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FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How can I access the library's restricted resources from home?
  2. I'm not currently affiliated with the Univeristy of Utah, can I pay a fee and gain access to the library restricted resources?
  3. Does the library offer any classes?
  4. How do I find articles from professional medical and health sciences literature?
  5. How do I find out whether Eccles Library owns a journal?
  6. Why don't I get any journal articles in my search results when I use your Library Catalog?
  7. What is the library catalog? How do I use it?
  8. What are the functions of the Boolean operators?
  9. How do I renew an item I have checked out?
  10. How do I order an article from a journal you don't carry?
  11. Do you offer a service where you copy a journal article you own and send it to me?
  12. Does it cost to order journal articles?
  13. Can I make copies at the library? If so, how much does it cost?
  14. How long can I borrow a book, or a journal?

  1. How can I access the library's restricted resources from home?
    All current University faculty, students and staff can connect to the University Network from off campus. See Remote Access for instructions.

  2. I'm not currently affiliated with the Univeristy of Utah, can I pay a fee and gain access to the library restricted electronic resources?
    In a word, no. The license agreements and contracts the library signs with publishers or vendors restrict access to current University of Utah students, staff and faculty. However, not all resources are restricted to the University community. There are several electronic resources on our web site which are freely accessible, such as our Library Catalog and PubMed MEDLINE from the National Library of Medicine.

  3. Does the library offer any classes?
    Yes! Workshops for faculty, staff, students and others are offered in database searching, full text databases, consumer and business resources, Internet resources, HTML, reprint file management, presentation software (PowerPoint.) To register or for more information, please visit the Schedule of Classes page.

  4. How do I find articles from professional medical and health sciences literature?
    To find professional journal literature, by subject, keywords or authors, consider using databases such as
    • PubMed MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. PubMed "provides access to over 11 million citations from MEDLINE and additional life science journals and includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources." Take the PubMed Tutorial.
    • CINAHL, the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, covers over 1200 professional journals in nursing, 17 allied health disciplines, and health sciences librarianship, with coverage as far back as 1982. In addition, CINAHL offers access to healthcare books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software in nursing, audiovisuals, and book chapters. CINAHL also contains complete coverage of English-language nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses' Association. CINAHL with Headings contains CINAHL-specific headings. EBSCO and Cinahl Information Systems recommend using the Cinahl Thesaurus that is supplied with the database in order to get the most accurate and targeted search results. This database is updated weekly on EBSCOhost.
    • See the Medical & Health Sciences Databases, A to Z page for a full listing databases that index professional literature.

  5. How do I find out whether Eccles Library owns a journal?
    The Eccles Library Catalog can tell you what journals, and what years carried (or holdings,) are available at the Eccles Health Sciences Library, or member libraries of the Utah Health Sciences Library Consortium (UHSLC).

    To find journal titles and holdings:
    • Highlight "Journal Title Alphabetical" in the left choice menu box,
    • type your journal title, or MEDLINE (NLM) title abbreviation in the search box,
    • then click "Submit Search" or hit the enter key.
    • If the journal title or abbreviation is listed in the results list, click the link to see the full information on that journal. Both electronic and print holdings are listed. If the library's subscription includes electronic access, you will see the "Internet Access" field listed near the top of the record. Print holdings are listed at the bottom of the journal record. For journal titles that are in the Library's catalog and in the MEDLINE database, you can click on the MEDLINE link in the catalog for a list of articles indexed in MEDLINE for that journal title.

  6. Why don't I get any journal articles in my search results when I use your Library Catalog?
    The Library Catalog reflects what journal titles (and other items) the library subscribes to - in both electronic or print versions. The catalog does not search on the article level. Instead, it searches on the journal or book title.
    To find journal articles, use an article database such as PubMed or CINAHL to find articles. (See the full list of article databases at the Medical & Health Sciences Databases, A to Z page.)

  7. What is the library catalog? How do I use it?
    The Online Catalog (Horizon) is a computerized database of materials - print, electronic or multimedia - owned by the Eccles Library. It contains records of books, journal titles and holdings, audiovisuals, theses, reserve items, government documents and multimedia located at the Eccles Library, the Hope Fox Eccles Clinical Library, and libraries which are members of the Utah Health Sciences Library Consortium (UHSLC). The catalog also contains records and links to the Multimedia Collection of digital graphics developed by the Knowledge Weavers at the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library as part of a National Library of Medicine grant. Online help is available. Additional features of the web-based catalog include the following: links to full text journals the library subscribes to, links to multimedia resources, and a form for recommending new book or journal titles for purchase by the library. Your feedback about the features available via the web-based catalog are welcome. Contact joang@lib.med.utah.edu with your comments and suggestions.

    How to use the Library Catalog:
    • Highlight your choice to search in the left choice menu box, e.g. title, author, journal title, subject. The default is a Keyword search from multiple fields in the record, The Keyword search is the most comprehensive way to search the online catalog.
    • type the term(s) in the search box,
    • then click "Submit Search" or hit the enter key.Location and availability of items is included in each record.
    • Records are listed in the results list alphabetically. Click the link to see the full record.
    • The full record lists the title, author(s) - if applicable, publisher, data of publication, and subject headings (National Library of Medicine MeSH terms.)

  8. What are the functions of the Boolean operators?
    Boolean Operators:

    Use the following operators to require or exclude keywords in your search:
    Keyword Action
    AND Finds only records containing all of the specified words or phrases. septic AND shock finds records with both the word septic and the word shock.
    OR Finds records containing at least one of the specified words or phrases. septic OR shock finds records containing either septic or shock. The found records could contain both, but do not have to.
    NOT Excludes records containing the specified word or phrase. septic NOT shock finds records with septic but not containing shock.

  9. How do I renew an item I have checked out?
    See Renewals.

  10. How do I order an article from a journal you don't carry?
    Use our ILLiad service - you will need to register and create your ILLiad account. PubMed users: first register with Loansome Doc, then ILLiad. After finding citations in PubMed, use the "Order" option listed under the "Send to" box.

    Journal articles, books, chapters and audiovisuals not at Eccles Library can be requested. Arrival time is dependant on delivery mode (fax, U.S. mail, electronic) and availablity at other libraries. Turn-around time for journal articles is usually 1 - 3 days. Most loans are subject to a fee and U.S. Copyright law. Rush service is available at additional cost. See Interlibrary Loans for more information.

  11. Do you offer a service where you copy a journal article you own and send it to me?
    Document Delivery is a fee-based service for material pulled and/or copied by our staff from the Eccles Health Sciences Library collection. We strive for a 24 hour turn-around time. Charges are listed on our Fees page.

  12. Does it cost to order journal articles?
    Usually there is a cost to order articles, books or audiovisual materials from other libraries; but students can order articles for free. See our Fees page for a list of charges. Most lending libraries charge $10.00 - $12.00 per article, and that is what we charge you. (If you are not affiliated with the University of Utah, the charge is higher.)

  13. Can I make copies at the library? If so, how much does it cost?
    Copiers are located on the main level. Self-service copying is 10 cents per page if paying with cash or 8 cents per page with UCard payment.

  14. How long can I borrow a book, or a journal?
    See the Circulation information on our Services page.

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