Frequently Asked Questions About Accessing Online Resources
How can I get access to the WCMC electronic journals
and databases from home? Why can't I access from outside the Library?
From the Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences,
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Olin Hall and Lasdon House networks you may access the
Library's electronic journals and all the other electronic resources of the Library. If
you are a Weill Cornell Medical Center employee or student remote/off campus access to
networked resources is available from Information Technologies and Services (ITS) using
WebVPN or other forms of off campus access. See the
ITS Remote Access page for details.
If you are a New York Presbyterian Hospital employee remote access to networked
resources is handled by Core Resources. Networked resources does not
include Library resources. See the Core
Resources VPN Access page for details.
From non-networked computer you have access to our catalog of materials owned by the
Library. This catalog, Tri-Cat, is produced
by our Library and is made freely available on the Library's web site at http://library.weill.cornell.edu/. On the Electronic Resources
page, databases marked with an ** are free resources available outside of the computer
network. The most important of these databases is MEDLINE, brought to you by the National
Library of Medicine, which is available through an interface called PubMed at http://www.pubmed.gov/. PubMed is federally supported and is
distributed to anyone with access to the Internet. Some items have a [Free Version]
label. Although accessible from any computer, the free version may have fewer features
than the version provided by the Library.
For those who are interested in learning more about a growing movement to make
scholarly literature available on the Internet, free of charge, we invite you to read the
Library's Open
Access page.
What does "VPN not available" mean?/What
e-resources are not available from home or outside the network?
E-resource that are not available utilizing VPN technology are marked with "VPN not
available". Currently, UpToDate is not accessible with VPN access. This means there will
be no access from home/off campus granted even if you have VPN software installed on your
workstation and/or if you have been authenticated using Web VPN.
Where can I get a list of all your electronic
journals? What is the password for the electronic journals?
The Electronic Journals
page is the most up-to-date listing of our electronic journals. A printable current list is
available as a PDF file (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader). There
is no single password for electronic journals that require them. Journals that require a
password are marked *password. When you click on the title, the username & password
will be automatically supplied if you are using a Netscape browser (version 3 or above)
AND your computer is part of the NewYork Weill Cornell Medical Center network. If you
cannot access the username & password or have any other questions, please call the
Library's Information Desk at (212) 746-6055.
How can I print or download the full text of
articles from electronic journals? Which version should I choose?
Most electronic journal publishers give you a choice of PDF of HTML versions of the
articles. Once you are viewing the article on the screen, you can use the browser's Print
or Save commands to print or download that article. PDF is the most popular because the
printouts look exactly like a copy of the print article and maintain pagination and chart
size/placement. The free Adobe Acrobat Reader software
is required to view PDF files. HTML versions produce regular web pages and do not require
any helper software. The drawback of HTML is that the page numbering of your printout out
may not be the same as the original article, and graphics may be separate files that you
have to enlarge and/or print separately. The benefits to HTML versions are that you can
copy and paste text from these articles into other documents and that you can often
download or enlarge the graphics for more in-depth study.
What does a "TOO MANY USERS" message mean when I try
to connect to MD Consult?
The Library has been able to purchase seven licenses from MD Consult. If, at the same time,
eight or more individuals attempt to connect using passwords created at the NewYork Weill
Cornell Medical Center this message will appear. If you wait for a reasonable period of
time you may have better results. This period of time is actually defined by how long the
current users of MD Consult maintain their link. There is no automatic queue. (Updated
11/21/01)
What is the difference between PubMed and Ovid?
Both products bring you MEDLINE, plus more. PubMed is a database
containing MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE (citations provided to the database from publishers before
the citations are edited and subject headings are added) and other literature citations
created and produced by the National Library of Medicine. Ovid Technologies created its own web-based
searching software for searching a variety of databases including MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE,
EBM (Evidence Based Medicine) Reviews, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
(literature reviewed for excellence in research methodology), Cancerlit, CINAHL
(Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and EMBASE (Excerpta Medica
Database, a major biomedical and pharmaceutical database well known for its international
scope). Ovid's interface allows one to run the same search across mulitple databases.
This feature enhances the results by taking advantage of the unique focus of these
various databases. There are advantages and limitations to both the PubMed and Ovid
interfaces. Classes and
consultations are provided by librarians for complete instruction on how to exploit these
resources to your best advantage.
Where can I find a medical dictionary online?
From the Library's resources, you can first turn to STAT!Ref for the 2000 version of
Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Look for STAT!Ref from the alphabetical list
on our Electronic
Resources page. Once at the STAT!Ref homepage, click on "dictionary" at the top of
the page. Another online, or internet based medical dictionary available at no cost is
the
Merriam Webster Medical Dictionary.
Last Updated: July 2, 2008
