Health Sciences: Getting Started

This guide provides resources, services, and tools of interest to VT researchers investigating health topics and initiatives, including across disciplines and VT Beyond Boundaries' areas: 'Integrated Health and Wellness,' and 'The Adaptive Brain.'

Health Sciences Libraries at Virginia Tech

We offer a wide range of services and support. Visit our location pages to learn more:

Virginia Tech Carilion School Of Medicine (VTCSOM) Library (2 Riverside Roanoke),
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Health Sciences and Technology (FBRI HS&T) Library (4 Riverside Roanoke),
Veterinary Medicine (Vet Med) Library (245 Duck Pond Rd. Blacksburg)

Get Started!

Get Started with Topic Overview Resources, such as PubMed Health (clinical effectiveness), MedlinePlus, and more.

VT Libraries has many guides related to Health Sciences. Search all Subject Guides, or try out one of these:

Biochemistry

Consumer Health

Genetics, bioinformatics, and computational biology

Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise

Medicine

Population Health Sciences

Psychology

Librarians for Health Research

Health Sciences Librarians

Kiri DeBose, Director, Health Sciences Libraries -- health specialization: Head, Veterinary Medicine (VetMed) Library, and has administrative oversight of the VTCSOM Library & Learning Commons and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Health Sciences & Technology Library. Also serves as the liaison to Animal Sciences; primary subject expertise in veterinary medicine, and animal sciences, secondary in environment and human medicine
Tim Mey, Head, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM) Library -- Liaison to School of Medicine
Roberto Silva, Head, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Health Sciences & Technology (FBRI HS&T) Library, Liaison to Translational Biology, Medicine & Health
Ginny Pannabecker, Assistant Dean and Director of Research, Collaboration and Engagement -- specialization: health sciences and life sciences expertise

Collaborative Librarians w/Health Sciences areas

Anne Brown, Science Informatics Consultant & Health Analytics Coordinator
Jackson Hoch, Evidence Synthesis Resident Librarian -- health specialization: Liaison to Human Nutrition Foods & Exercise
Inga Haugen, Agriculture, Life Sciences, and Scholarly Communication Librarian -- health specialization: plants, soils, Extension, ag econ, ag tech, entomology, food science, and biological systems engineering.
Amanda MacDonald, Undergraduate Research Services Librarian -- health specialization: Human Development
Rachel Miles, Research Impact Librarian -- health specialization: Neuroscience, Psychology

Whole Health and One Health are transdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary endeavors. Identify and Contact additional VT Librarians who specialize in and support researchers in delving into areas such as politics and policy, natural resources and the environment, social sciences, the arts, and more.

Topic Overview Resources

Medline Plus
Produced by the National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library, Medline Plus brings you information about diseases, conditions, and wellness issues. It offers reliable, up-to-date health information, anytime, anywhere, for free. Learn about the latest treatments, look up information on a drug or supplement, find out the meanings of words, or view medical videos or illustrations. You can also get links to the latest medical research on your topic or find out about clinical trials on a disease or condition.

PubMed from NLM
Indexes citations, abstracts and full text from journal articles, case studies, conference papers, clinical trial reports, news reports, and reviews in the fields of medicine,nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and pre-clinical sciences. Full text available in HTML and PDF. You can limit to types of clinical queries, age, gender and species of subject, and review articles that summaries research on a topic. 1946-present.
PubMed citations and abstracts include the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences. PubMed also provides access to additional relevant Web sites and links to the other NCBI molecular biology resources.

PubMed is a free resource that is developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A mobile version is available.

Consumer Health Complete from EBSCOhost
Consumer Health Complete indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from many different source types: evidence-based reports, reference works including medical dictionaries and encyclopedias, fact sheets and pamphlets, news articles, drug information, and multimedia files. You can search by disease, condition, injury, or procedure.

Gale Ebooks
Gale Ebooks is a collection of searchable ebook reference works. You can search within a particular work or across the entire collection. Individual articles from these sources are presented in HTML and PDF. Illustrations, photos, maps, and multimedia content is often included.

Top Library Resources & Services

Make the most of library resources & services for your research!

Don't be afraid to ask for help. Simply contact your librarian directly! See health liaison librarian information on this guide, or use the email, chat, or in-person reference desk hours for our Ask a Librarian service!

Use Discovery Search to conduct a Google-like search of most of our library resources. While it's not a disciplinary database, like the ones that are recommend to you on this guide, it can help you gain a broad overview of a particular research topic or question.

When trying to access articles and other resources, look for the Get VText box:

Can't find full text or a print copy? Use the VT Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad) Service - for journal articles, book chapters (even if we own a copy), books, and more that VT does not own or subscribe to, don't pay to access research sources you need - use Illiad to request materials for free.

What Is Discovery Search?

Discovery Search includes records for most of the library’s resources: our physical collections, our journal and ebook subscriptions, streaming videos, reports, government publications, and much more. You can use limiters to narrow your search results by the format, date of publication, peer-reviewed, and availability online.

Interlibrary Loan Services

All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:

not owned by Virginia Tech (books, articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
owned by Virginia Tech but are unavailable for use (print books)
owned by Virginia Tech and available in print (scans of articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)

We ship requests via UPS to users outside the immediate Blacksburg area (Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties).

Articles, book chapters, and many technical papers are delivered in PDF format to your ILLiad account. Occasionally, due to copyright restrictions, a paper copy of an article or standard is held for your at the Newman User Services Desk or sent o the mailing address listed on your account.