Library Bulletin

January 1999

NOAH Is Here  (http://www.noah.cuny.edu)
By Donald H. Dederick

NOAH (New York Online Access To Health) is up and available to patrons of the library in the new Consumer Health Room and on other computers throughout the library.

NOAH is the collaborative project of the City University of New York Office of Library Services, the New York Academy of Medicine Library, the Metropolitan New York Library Council, the New York Public Library, March of Dimes, NYU Medical Center, Queensboro Public Library, and U.S. Healthcare. It is a bilingual consumer health information database.

Full-text materials are available in both English and Spanish. Each topic is divided into 5 standard sections: What is (disease), care and treatment, complications and related concerns, research, and additional information resources. The first section, describing the disease or condition, generally includes the basic description, anatomy, diagnosis, types, symptoms, causes, glossaries, statistics, and a question-answer category. Also included in NOAH is a hospital page where a table gives access to the hospitals of the tri-state area by hospital name, city, country, and state.

NOAH is just one of the databases and subscriptions housed in the Consumer Health Room which is open to all members of the SUNY-HSCB community. Whether you are a health science professional seeking to view health science sites for patient information, or a concerned member of the SUNY-HSCB staff seeking information on topics of concern to yourself and your family, the Consumer Health Room has something for you.

NOAH can also be found on the library's web page. Click on Selected Internet Sites. Go down the menu and click on Selected Sites which will bring you to another grid. Click on Consumer Health and then on NOAH. Sound difficult ? It really isn't. The Reference Staff will be glad to help you. In addition to NOAH, other databases such as Well Connected and First Search (MDX Health, Contemporary Women's Issues) and Health Reference Center  are also available. More about these next month. For a consultation to use NOAH or other consumer health databases and materials, call librarian, Don Dederick, at x7452, between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM, Monday through Friday and visit our Consumer Health Room.

SUNY Downstate Network Subnet
By Matt Avitable

On the weekend of December 19th, the University's network was brought down for a major upgrade.  As originally installed, the network was configured as one large system. As it grew, and Downstate connected to the Internet, this configuration was no longer adequate. With more users connecting simultaneously, the network became congested with increasing network traffic, and it began to take more time to make the connection to other sites. By segmenting the main network into smaller sub-networks which are isolated from each other, much of the congestion is eliminated.

On December 19th,  the computing systems were shut down while the Network Technology Group switched over to a new router. All computers on a new sub-network segment had to be reconfigured so that  information could be routed to the proper gateway. After intense work over 48 hours, and by Monday morning, most systems were again on-line with the exception of network users in the Basic Science Building who were using Windows 3.1 to connect to the Library systems and BMEC mail.

Due to recent software upgrades and sub-netting, unexpected problems arose. Fortunately, we have a solution which  should be in place  by the time you receive this bulletin. If you are still having problems connecting to Library systems, please leave a message on the Help Desk Voice Mail system at x7448 and someone will return your call as soon as possible.

Now that this upgrade is behind us, we are looking toward next year and the Millennium problem. The Y2K bug will affect us all. How you can prepare for the year 2000 will be the subject of a future article.

The Library provides full-text access to selected journals through our web site.  On the grid, click on the box labeled "Journals" to find an alphabetical list of titles received by the Library.  Access to these falls into four categories:
"PRINT"- available only in hard copy in the Library.
"DIRECT" - available electronically directly via the publisher's web site where you will find a list of issues available. Note: For some sites you may need Adobe Acrobat to view full text.
"OVID" - available through the Library's Literature Searching module (on the grid), Ovid. Log in by entering the Library-provided ID and password, given out at the Access Services Desk upon presentation of a valid SUNY ID card. After login, click on the database specified; then perform a search to access the article(s).
"FIRSTSEARCH" - also available through the Library's Literature Searching module (First Search), provided you are connected to your campus network account. Clicking on this link will take you to the opening menu for the FIRSTSEARCH utility.  Click on the database specified; then perform a search to access the article(s).
Note: You can not access "DIRECT" or "FIRSTSEARCH" titles from home.
(Plans are under way to allow this via authentication.)