The HHS Digital Library is for staff from participating HHS agencies (ACF, ACL, AHRQ, HRSA, IHS, IOS, OS, PSC/FOH, SAMHSA). Staff from those agencies must log in to the HHS Digital Library for access to the resources listed on this page.
What is available through the HHS Digital Library?
- Over 9,000 online journals in the biomedical, clinical, public health, health services research, health economics, social and behavior sciences. A sample of the journal collection includes: JAMA, NEJM, Lancet, Nature, Science, Military Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA specialty journals, American Journal of Bioethics, Rehabilitation, Dental Clinics of North America, Dental Traumatology, Pediatrics, Health Affairs, Nursing Management, Nurse Leader, Nursing Research, Behavior & Social Issues, Behavioral Interventions, Harvard Business Review, and Public Health Reports.
- Over 57,000 eBooks in the biomedical, clinical, social, behavior and computer science disciplines.
- EndNote – enterprise-wide access to both the desktop and web edition of the popular tool for managing citations, bibliographies, and references for use in writing papers and managing research.
- 40 reference databases offering comprehensive coverage of all areas of healthcare. Selected sources include:
- AccessMedicine – contains 100 core medical textbooks.
- Business Source Premier – covers the business literature including marketing, management, finance, and economics. Includes full-text access to the Harvard Business Review and hundreds of other journals.
- CINAHL Plus – nursing, biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines.
- Cochrane Library – evidence based healthcare and health promotion intervention reviews.
- Embase – comprehensive biomedical literature database including over 30 million abstracts and indices from 7,500+ journals and conference proceedings including a complete copy of MEDLINE and 2,000 additional titles not indexed by MEDLINE. Full-text indexing of drug, disease, and medical device data tied to the Embase thesaurus improve recall.
- Global Health - the only specialized database dedicated to public health, completing the picture of international medical and health research by capturing key literature that is not covered by other databases.
- MediRegs Compliance & Regulation Suite – a database of online federal and state regulatory information in the healthcare and life sciences.
- PolicyFile – a source for U.S. and international policy and issue papers and reports from over 300 think tanks, research institutes, organizations and associations.
- ProQuest National Newspapers Core - provides same-day online access to Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
- PsycINFO – Journal articles, books, book chapters, and technical reports in the fields of psychology and psychiatry.
- Scopus – the largest database of peer-reviewed literature covering social sciences, economics, biomedical sciences with over 21,000 peer-reviewed journals, 130,000 books, 7M conference papers, and 27M patents.
- Social Services Abstracts - includes bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services and related areas, including social welfare, social policy and community development from over 1,300+ serials, journal, articles and dissertations.
- Sociological Abstracts – includes the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences from over 1,800+ serials publications and books, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers and working papers.
- Web of Science – multidisciplinary information from 12,500 high impact science journals, 170,000 conference proceedings, and 70,000 books, including:
- Science Citation Index (1900-Present)
- Social Science Citation Index (1900-Present)
- Conference Proceedings Citation Index (1990-Present)
- Current Chemical Reactions (1985-Present)
- BIOSIS Citation Index (1926-Present)
- Data Citation Index (1900-Present)
- Derwent Innovations Index (1963-Present)
- Zoological Record (1864-Present)
Training and instructional support for staff through webinar training presentations, one-on-one online training, and online tip sheets on the use of library resources. Training examples include:
- How to search the article databases quickly and efficiently (e.g., MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE and others).
- How to find gray literature (e.g., think-tank reports, statistics, white papers, dissertations, etc.) that is not readily accessible or easily found.
- How to keep current with the latest news, research or information of interest using news feeds; and other emerging applications.
- How to use EndNote and EndNote Web to create a library of articles for future publications about a project; personal use; create bibliographies for reports, papers, manuscripts.
- How to create online alerting services to keep up to date on topics of special interest.
- How to access the Library’s information resources and become familiar with our resources and services.
Document Delivery/Inter-Library Loan Service is available for staff to request journal articles, reports, book chapters, dissertations patents, or any other scholarly information that is not available immediately on the library’s website. Responses through the online request form are scanned and sent to requestors email address. Requests are typically processed within one business day, depending upon the complexity.
Book Borrowing Service is available to staff who request print books. Requested items will be mailed to the requestor as quickly as possible. The timeframe depends upon the complexity of the request.
A Biomedical Librarian/Informationist is assigned specifically to support this IAA and can provide:
- Research assistance with in-depth literature searches and summarized filtered reports of the findings
- Large-scale comprehensive bibliographic database searches (e.g., for systematic reviews, consensus development, evidence-based intervention reviews, etc.)
- Training support on the use of library resources
- Editing and publication support of manuscripts and reports
- Update and maintain website based on staff feedback and needs
- Work with staff on special projects (e.g., development online information portals, journal supplements, writing of guidance documents etc.)