2007 National Book Awards Announced!

The National Book Foundation has announced this year's National Book Award winners.

See a complete list of 2007 finalists.

FICTION
WINNER: Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) - Interview

NONFICTION
WINNER: Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Doubleday) - Interview

POETRY
WINNER: Robert Hass, Time and Materials (Ecco/HarperCollins) - Interview

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
WINNER: Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown & Company) - Interview

Find the complete list of National Book Award winners for previous years, and more bestsellers and award winners for children, teens and adults @ Find a Good Book on the Library's Website.

Health & Wellness Resource Center – New Search Interface

We are pleased to announce the release of a new search interface plus a range of new features that make your invaluable Health & Wellness Resource Center even better!


Available as of Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007 - the enhancements are designed to:

*Make the database easier to use by offering more opportunities to browse through the database and by enhancing your search options

*Add new pathways to information by adding two new tabs - Videos and News now have their own "homes" in your search results
*Lead users to current and reliable health information by exposing more of the rich content and then labeling it so that it's easier to find - "Reference" is now "Books and Fact Sheets" and "Other Sites" is now "Trusted Sites"

See for yourself - look for these new features in your Health & Wellness Resource Center this week:

*A new, updated interface.
*Additional browsing opportunities, with a streamlined design that offers more graphics and highlights current news headlines.
*Video results under a new "Videos" tab.
*Newspapers, newsletters and news feeds populating a just-added "News" tab.
*Improvements to the printing, e-mailing and viewing options available at the document level.
*Access to PDFs for many periodicals, reference, and pamphlets.
*Many content updates.

Since its inception, Health & Wellness Resource Center has established itself as the “go-to” medical reference in libraries everywhere. Providing easy-to-find answers via an intuitive and customizable interface makes this an ideal resource for researchers of all ages and levels of study.

You will find the Health & Wellness Resource Center on the Library's Website under the Databases & Websites Section.

Take a Guided Tour of the new search interface now!

Dietary Supplements Database

National Library of Medicine launches “Dietary Supplements Labels Database”.

The Dietary Supplements Labels Database offers information about ingredients in more than two thousand selected brands of dietary supplements. It enables users to determine what ingredients are in specific brands and to compare ingredients in different brands. Information is also provided on the health benefits claimed by manufacturers. These claims by manufacturers have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Companies may not market as dietary supplements any products that are intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Ingredients of dietary supplements in this database are linked to other National Library of Medicine databases such as MedlinePlus® and PubMed® to allow users to understand the characteristics of ingredients and view the results of research pertaining to them, including the following characteristics:

-Uses in humans
-Adverse effects
-Mechanism of action

The Database can be searched by brand names, uses noted on product labels, specific active ingredients, and manufacturers.
Warnings and Recalls from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), related to specific ingredients and supplement brands have also been provided.

The database is designed to help both the general public and health care providers find information about ingredients in brand-name products, including name, form, active and inactive ingredients, amount of active ingredient/unit, manufacturer/distributor information, suggested dose, label claims, warnings, percentage of daily value, and further label information.

When you are looking for quality, published health & medical information, visit the "Health & Medicine" section of the library's Databases & Websites.

For more information about dietary supplements and herbal treatments, take a look at the Drug & Herb Finder and the Alternative Health Encyclopedia that are part of the Health & Wellness Information Center.

Newsbank Hot Topics for November

Looking for a research topic for school...
Just want to keep up with current events...

Newsbank has provided the following hot news topics for November, 2007. These topics can be searched by visiting the America's Newspapers or Access World News databases.

Here's a few sample topics (you can get the full list below):

HEALTH - Superbug MRSA
TOPIC: A superbug found in over 1600 Australian hospital beds and causing scores of deaths as well as showing up heavily in the US is identified as Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). What is the major obstacle to patient recovery presented by superbugs? How do staph infections transmit?
SEARCH TERMS: staphylococcal infections

ENVIRONMENT - California Wildfires
TOPIC: A rash of terrible wildfires have caused about a half of million people to flee their homes in southern California. What have been some of the obstacles faced by firefighters when trying to contain and extinguish these fires? What are some of the causes of the fires?
SEARCH TERMS: California AND fires

Civics, Government and Politics - Primary and Caucus Schedules
TOPIC: The Democratic Iowa caucus has been rescheduled to January 3, 2008. This change aligns to what other political schedule? What are some of the overall changes in this primary season for schedules of presidential primaries and caucuses?
SEARCH TERMS: caucuses OR primaries AND presidential election AND 2008

ENVIRONMENT - Georgia Drought
TOPIC: A severe drought is limiting the water supply in Georgia, especially in the metro Atlanta area. What has been an environmental concern that has prevented Atlanta from some water that could ease its drought? What are some other contributing factors to the drought?
SEARCH TERMS: Georgia AND drought

SPORTS - Joe Torre
TOPIC: Manager of the New York Yankees, Joe Torre, has resigned his position after rejecting a controversial offer. What were the specifics in the contract that Torre found objectionable? What are the outstanding contributions made by Torre to baseball that will constitute his legacy? Will he be part of baseball next season?
SEARCH TERMS: Joe Torre

Want to see more? Get the full list of Hot Topics (PDF format).