (e.g. OB/GYN, Pediatrics, etc.) and provides links to 'best bets', key textbooks, handheld resources, and research article databases. The tutorial even includes a list of the EBM publication types to help identify high-quality clinical information.

Himmelfarb Library's print and online collections are extensive, so these lists are by no means exhaustive, but indicate promising places to start an information search. As always, if you have questions, please ask us! We're reachable by phone, email, or IM.

On January 12, 2009, Himmelfarb Library will launch a new, multi-database search engine. This new search engine will help users search all of the library’s database resources with one click of a mouse.

The multi-database search engine will help users determine which resources contain information on specific topics, help facilitate database discovery, and assist in locating pertinent print resources. Several demos will be held at the library and at the hospital to introduce users to the search engine.

Please continue to visit Himmelfarb’s blog for information about the multi-database search engine and the times and locations for the search engine demos.

Himmelfarb Library is exploring acquiring more books electronically with the addition of the R2 Library.  R2 permits the Library to purchase individual copies of electronic texts and build a collection to meet the specific needs of GWUMC faculty, students, and staff. 

Through R2, you can access the full-text of more than 100 books.  Access to R2 is available from both on- and off-campus, and users can link directly to a specific title or book chapter.  Himmelfarb Library will monitor R2 usage to determine if additional 'copies' of these electronic books are needed.

The R2 collection is linked from the E-Texts webpage and selected titles are also listed on the E-Texts page.  You can locate all of the R2 titles by searching the Library Catalog, just as you would with print books.

To date, the following titles are available as part of the R2 collection:

AIDS/HIV

TEXTBOOK OF PEDIATRIC HIV CARE (Zeichner & Read, 1st,ed.)

Alternative, Complementary & Integrative Medicine

COMPLEMENTARY AND INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE IN CANCER CARE AND PREVENTION (Micozzi, 1st,ed.)

Anatomy

FUNCTIONAL NEUROANATOMY (Afifi & Bergman, 2nd,ed.)

FUNDAMENTALS OF ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY (Rizzo, 2nd,ed.)

Anesthesiology

CLINICAL ANESTHESIA (Barash, 5th,ed.)

SPINAL AND EPIDURAL ANESTHESIA (Wong, 1st,ed.)

Cardiology

THE ECHO MANUAL (Oh, 3rd,ed.)

KAPLAN'S CLINICAL HYPERTENSION (Kaplan & Flynn, 9th,ed.)

PERIPHERAL ARTERIAL DISEASE (Mohler, 1st,ed.)

Clinical Competence

WHAT IF...! SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR PHYSICIANS (Goodspeed & Lee, 1st,ed.)

Critical Care Medicine

AVOIDING COMMON ICU ERRORS (Marcucci, 1st,ed.)

THE ICU BOOK (Marino & Sutin, 3rd,ed.)

PALLIATIVE CARE AND END-OF-LIFE ISSUES IN CRITICAL CARE (Medina & Puntillo, 1st,ed.)

Dictionaries / Terminology

COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY (Jones, 3rd,ed.)

Emergency Medicine

BASIC INFECTION CONTROL FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS (Kennamer, 2nd,ed.)

CARDIAC EMERGENCIES (Peacock & Tiffany, 1st,ed.)

EMERGENCY ORTHOPEDICS (Simon, 5th,ed.)

SPINAL TRAUMA: IMAGING, DIAGNOSIS, AND MANAGEMENT (Schwartz & Flanders, 1st,ed.)

Epidemiology & Biostatistics

PRIMER OF BIOSTATISTICS (Glantz, 6th,ed.)

Hematology & Oncology

CANCER PAIN MANAGEMENT (Fisch & Burton, 1st,ed.)

HEMATOLOGY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE (Hillman, 4th,ed.)

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PEDIATRIC ONCOLOGY (Pizzo & Poplack, 5th,ed.)

WINTROBE'S ATLAS OF CLINICAL HEMATOLOGY (Trachuk & Hirschmann, 1st,ed.)

Immunology

ALLERGY AND ASTHMA (Mahmoudi, 1st,ed.)

BRONCHIAL ASTHMA (Gershwin & Albertson, 5th,ed.)

Infectious Disease

EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES (Lashley & Durham, 2nd,ed.)

Internal Medicine

CHRONIC ILLNESS (Lubkin & Larsen, 6th,ed.)

HEALTH ASSESSMENT & PHYSICAL EXAMINATION (Estes, 3rd,ed.)

HEALTH ASSESSMENT THROUGH THE LIFE SPAN (Hogstel, 4th,ed.)

MACNAB'S BACKACHE (Wong & Transfeldt, 4th,ed.)

THE MANAGEMENT OF EATING DISORDERS AND OBESITY (Goldstein & Stunkard, 2nd,ed.)

PSYCHIATRY ESSENTIALS FOR PRIMARY CARE (Schneider & Levenson, 1st,ed.)

Medical Assisting

COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL ASSISTING (Lindh, 3rd,ed.)

Medical Informatics

MEDICAL INFORMATICS (Chen, 1st,ed.)

Medical Technology

BASIC CLINICAL LABORATORY TECHNIQUES (Estridge, 5th,ed.)

THE COMPLETE TEXTBOOK OF PHLEBOTOMY (Hoeltke, 3rd,ed.)

LABORATORY MANAGEMENT (Harmening, 2nd,ed.)

MODERN BLOOD BANKING AND TRANSFUSION PRACTICES (Harmening, 5th,ed.)

MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS (Buckingham, 1st,ed.)

Nephrology

CLINICAL DIALYSIS (Nissenson & Fine, 4th,ed.)

Neurological Sciences

CHILD NEUROLOGY (Menkes, 7th,ed.)

CLINICAL NEUROPATHOLOGY (Harberland, 1st,ed.)

HANDBOOK OF EEG INTERPRETATION (Tatum, ,ed.)

NAVIGATING THE ADULT SPINE (Fast & Goldsher, 1st,ed.)

NEUROLOGY FOR THE SPECIALTY BOARDS (Gloss & Weisberg, 1st,ed.)

PLUM AND POSNER'S DIAGNOSIS OF STUPOR AND COMA (Posner, 4th,ed.)

Nursing

CLINICAL CARE CLASSIFICATION (CCC) SYSTEM MANUAL : A GUIDE TO NURSING DOCUMENTATION (Saba, 1st,ed.)

CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR MIDWIFERY & WOMEN'S HEALTH (Tharpe, 1st,ed.)

FAMILY HEALTH CARE NURSING (Hanson, 3rd,ed.)

NURSING LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE FOR THE LPN/LVN (Anderson, 3rd,ed.)

PHARMACOTHERAPEUTICS FOR NURSE PRACTITIONER PRESCRIBERS (Wynne, 2nd,ed.)

VARNEY'S MIDWIFERY (Varney, 4th,ed.)

Nutrition

NUTRITIONAL HEALTH (Temple, 2nd,ed.)

PREVENTIVE NUTRITION (Bendich, 3rd,ed.)

Obstetrics & Gynecology

CLINICAL GYNECOLOGIC ENDOCRINOLOGY AND INFERTILITY (Speroff, 7th,ed.)

THE JOHNS HOPKINS MANUAL OF GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS (Fortner, 3rd,ed.)

THE JOHNS HOPKINS REVIEW OF GYNECOLOGY & OBSTETRICS (Fortner, 2nd,ed.)

MATERNAL AND INFANT ASSESSMENT FOR BREASTFEEDING AND HUMAN LACTATION (Cadwell, 2nd,ed.)

MEDICAL CARE OF THE PREGNANT PATIENT (Rosene-Montella, 2nd,ed.)

MENOPAUSE (Wang-Cheng, 1st,ed.)

POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME (Kovacs & Norman, 2nd,ed.)

PRENATAL DIAGNOSIS (Evans, 1st,ed.)

Occupational Medicine

CURRENT OCCUPATIONAL & ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE (LaDou, 4th,ed.)

OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH (Levy, 5th,ed.)

Ophthalmology

HANDBOOK OF OPHTHALMOLOGY (Agarwal, 1st,ed.)

Pediatrics

ESSENTIAL ADOLESCENT MEDICINE (Greydanus, 1st,ed.)

PEDIATRIC DERMATOLOGY (Krowchuck & Mancini, 1st,ed.)

PEDIATRIC OBESITY (Hassink, 1st,ed.)

QUICK REFERENCE CHILD ABUSE (Giardino & Alexander, 2nd,ed.)

RED BOOK ATLAS OF PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES (Baker, 1st,ed.)

Pharmacology & Drug Information

GOLDFRANK'S TOXICOLOGIC EMERGENCIES (Flomenbaum, 8th,ed.)

Physical Therapy

CLINICAL KINESIOLOGY AND ANATOMY (Lippert, 4th,ed.)

Psychiatry

AGE AND GENDER CONSIDERATIONS IN PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS (Narrow, 1st,ed.)

THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC PUBLISHING TEXTBOOK OF PERSONALITY DISORDERS (Oldham, 1st,ed.)

CLINICAL MANUAL OF EATING DISORDERS (Yager & Powers, 1st,ed.)

CLINICAL MANUAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY (Spar & Rue, 1st,ed.)

COMPARATIVE TREATMENTS FOR BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER (Freeman, 1st,ed.)

CONCISE GUIDE TO PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY (Marangell & Martinez, 2nd,ed.)

DIAGNOSTIC ISSUES IN DEMENTIA (Sunderland, 1st,ed.)

Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry

Tintinalli's Emergency Medicine

Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment

MDConsult provides 50+ clinically-focused texts, including

• Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics
• Braunwald's Heart Disease
• Robbins and Cotran: Pathologic Basis of Disease

Books@Ovid provides 30+ clinical and basic sciences textbook collection, including

• A to Z Drug Facts
• 5-Minute Clinical Consult

R2 Library provides more focused books on medicine, nursing, and allied health topics.

AccessSurgery is an integrated online surgery resource with videos, animations, and 10+ textbooks, including

• Schwartz's Principles of Surgery
• Current Surgical Diagnosis and Treatment

Ebrary is an additional e-text resource. It is an interdisciplinary library of 20,000+ academic books in business & economics, computers/technology/engineering, humanities, life & physical sciences, and social & behavioral sciences. You must download a reader to view Ebrary texts.

All of our E-texts can be accessed using the E-Texts link from our homepage. The first page provides links to the collections. You can also browse by book title or subject.

Off-campus access is available using the VPN(GWireless) or ALADIN (off-campus access instructions).

As always, please ask us if you have any questions or have trouble finding the information you need.

AccessSurgery is now available from Himmelfarb Library. AccessSurgery is an integrated online resource with information about surgery including videos, animations, full-text textbooks, surgical atlas, and board review materials.

AccessSurgery offers leading content including:

• Surgical Videos: Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
• Surgical Animations: Adapted from Zollinger’s Atlas of Surgical Operations
• Textbooks:
  • Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery
  • Current Surgical Diagnosis & Treatment
  • Maingot's Abdominal Operations
  • Obesity Surgery: Principles and Practice
  • Principles of Critical Care
  • Trauma
• Surgical Atlas: Zollinger's Atlas of Surgical Operations
• Surgical Anatomy: Skandalakis’ Surgical Anatomy
• Board Review:
  • Surgery Review Illustrated
  • Schwartz's Principles of Surgery: Self-Assessment and Board Review
• Quick Answers: Current Consult Surgery

In addition to access to a high-quality library of full-text surgery materials, AccessSurgery provides a number of special features to enhance education and support practice. AccessSurgery users can:

• Take a board review test.
• View surgical videos on your iPod.
• Look up a symptom or disease in the Differential Diagnosis (DDx) tool.
• Download Current Consult Surgery to your PDA.
• Link to AccessMedicine for additional information.
• Discover related practice guidelines by clicking a pre-populated search box.
• Create a customized search for just videos, just images, or view full-site results.
• Research drugs including indications, dosages, and contraindications.

AccessSurgery can be accessed from the E-Texts webpage and is available from both on- and off-campus locations. If you have questions or comments, please contact Laura Abate at 202-994-8570 or mlblea@gwumc.edu.