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Advanced BLAST - PSI-BLAST, PHI-BLAST and other Options
This class provides a general introduction to NCBI's more advanced similarity searching tools, including PSI- and PHI-BLAST. BLAST two sequences against each other, search by domain architecture using C-DART and learn strategies for dealing with short sequences. Find members of a protein family or build a custom position-specific score matrix with PSI-BLAST, and search for known protein domain motifs with PHI-BLAST. If time allows, FASTA (a non-NCBI resource) will be introduced. Pre-requisite: The HSCL's "Basic BLAST and Sequence Similarity Searching" class or previous experience with similarity searching.

Basic BLAST and Sequence Similarity Searching
Explore the basics of similarity searching, using the National Center for Biotechnology Information's Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST). Discover the differences between BLASTn, BLASTp, and the "translated" BLASTs, and learn which is best for a particular use. Learn to change parameters, customize your searches by organism or any Entrez search query, and see why it is sometimes better to BLink than to BLAST. Screen for vector contamination with VecScreen. Previous experience with similarity searching is not necessary.

CINAHL
CINAHL (Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) has a brand new look with a different interface. This class is geared towards students and faculty in the College of Nursing and the College of Public Health and Health Professions. The class is designed for the experienced CINAHL searcher or the novice.
Learn how to effectively search using subject headings and subheadings. Find out how to explode. See how easy it is to search for articles in a particular journal. See how to access full-text in the database.

CINAHL/PsycINFO
This class familiarizes you with the Ebsco interface that hosts the CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) and PsycINFO databases. Learn to :
  • Search one or multiple databases at a time
  • Limit and display results
  • Send your search results
  • Check for your access to articles' full text

Drug Information Resources
Need a prescription for finding the Library's drug and pharmacy resources? This class will show you how to retrieve full text drug information from the PDR (Physician's Desk Reference) Electronic Library and Clinical Pharmacology 2000 on less common, investigational, and approved drugs. Learn how to run multi-drug interaction reports in both databases. See what other full text drug information is available via the HSC Library. Explore IPA (International Pharmaceutical Abstracts) to retrieve journal articles and abstracts of presentations from pharmaceutical associations' annual meetings. Learn some tricks for locating articles on pharmaceuticals, medicinal plants or clinical trials in PubMed. Check out some Internet sites dealing with drugs, pharmacy, and even some herbal therapies.

E-Journal Madness!
Are electronic journals driving you crazy? Come to this short workshop to find out what's going on and get answers to questions like these:
Where do I find all our electronic journals?Why can't I get access to certain journals I want?
How do I access them from home?
Who do I contact when they don't seem to be working?
What do I do if it asks me for a password?

Electronic Resources Survey
Pressed for time but want a general overview of electronic resources? Whet your appetite with this "bus tour" of the resources you can access remotely via the HSC Libraries' Homepage. Brief demonstrations will be given on Catalog, PubMed (MEDLINE), Current Contents Connect, Web of Science (Science Citation Index), and StatREF. You will also be shown how to access electronic journals. We hope that you will come back for a more in- depth class on some of these databases at a later date.

EndNote X2
Come and see what you can do with EndNote X2, a program designed to help you organize your reference citations. In this class we will cover program overview, and some important terms and concepts. You will learn how to create and navigate the EndNote libraries, enter individual citations, and search/retrieve citations from EndNote, as well as how to download citations from PubMed, library catalogs, other databases, and import them into your library. We will learn how to use the 'Cite While You Write' toolbar and different ways of inserting citations into your papers for publication. It's easy to generate a bibliography according to the style of any particular journal!

EndNote Basics - Introduction to EndNote
EndNote version 8 is a program designed to help you organize your reference citations. In this class we will cover program overview, and some important terms and concepts. You will learn how to create and navigate the EndNote libraries; enter individual citations; and search/retrieve citations from EndNote, as well as how to download citations from PubMed and other databases, and import them into your library. We will learn how to use the 'Cite While You Write' toolbar and different ways of inserting citations into your papers for publication. It's easy to generate a bibliography according to the style of any particular journal!

Genetics Resources for Clinicians
Are you a health care worker or student who needs to find resources to learn the basics of genetics and how genetics relates to medicine? Are you already well informed in these subjects but need to be able to locate more complex information (including journal articles) to keep your knowledge current? Would you like to be able to find information for your patients concerning genetics and genetic disorders (including non-English language resources)? Or are you interested in genetics databases for clinical genetics research? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this class is for you! Learn about resources that meet these information needs, including basic genetics tutorials, classic print resources, websites such as "Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man" and "Gene Reviews", and research databases such as the "SKY/M-FISH and CGH Database".

Google
Curious about Google Scholar? Want to Google more effectively and learn about its advanced tools? This class will show you tricks and secrets that you can apply to Google or any of its services to make searching easier and faster. Plus, learn about Google features that you can use to impress your co-workers!

IPA (International Pharmaceutical Abstracts)
IPA, the International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, has a new look. This class is geared towards students and faculty who use this database to search for articles relating to pharmacy, drug discovery, pharmacology or pharmaceutics. The class is designed for both the experienced and the novice searcher.
Learn how to effectively search the database using the indexes, advanced search screen and the search history. See how to use the SFX feature to check if an article is in the library or if the full text can be accessed electronically.

Library Skills for Secretaries & Research Assistants
Cure those Oh - No - I - Have - to - Go - to - the - Library - and- I - Can - Never - Find - What - I - am - Looking - for - Blues. The Library Skills class is geared towards teaching employees more efficient ways to use the library. Topics include deciphering a bibliography, finding various types of materials on Catalog and in the library, and verifying citations. The class also includes information on how to request library services, including Super Searches, and obtaining materials not owned by UF Libraries. Experience hands-on training on searching Catalog and PubMed.

Molecular Protocol and Model Organism Resources
Looking for that special sequencing protocol that will solve all your problems? Need to find out how to care for Zebrafish or how to order Arabidopsis seeds? Come to this class where we will discuss print and electronic resources for protocol and model organism information. Learn to search in PubMed and BIOSIS Previews specifically for papers that discuss particular protocols or model organisms and explore our new resource - Current Protocols Online.

My NCBI
My NCBI is PubMed's old Cubby and more! Not only can you save search strategies to rerun at a later date, but now you can get automatic updates on them. You can also set search filters that you can turn on and off. There are specific search filters for Health Services Research subjects, publication types, age groups and more. Learn how to use this new feature to its full advantage.

NCBI's Sequence Resources: Entrez (including GenBank, RefSeq & Gene)
Discover how NCBI's Entrez search tool can link multiple genetics resources including nucleotide and protein sequences, structures and the literature. Learn simple tricks to make your searching more powerful, including limiting to a particular molecule type, organism, or GenBank division. See how "RefSeq", a 'curated' sequence resource, can provide the 'best' available sequence record. Explore "Gene", an NCBI tool that pulls together information from a variety of NCBI resources, and links directly to those data.

NCBI's and NCI's Expression Resources
This class covers expression resources available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information and the National Cancer Institute. Search NCBI's GEO for expression data collected by a variety of techniques - SAGE and arrays (DNA, oligonucleotide, tissue, antibody). Learn to compare SAGE libraries from normal and cancerous tissues by using NCBI's SAGEmap and NCI's SAGE Genie. Explore the links from these tools to other resources such as NCBI's UniGene project and Map Viewer.

NCBI's Genome Resources
This class will cover the National Center for Biotechnology Information's resources for searching, viewing and manipulating maps of the human genome, and methods for relating the map data to other resources. Four levels of detail will be represented: the human genome homepage, the genome view, the map view, and the sequence view. Genome homepages for model organisms will be briefly introduced.

NCBI Structures
Explore the molecular structure tools available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information website. Use Cn3D to visualize 3-D structures for proteins and other entities in the Molecular Modeling Database. Learn to rotate and zoom in on structures, change styles, add side chains, and annotate parts of the molecules. Create sequence alignments based on BLAST, and structure alignments based on VAST, among other advanced options.

NCBI Survey of Resources (see Survey of NCBI Resources)

NCBI's Variation Resources
This class covers two "genetic variation" resources available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, as well as other variation sites on the web. Explore "Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man" (OMIM) for allelic variant information on human genes and genetic disorders. Retrieve single nucleotide polymorphisms from the human genome by searching NCBI's dbSNP via Entrez. Review the differences between submitter and reference SNP records, learn to map SNPs to protein structures, and limit by a variety of options. Discover how reference SNP records link to variation maps in Map Viewer and Gene View.

PsycINFO and Substance Abuse Resources
This class familiarizes you with the Ebsco interface that hosts the PsycINFO database and with the ETOH and Alcohol Studies databases. Learn to :
  • Search one or multiple databases at a time
  • Limit and display results
  • Send your search results
  • Check for your access to articles' full text

Will also introduce relevant sections of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) and other websites.

PubMed Basics (NLM's Internet version of MEDLINE)
Want to get a handle on PubMed? This class introduces you to the basic features of this database that will make you a more efficient searcher. This will include utilizing the Basic Search Box to its full potential; combining searches using History; narrowing your search with the Limits feature; performing more accurate searches using the MeSH Database; quickly verifying citations with missing/incorrect information in the Single Citation Matcher; and identifies full titles or MEDLINE journal abbreviations using the Journals Database. This class serves as a basis for the more advanced class, ' PubMed--Beyond the Basics'.

PubMed--Beyond the Basics
This class covers complex search functions, including Preview/Index, Clipboard and Clinical Queries, which is used to locate evidence-based articles. You will also learn to exploit MeSH Database to its full potential. This advanced class on the PubMed database assumes your mastery of basic search functions and the simpler functions that are covered in our ' PubMed Basics' class.

PubMed in 50 Minutes (New version as of Fall 2009)
This class introduces you to some of this complex biomedical database's more basic features. Learn to:
  • Search for similar terms
  • Limit the number of results
  • Combine searches you've already run
  • Send/save selected citations
  • Check problem citations
  • Search by subject terms

PubMed-- Using PubMed for Evidence-Based Medicine
PubMed currently contains over 19 million records.   Save yourself some time by learning how to use PubMed tools like Limits, Clinical Queries and MeSH to hone in on the evidence you need.

RefWorks
Learn how to use RefWorks a Web-based bibliography manager, available free to UF faculty, staff & students. This is a bibliograhic manager that allows you to create personal database by importing references from text files or online databases or by entering citations manually. You can then use these references in writing papers and automatically format the paper and the bibliography in seconds.

Science Citation Index (see Web of Science)

Statistical Resources
Frustrated trying to locate health or demographic statistics? This class will acquaint you with reliable print and online sources that can help. It briefly covers Statistical Universe, TableBase and FactSearch
databases and introduces several print sources. If you are looking for information on disease incidence, healthcare costs, hospitals, health insurance, retirement facilities, or physicians, this is the place to start!

Survey of NCBI Resources
This very introductory survey will briefly introduce many of the bioinformatics databases and analysis tools available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Visit NCBI's site map and learn where to access sequence, structure, map, variation, taxonomy and expression data, as well as analysis tools such as BLAST and SAGEmap. Explore new resources such as PubChem (chemical structures of small organic molecules and information on their biological activities), GENSAT (gene expression atlas of the mouse central nervous system), and cancer chromosome databases. This class has been developed for students, faculty, and staff with little to no experience with NCBI resources. Following this course, attendees should know which resources are available from the NCBI webpage and the kind of data in each, how to do a basic search in many of the Entrez databases, and be able to determine which of the advanced courses offered throughout the semester will be the most beneficial to their research program.

Toxicology Resources on the Web
Need to find information on the pharmacological, biochemical, physiological or toxicological effects of drugs and chemicals? Learn to search TOXLINE, the National Library of Medicine's premier toxicology database. TOXLINE is part of TOXNET, a collection of bibliographic and fact-based databases (DART, GENE-TOX, Toxic Release Inventory, etc.) available via the web. Survey these databases, the full-text IPCS INCHEM web site, and a variety of toxicology web sites available through the HSC Libraries' web site.

Web of Science
Compiling a bibliography? Trying to find interdisciplinary materials that fall between the sciences and the social sciences? Then search the Web of Science! Learn keyword and author searching while exploring this database's ability to move backward and forward through reference lists. Determine what sources were used in writing a given article and what subsequent publications cited that particular article. Find related articles that cite several
of the same references in their bibliographies.

For additional help using any of these databases, see Help with Library Resources and Database Tutorials or call the Reference desk at