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HLTH 351: Health in Humanitarian Crises

E-books

The Library subscribes to a large number of e-book packages.

There are many different ways to find e-books at Queen's. Most collections have individual book records in Omni, and you can refine your search results in Omni to e-books by using the books/ebooks filter under Resource Type.

You can also search e-book collections directly through searching through the Database page.

E-book Collections: Health Studies

Internet Resources

Search Strategies

Use Omni to locate books, book chapters, or ebooks on your topic. You can search by keywords, author, title or subject headings.

Basic Searching

The default search in Omni is simple or Basic Search. Enter one or more of your topic keywords into the Omni search box. 

Basic search supports the use of Boolean operators: AND, OR or NOT, and they must be entered in uppercase. For example:

  • gender AND disasters
  • protocols OR guidelines

To search for a specific phrase, type quotation marks around the phrase.  For example:

  • "humanitarian crisis"
  • "refugee camp"
  • "Hurricane Katrina"

Basic Search Example:

Once you have your initial search results, you can fine-tune them by using the filters on the left side of the screen.

Narrow or Refine Your Search

Narrow or refine search by adding other terms using AND to connect words. 

  • For example: "mental health" AND "refugee camps" AND women

Broaden Your Search

Broaden your results by:

  • Using the * symbol to truncate for variable word endings. For example: teen* will search for teen, teens, teenager, teenagers
  • Using OR between similar terms nested in brackets. For example: ("armed conflict*" OR "war zone*") 

Modify Your Results

You can Modify your search results by using the filters on the left side of the screen. 

  • For example: Modify your results by Resource Type such as Book Chapters, Books and eBooks etc.

Advanced Search

Use the Advanced Search option for precise searching.

Use the drop-down options within the Advanced Search screen to:

  • Limit your search to specific fields and/or a combination of fields (Author, Title, Subject, Call number).
  • Specify that your search words must be contained in the search field ("contains", "starts with" or "is (exact)."  
  • Select specific dates and languages. 
  • Limit your your search to a Resource Type or specific format or material type, such as book or e-books articles, etc.

Advanced Search Example:

Subject Headings

When you find relevant results, note the subject headings assigned. Refining your search using the same subject heading terminology may yield more precise results. 

If you are unsure of the correct subject heading(s) for your topic, conduct a Keyword Boolean search first. Next, conduct another search using the subject headings you find in your results for additional items on the same topic. You can also do subject searches (using subject headings) in the Advanced Search page in Omni.

Some useful headings for this course:

  • Armed conflict
  • Disaster management
  • Disaster nursing
  • Disasters
  • Humanitarian assistance
  • Humanitarian crises
  • Hurricane Katrina, 2005
  • Nursing care
  • Refugee camps
  • Refugees