Finding reliable information about sensory loss

Beginning your search

MedlinePlus is a good place to start your research. The site was created by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and gives information on many medical conditions. Use it to find basic information that describes your topic. Click on "Health Topics" to look for your subject.

Search MedlinePlus.

Another good source is Healthfinder. Like MedlinePlus, it is a site maintained by the National Institutes of Health. You can browse through health topics in an A-Z list, or use the search box to look for Internet sites with reliable medical information. The sites are selected from Web pages by government and nonprofit organizations.

Search Healthfinder.

Using library resources

The library is an excellent place to look for reliable information. The library catalog lets you search for books, videos, and other resources. The library also has databases of information in online books or in magazines and newspapers.

The library catalog

The easiest search is to type a key word into the catalog's search space and click the submit button. The basic search shows you only things that belong to Chemeketa's library.

The results of your search will display information about each item. The location is a short name for the library for example, "CCC" (CCC=Chemeketa), and the part of the library where the item is found (for example, "Reference"). The call number tells you where to find a book on the shelf. The call number of a book is given by subject, so books near each other on the shelf are on the same topic, or related topics.

Clicking on the title of the book will display more information about it.

Search the library catalog.

Using databases

A database contains organized information. The library's database page contains many different databases. The library catalog is an example of one kind of database. Another kind of database contains reference books you can read online. Try looking up your subject in one of these:

Oxford Reference Online Premium

Salem Health

Periodical databases contain articles in newspapers and magazines. Gale databases contain articles from many popular magazines and newspapers. For information on how to use Gale databases, see Gale database basics.

Search in Chemeketa databases

Updated by Reference.