This library guide last updated 8/21/2023
** NEW ** Expanded JoVE video subscription. UpToDate for medical info, & JAMA now online
Check out reservation system for study rooms
Mike @ Reference
Updated: March 13, 2024 for winter 2024 semester of library renovation
Professor Mike Strahan is generally available for assistance weekday afternoons 1pm - 4pm ET, & evenings 8pm - 11 pm ET via live chat, email, & zoom.
Assistance is available via Live Chat (see box on right side of this library guide & his other library guides), EduCat Messaging, email or phone (906-227-2463).
Professor Strahan is also available via Zoom by Appointment (including groups).
Students may schedule an appointment with Professor Strahan via live chat, clicking on the "Schedule Appointment" button, through EduCat Messaging, phone, or via email: Click here to email Professor Mike Strahan
For those students who attend classes on-campus or visit campus, Professor Strahan is available in person:
Mondays: 1 - 4 pm @ Reference in Jamrich Hall lobbies (look for green sign)
Tuesdays: 1 - 5pm in office (Library in Gries ground floor)
Wednesdays: 1 - 3pm @ Reference in Whitman Room 179 (Dept. of Education office--see arrow below). Look for green sign.
Wednesdays: 3 - 4pm Reference in The Science Building Room 1540A (go through Hearing Clinic across from SLH Office Room 1513), & 4 - 5pm (office hour) in Room 1540A. Look for green signs.
Thursdays: usually not available afternoons, but available Thursday evenings online.
Fridays: 2 - 4 pm in office (Library in Gries ground floor)
Please note: Library instruction & committee meetings may affect the above daytime schedule.
Professor Strahan looks forward to helping you with APA style, searching, and questions about Library services.
Searching Primary Medical Databases (Please do not bookmark link or landing page)
The database for researching all medicine. Includes links to FREE articles, and (NMU Library) button to retrieve/request materials.
For BEST results, avoid searching by keywords. Instead, always begin by searching topic in MeSH, then apply subheadings/qualifiers.
Consider restricting to MeSH Major topic for articles which focus on topic.
NMU Library-created PubMed videos (under revision)
How to Search using MeSH headings, and retrieve free/subscription online articles (5-minute video)
How to Create an NCBI account in PubMed (guide) -- Highly recommended to grad students & faculty
Journal articles, books, and other resources across many subjects. Provides a "cited by" feature to indicate other papers containing a source paper as a reference.
Google Scholar - "Invalid Domain for Site Key" Error
In an effort to optimize user experience during peak activity, Google Scholar may prompt Northern Michigan University patrons to complete a reCAPTCHA widget to verify their non-robot status. Unfortunately, a security glitch in Google's widget may result in an "Invalid domain for site key" error for patrons accessing the Library's off-campus proxy server.
Workaround:
If you possess a Google Account, you can integrate it with the Library using the following steps:
- Visit the un-proxied version of Google Scholar at https://scholar.google.com.
- Click the "Sign In" button and log in with your NMU account (xxxx@nmu.edu).
- From the menu icon (three bars at the top left), select "Settings," then choose "Library Links."
- In the Library Links section of the Settings menu, confirm that "Northern Michigan University - Get it@NMU," is selected.
- If it is not already selected, search for Northern Michigan University in the search bar. Then, select the checkbox next to "Northern Michigan University - Get it@NMU," click the "Save" button in the lower right.
Once saved, you can return to the Google Scholar homepage. You should now be able to explore Google Scholar without utilizing NMU's off-campus proxy, while still having access to the "Get it@NMU" links directing you to our full-text databases.
If the provided workaround does not resolve your Google Scholar access issues, we recommend patience, as Google typically resets the faulty reCAPTCHA requirement after approximately 24 hours.
Click here to access the new expanded JoVE Education video subscription!
JoVE Education is collection of thousands of streaming videos illustrating key concepts, lab techniques/experiments, and demonstrations in a variety of disciplines primarily in the sciences & social sciences, but also humanities. Categories include Biology, Chemistry, Clinical Skills, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Physics, Psychology, and Statistics. The NMU Library subscription also includes JoVE Core video textbooks, JoVE Science Education, JoVE Lab Manual for Biology & Chemistry, JoVE Book (Chemistry), open educational resources, and additional videos provided through JoVE Research.
How to cite a JoVE entry using APA style 7th edition. Scroll to see "Cite this article" section. Use the eLocator article number which appears in the page number position:
Arias, A., Ureña, L., Thorne, L., Yunus, M. A., & Goodfellow, I. (2012). Reverse genetics mediated recovery of infectious
murine norovirus. Journal of Visualized Experiments, (64), e4145. https://doi.org/10.3791/4145
Clinical Molecular Genetics e-books available through Olson Library (last updated 6/15/20)
(most are required/recommended readings for CMG courses)
Book for COVID-19 Testing Class: Molecular Virology (2013) Springer
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Therapeutics (2020) EBSCO [CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE]
NEW book for students writing thesis or project:
Craft of Scientific Writing (2018)
Please click on Logout / Sign Out when finished with eBook Central & Stat!Ref titles.
In order to download entire book/chapters, you must create an account.
Advanced Techniques in Diagnostic Microbiology (2013)
Advanced Topics in Forensic DNA Typing: Methodology (2012) eBook Central
Clinical Laboratory Management (2nd ed., 2014) [Maximum 3 simultaneous users] eBook Central
Guide to Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests (3rd ed., 2014) Stat!Ref
Medical Genetics at a Glance (3rd edition, 2013) eBook Central
Microarray detection and characterization of bacterial foodborne pathogens (2012) eBook Central
miRNAs and target genes in breast cancer metastasis (2014) eBook Central
Molecular Genetic Pathology (2013)
Next Generation Sequencing Technologies in Medical Genetics (2013)
Next Generation Sequencing: Translation to Clinical Diagnostics (2013)
Wintrobe's Atlas of Clinical Hematology (2nd ed., 2018) EBSCO
Wintrobe's Clinical Hematology (14th edition, 2019) Stat!Ref
STAT!Ref -- CURRENT online medical books; Stedman's & Taber's dictionaries. Includes Clinical Laboratory
Hematology (2015)
Note: Besides titles listed above, the library also provides access to over 5,000 ebooks
published by Springer and other scientific publishers. To find these, enter your keywords into the Library Catalog
Zotero
(Revised 12/20/2020)
Zotero is a free research manager which helps you collect, organize, and manage your sources. This application works with Google Chrome, FireFox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, & Safari web browsers, and integrates with word processing programs such as MS Word & Google Docs. Zotero facilitates quick in-text citing, and one-click generation of references according to a multitude of styles including APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, & journal-specific.
Creating an account on Zotero's website allows you to sync your collections to a central point (300MB free) from multiple computers (such as work & home). It also allows you to create groups.
Minimum operating system requirements for Zotero version 5.x:
macOS 10.11 or later, including Big Sur and Monterey
Windows 7 or later
Linux
More detailed system requirements available here: https://www.zotero.org/support/system_requirements
The following steps will walk you through how to install Zotero on your browser.
Save documents & close all programs other than web browser before proceeding. This includes your word processor software.
Rationale: In order to finish the installation, Zotero may need to reboot your computer.
Rationale: The Zotero Connector which allows downloading information from the browser into
Zotero only works with these versions of the browser:
Chrome: Version 55 or higher
FireFox: Version 52 or higher
Safari 10–12 (see Safari Compatibility for Safari 13)
Firefox
Once you have opened Firefox, you need to check that it is version 52 or higher. To do this, go to
the menu heading "Help", and select "About Firefox" (see screen shot below). If it says you have a
lower-numbered version, Mozilla will automatically download & install the latest version of FireFox.
Google Chrome
Once you have opened Chrome, you need to check that it is version 55 or higher. To do this,
go to the upper-right corner and click on three dots (see screen shot below), highlight "Help", and select
"About Google Chrome". If it says you have a lower-numbered version, Google will automatically
download & install the latest version of Chrome.
Once you have the latest version of your browser, open it, download Zotero and install the program. The
download interface automatically recognizes your specific browser and operating system and provides
the appropriate choice.
If you receive a message preventing this site (www.zotero.org) from installing software on your computer,
click on the Allow button.
Proceed through the Setup Wizard. When asked about Setup Type (screen below), we recommend choosing Standard. You will be able to customize it later.
Once installed you will be prompted to Reboot your computer (see below).
After you click on Finish, your computer will reboot.
Open your browser & go to the Download page to install the Connector. The download interface
automatically recognizes your specific browser and operating system, and provides the
appropriate choice.
This plugin allows you to create a bibliography, in-text citations, and footnotes or endnotes from within word processing software.
Note that Zotero version 5.x automatically installs the plugin for Microsoft Word.
Open Microsoft Word, and click on the Zotero tab to display tools:
Using Google Docs? No plugin required. Click here for Zotero support documentation.
Using LibreOffice? Click here for plugin.
You do not need to register your Zotero account but you may want to do this at a later date as there are a
number of advantages including the ability to sync your citations to the Zotero site, allowing you to
access them from any computer at any time.
Modified 2/25/2021
Zotero is a free Web application developed for Firefox, Chrome, & Safari web browsers that allows you to quickly cite in-text and format references in a multitude of styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, etc.). Zotero allows you to collect, manage, cite, and share references you've collected for your research.
This guide will walk you through modifying the Preferences tabs screens to configure Zotero.
Important: This guide is intended for users who have just installed Zotero for the first time.
If you already have entries loaded into a past Zotero installation, we recommend you backup your Zotero folder before proceeding, and then after completing customizing, copy your old Zotero folder to a new location on either the Desktop or in Documents.
Please connect to the Internet while configuring Zotero.
If you have not yet downloaded and installed Zotero, please see the Library's Installing Zotero guide for directions with screen shots.
Please Skip this step if your Zotero already contains entries!
You need to decide where to save your Zotero files & retrieved articles. We highly recommend saving to either Documents, or to the Desktop (makes it much easier when migrating to a new computer or quickly backing up), so the first step is to create a New folder in that place & name it: Zotero To access the Preferences settings, open Zotero, then click on the Edit menu choice, and select Preferences:
Advanced tab -- Files and Folders sub-tab
Under Data Directory Location, click on the Choose button and select the newly-created Zotero folder which appears on your Desktop.
Zotero will add the information to the screen similar to above, but with your username.
You will be prompted that it must re-start Zotero.
Modify OpenURL Custom Resolver:
Replace: http://worldcatlibraries.org/registry/gateway
With: https://nmu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?vid=01NOMICH_INST:NMU&lang=en&mode=advanced
[either copy & paste, or right-click & Copy link address & paste]
On the General tab you may adjust the User Interface Layout, Font size, & Note font size (recommendations below).
A new feature in Version 5.0 is selecting the Layout (red outline below):
Standard Layout displays a selected entry on the right side of the list of items.
Stacked Layout displays a selected entry underneath the list of items.
All boxes are checked by default.
New to version 5.0.36 are changes to indexing PDFs, which is now automatic--no separate installer needed.
Only use if you plan on creating an account & using storage on Zotero server for yourself or group work.
Sync is also beneficial if you are using multiple computers (e.g., work & home) to manage sources.
Enter the username & password used when you created account on Zotero web site.
Note that Sync does not replace making regular backups of your local Zotero files, and cannot be used to restore your Zotero files if your hard drive is damaged or requires re-imaging
PDF Indexing is a feature which allows you to drag-and-drop previously downloaded pdf files into Zotero, and then have it search for metadata on that file & create an entry for you.
As Zotero facilitates creating your own "library" of sources, enabling PDF Indexing will include those sources when searching within Zotero.
Beginning with Zotero version 5.0.36, this screen shows indexing statistics.
This is another area where you should set the Default style you will use. Note that you may always change the default. Under the Default Output Format, click on the drop arrow to change style.
There are over 9,000 citation styles available for Zotero including many styles based on individual journal titles. Zotero only comes configured with the more popular styles but you may add any of the other styles while inside of Zotero.
After clicking on the Cite tab, click on the Styles sub-tab.
Next, locate the style from the list & click on it to select.If you do not see your specific style, click on the Get additional styles... link (see screen shot below) which will open the Zotero Style Repository, and search for your style. Left-click on the style name to select, which will then load that template into Zotero.
Citation Options - Real important especially for APA, MLA, & Chicago styles
Check the box next to the label: Include URLs of paper articles in references.
It is highly recommended using the classic insert citation interface. So on the Word Processors sub-tab,
check the box next to the label: Use classic Add Citation dialog
Important: You MUST click the OK button to save all changes.
You are now ready to use Zotero.
As with most things, Zotero is not perfect. Always check your citations for accuracy. Zotero will not correct data or capitalized titles for instance. Be sure to check the data for each citation. You can always edit the citations in Zotero.
Theses & Dissertations
Updated: 10/12/23
Notes:
- This subscription resource is THE database which holds online access to millions of dissertations & theses worldwide in PDF format. It is provided by NMU Olson Library. As such, the NMU community now has free access these works from all institutions which submit these works to ProQuest.
- When viewing results:
- Full text - PDF is the complete thesis/dissertation.
- Preview - PDF is only 24-page preview.
Open Access through digital institutional repositories at other universities *full text
By going through NMU's institutional repository The Commons, you may access dissertations, theses, and other scholarly products.
After clicking on this link, click on Advanced Search: 
then change the "Limit Search to" field to All Repositories:
and then enter your search terms. Click on the green + sign to add a line.
EBSCO Open Dissertations
Database offering access to more than 1.5 million free electronic theses and dissertations.
Theses Canada
Contain print and electronic Canadian theses and dissertations. Multiple search options are available.
Print and Electronic Theses *some full text
OneSearch contains print and electronic theses for NMU. You have two options for locating theses. One is to browse by subject area. The other is to perform a keyword search where you can combine the term thesis with an author's name, keyword term (e.g. nursing) and limit the search to the "Library catalog."
Electronic Theses Only [Fall 2006 - 2013] *full text
NMU electronic theses are also contained in Proquest's Dissertations & Theses @ Northern Michigan University database. This is NMU's subset of the larger Dissertations & Theses database, and allows searching & viewing of NMU theses. Although you cannot browse, you can search by: title words, advisor, subjects (author assigned), and keywords (author assigned). You may also search by department/program using the Field Code DEP
followed in parentheses by the department/program name. For example, in order to see a list of theses from the Exercise Science program: DEP(exercise science)
Alternatively, you can search using your own keywords.
NMU Theses [2014-present] *full text
NMU electronic theses are provided in The Commons, Northern's institutional repository. You may browse by department and may search by author & keywords.
Note that the School of Nursing Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects are also located in The Commons.
DNP Projects are usually not provided through dissertation resources, so we offer Nursing-specific sources below:
NMU Digital Commons Nursing Commons (also includes articles) *free full text
This Nursing Commons contains journal articles, presentations, as well as student work. Most of it is full text but occasionally the member library only inputs abstracts... but still it is another resource for finding student works at all levels of education.
Sigma Theta Tau International Virginia Henderson Library (includes DNP Capstone Projects) *free full text
Repository of of nursing capstones, master theses, and some dissertations. It is an excellent, high quality free resource.