PUBHLTH 397B Air Pollution and Health

When you find an article you want, you can click on the UMass search button to get the full text.

The UMass search button connects to a tool that will find the full text online if it is available in any of the databases UMass has access to.

• It will also search the library catalog to see if the library has it in print.

If an article or book is unavailable at UMass Amherst, you can get it using our Interlibrary Loan service. There will be a link to Request this resource through Interlibrary Loan on the window that opens after you click the UMass search button.

• Here's a screenshot as an example of you might see after clicking the UMass search button.

More about Interlibrary Loan

To log into Interlibrary Loan use your UMass NetID and password (same as what you use for SPIRE and Moodle or Blackboard).

The first time you use Interlibrary Loan, you will be prompted to fill out a profile form, so we know who you are and how to contact you when your item arrives.

• NOTE: In the Delivery Preferences section of the profile form, you must choose a Loan Delivery Method and a Pickup Location. All article requests are delivered electronically, so these options do not apply to articles.

After completing the profile, you should then see a pre-populated article request form. Make sure all the required fields are completed (sometimes they don't all transfer to the form), then submit it and usually in 1-2 business days you'll get an email that your article has arrived! The email will include a link into the Interlibrary Loan system, where your article PDF will be available to print or download.

There are many places to find articles written more for the general population than career nurses or health professionals. Some suggested websites and journals:

Sign up for New York Times Online Access
UMass Amherst Libraries have purchased access to the New York Times Academic Pass program for the UMass Amherst campus. To register for your academic account to the New York Times, you'll need a UMass Amherst email address. 

Follow the Registration instructions on our New York TImes Online guide to set up your account.

Some news sources (like ScienceDaily, EurekAlert! and NIH News) make it easy to track down the original research articles by including a full citation and/or a link to the research paper - either within the news article or at the end.

For others, you have to use information provided in the news article to track down the original research. Look for:

• Names of authors (they may have been interviewed for the news article)
• Name of the journal the research study was published in
• TItle of the research study - if not provided, focus on keywords used to describe the research study

If you can identify at least 2 of these elements, you can use them in a Discovery Search or in PubMed to try to locate the original research. Here's a screenshot from Discovery Search of information I used to track down the research study discussed in the Guardian article you had to read for class: