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Online Students’ Guide to RCSI Library

A-Z of our Online Resources

RCSI Library provides access to a range of online resources via our A-Z Resources page, including

  • eBooks
  • Clinical Summaries
  • Journals
  • Databases

See our short video on how to search for the different resources and explore the resources below.

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How to access a book or ebook

To search for a Book or eBook in the Primo VE discovery platform, you should type the title, author or other keyword associated with the book into the main search box. As you do so, the option appears in a dropdown menu for you to limit your search to Books & eBooks, allowing you to target your searches to retrieve these items only. You can also use the Advanced Search feature or the facets feature to further target your searches by adding additional specifications to your search criteria.

Primo VE will display the book's record information to enable you to locate and access it. If it is a physical book, Primo VE will offer details of its location and availability. If the item is an ebook, a link to the online location of the ebook will be provided. You will need to be signed into your Library Card account in order to view details of your borrowing record.

eBooks

RCSI Library's catalogue provides access to many eBooks that you can read offsite. See the video below on how to use the catalogue to access both eBooks and physical eBooks.

Accessing Clinical Summaries

Clinical Summaries contain evidence based summaries about healthcare topics and treatment options. They synthesise research into a summarised form, but are peer reviewed by experts in the field, regularly updated and link to further reading on the topic. 

RCSI users have access to four clinical summaries. 

  1. Uptodate
  2. Dynamed
  3. BMJ Learning 
  4. BMJ Best Practice

See the below video on what Clinical Summaries are and how you might use them 

What is a Journal?

When healthcare experts complete their research, they write their findings as a research paper and try to get it published in a well regarded journal. If a paper is published in an prestigious journal, it is considered reliable as it has been reviewed by experts in the field. You are expected to read papers in journals as part of your studies and RCSI Library provides access to many of them through our collection of eJournals and Databases.

Having difficulty accessing a Journal Article?

Follow one or more of the steps below depending on your circumstances:

  • Check the details of the journal article to find what journal it has been published in. See if RCSI Library provide access to that journal through Journal Search on Primo VE.

What is a Database?

Citation databases contain indexes of journal articles that are searchable by keywords and subject headings. As databases cover multiple journal titles, they are more comprehensive than searching through individual ejournal platforms. 

Searching RCSI Databases

You can search for particular databases such as CINAHL, Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus and more through our A-Z Resources or Primo VE either by browsing the whole list or using the search box to identify the particular database you wish to access.

 

See the video below on how to break a research topic down for searching in an academic database. 

Setting up accounts in Databases

Since the discontinuation of individual NIH / PubMed accounts, it is now necessary to use a third party sign on to access PubMed's account features. In practice, this will require you to either sign in using a personal Google or Office account or ORCID ID in order to save searches. This can be done through this link.

Further detail is available here.