Health Science 536:Cultural Health Issues - Library research tips

Professor: Diane Visencio Dobbins

Librarian: Marcia Henry

You can email me at mhenry@csun.edu, or call me at 818.677.3012.

Assignment is to choose a cultural or ethnic group, research the group thoroughly including visits to where you might find them, and write a grant proposal with a health intervention targeting a high risk health issue. The grant must reflect research on the issue as well as the target group, with all the nuances they can find that will impact the outcome.

Cultures: Chinese, Korean Americans, Thai, Vietnamese, Russian Jews - recent migrants, Armenian, Two Indian tribes in So. California, Persians, Japanese Americans, Mixteco Indians

Goals of the library session are to:

• identify and learn how to use databases and websites that can help you find scholarly articles and authoritative data on your culture
• identify the subject heading(s) each database uses for your cultural group. Understand the use of keyword searching, full text searching and subject headings.

Databases

• Library catalog -- Advanced search helps you with Boolean operators and searhing different parts of the record
• PubMed (NCBI) use CSUN's link at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?otool=cacsunlib Use MeSH to identify the closest subject heading(s) for your culture. For example, the subject heading with India ethnology (will search Asian Indians) or Pakistan ethnolgy, Myanmar ethnology (is the subject heading for Burmese)....
• CINAHLPlus (Ebsco) - offers Cited references
• Health Reference Center Academic (Gale) - offers help with how to Cite -look for Citation tools on the right of full record
• Ethnic NewsWatch (Proquest)
• American Fact Finder -- find statistics from the U.S. Census . Look for Fact sheets, can do a zipcode or city lookup.

Multisearch- quick lookup in several disciplines -search up to 10 databases simultaneously, save records

• Health Sciences Multisearch at http://library.csun.edu/xerxes/multisearch/HealthSciences
• American Indian Srudies Multisearch at http://library.csun.edu/xerxes/multisearch/AmericanIndianStudies
• Asian American Studies Multisearch at http://library.csun.edu/xerxes/multisearch/AsianAmericanStudies

Websites

• Information About a Community, a CSUN research guide at http://library.csun.edu/Find_Resources/Government_Publications/zipstats.html
• Local Health Statistics and facts at http://library.csun.edu/mfinley/valley.html#health
  • San Fernando Valley Statistics and Facts
  • Los Angeles Department of Health Services
  • Los Angeles County zip code databook - is available online as well as in print
  • Asian and Pacific Islander Report - especially "The Diverse Face of Asians and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County " report at http://www.unitedwayla.org/getinformed/rr/socialreports/Documents/ASP_Report.pdf
• MedlinePlus offers several web pages for various ethnic and minority groups such as
  • Native American Health http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/nativeamericanhealth.html
  • African-American Health http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/africanamericanhealth.html
  • Asian-American Health http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/asianamericanhealth.html
• Office of Minority Health [ http://www.omhrc.gov/ ]-- HHS organization focusing on health concerns of minority populations

Catalog record for the Ethnic Quilt :Population diversity in Southern California --note also the link to WorldCat in upper right. WorldCat offers help in how to Cite in various formats, APA, MLA. WorldCat also advises what other libraries own the item.

Further information available from Professor Allen's website on its Table of contents and sample tables and text is http://www.csun.edu/~hfgeg003/quilt/Contents.html

 

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