Cardiovascular disease

 

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a group of diseases that affect the heart or blood vessels and it is currently the leading cause of death in Australia.

There are a number of ways you could choose to look for information about cardiovascular disease, but first you should think about the search terms you will use. Following are some suggested search terms you should consider using for your search:

·         Heart disease – this is the most commonly used term for cardiovascular disease.

·         CVD – this is the acronym for cardiovascular disease.

You could also try looking for specific heart diseases such as;

·         Cardiomyopathy – diseases of cardiac muscle

·         Heart failure

·         Pulmonary heart disease – failure on the right side of the heart.

·         Congenital heart disease – heart structure abnormalities that exist from birth.

·         Myocardial infarction – this is also known as a ‘heart attack’ (another great term you could use).

As you can see there are many options for search terms to do with heart diseases and if you like you can try them all. If you look up the Wikipedia article on ‘cardiovascular disease’ you will find a number of other great search terms to use, do remember that Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source though so you should not rely on it for your assignments.

In the Library& on the Library website

When searching the Library catalogue you will get more results using the search term “heart disease” than if you use “cardiovascular disease”. You could also find information about these diseases by looking in health books, if you have any problems finding material please ask one of the staff for assistance.
If you go to the Information desk online site you can use encyclopaedias like Britannica and World Book to access information using the keywords discussed above.  

If you then go to the Reference Databases webpage you could using the keyword suggestions we have discussed above to search in the Science Reference Center database, Academic Search Premier and Consumer Health Complete.

Online & websites that you might find useful

If you decide that Google is the way to go think about your search terms, “cardiovascular disease” because it is a more clinical term will get you higher quality results. It will also get you results from all over the world (even if you go to Google.com.au), if you want specific information about cardiovascular disease in Australian then you must put the word “Australia” somewhere in your search term.

Check out some of the websites below that are reliable sources with great information:

Cardiovascular disease This website is fantastic, it is written by the Australian Government Department of Health and not only has information about a number of heart diseases, it also gives information on treatments, has information on programmes and activities to support prevention and optimal detection and treatment and also has some amazing related links.

Australia'shealth 2014
Australia’s health 2014 is the 14th biennial health report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. This resource contains information and statistics on the all areas to do with the health of Australians. There is a free PDF available of the report from this page.

Data and Statistics
This page is written by the Heart Foundation and has some seriously important information that will be very valuable to your research. It contains a lot of data and statistics about a variety of things related to heart disease such as the prevalence of heart disease in each state, facts and figures specifically related to Australia and links to a number of fact sheets.

Heart Disease – Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics is a very reliable source of data, it has some great information on heart disease and includes links to some other very valuable websites you can check out.

The Human Body

Fun fact: When you are sleeping your ears continue to pick up sound but your brain blocks them out.

The human body is an amazing and complex thing, doctor’s study for many years to get a good understanding of the human body and how it works as well as how to treat its ailments.

There is a lot of information available about human anatomy and we are going to explore some of the ways you can access it.

A good place to get started is to do some general reading about the body; this will give you a good knowledge base to start off with and will help you choose keywords for your information search.

Try keywords like:

·         Human body

·         Human anatomy

·         Human physiology

If your assignment is on the human body in general, then the keywords above will provide you with a great amount of information.

If you need more information on a specific area of the body then you need to be specific in the search terms you choose. For instance, a book on ‘human anatomy’ might have a paragraph or two about the lungs, but if your whole assignment is on lungs then you will need more information than this. Use the specific area of the body as your search term, try:

·         Lungs

·         Heart

·         Nervous system OR human brain

·         Digestive system

In the Library & on the Library website

Searching the catalogue using the keywords discussed above will find you some great print resources to work from.

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you can use encyclopaedias like Britannica and World Book to access information using the keywords above. 

If you then go to the ReferenceDatabases webpage try using the keyword suggestions we have discussed above to search in the Consumer Health Complete databases which contains a lot of information on all areas of health. If you are looking for something specific, such as conditions that affect the heart then perhaps try something like ‘cardiovascular disease’. 

 
Online & websites that you might find useful

If you decide to look for information online, do be careful because there is a lot of information available on the web and you need to make sure that the source of the website is reliable. One great way you can decide if a website it reliable is to look at who created it and ask yourself whether the person or group that created it would be experts in this area. Have a look at some of the below websites to get an idea of what sites you can use.

Atlas of the Human Body

This website was created by the American Medical Association so you know that the site was made by people who have knowledge and expertise about the human anatomy. The site has some great information about many areas of the human body and even includes some information about disorders.

Human body

This website was developed by the science section of National Geographic. It has some great information and even interactive sections like this page on lungs
Fun fact: Coughing can cause air to move through your windpipe faster than the speed of sound.

Science kids

This website is aimed at a younger audience and is written by a gentleman with a degree who has a lot of experience in the area of Science. It is a great resource with a lot of interactive areas to enjoy and learn from.

The Human Body: Anatomy, Facts & Functions

This is a great article that talks about all the areas of the human anatomy, it also contains links to provide you with more information about each area. If you scroll to the bottom of the page you can see that the woman that wrote the article holds a number of degrees including a Master of Science in biology which means she is well qualified to be educating others on the body.

Wild Weather

Fun fact: Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is actually a storm that has been raging for 300 years
Source: wikipedia.com

 

The weather affects us all, a sunny day could mean a picnic or a visit to the beach and a rainy day could mean cuddling up with a good book from your local library. Then there are times where we get severe weather which can cause natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, icestorms. Severe weather has great impact on the human race; it can ruin crops, destroy homes, cause floods and fires and even take lives.

There is so much information on severe weather available; the trick is finding the specific information you need.

In the Library

Searching the catalogue using the keyword “weather” will get you a lot of good results.

Being more specific in your search is also important; if you particularly want information on tornadoes then type in the keyword “tornado”.  

You could also try:

·         Hurricane

·         Typhoon

·         Natural disasters

·         Climate change

 

Library Website

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like Britannica and World Book, both of these resources have much information on severe weather. Try using the keywords mentioned above to get some great results. You might also want to try names of specific disasters, such as “Hurricane Katrina”.

“Tornado alley” is a common name for the area of the United States where tornadoes are most frequent, this search term will also find you some great results. You could also try the term “climate change”

If you then go to the Reference Databases webpage try using the keyword suggestions we have discussed above to search in the Greenfile and the Science Reference Centre databases which will give you some great information. 

 

Online

If you decide Google is the way to go, do be careful because there is a lot of information available on the web for this topic. Make sure that the source of the website is reliable.  You could try any of the keywords above in your search, I would recommend being as specific as possible as more general keywords such as “weather” will bring too many results. You could however try “severe weather” . Again, the more specific you are the better.

You could also try:

·         Australia’s hurricanes

·         Australian natural disasters

·         Cyclone Yasi

·         Tropical cyclones

 

Other websites that you might find useful

AustralianGovernment – Bureau of Meteorlogy

The Bureau of Meteorology is Australia's national weather, climate and water agency. It contains a wealth of information about the history of Australia’s climate and weather as well as up to date information and weather warnings. It is a very valuable online resource.

ExtremeStorms

This website has been put together by two quite knowledgeable and well known Australian storm chasers. It contains some great information, videos and pictures of a variety of storms in Australia.

Australianweather and seasons – a variety of climates

This site is created by the Australian Government and contains information about the Australian climate, weather patterns, severe weather as well as some great reliable links you can check out for more information.

Climate change in Australia

The CSIRO created this website and it has some great information on it, including its very own publications library. This is definitely a site worth checking out.

 

Amazing Australians: Patrick White

Source: abc.net.au/arts/white

Patrick White was an Australian writer who is widely considered to be one of the most influential English-language novelists of the 20th century. White wrote a number of novels, plays and three short-story compilations. In 1973 he became the first Australian to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is still considered a very prominent writer and some of White’s pieces are still studied in the HSC today.

Information on Patrick White is relatively easy to find, but be sure that the information you are gathering is from reputable sources.

In the Library

Searching the catalogue using the keywords “Patrick White” will get you some good results.
If you are looking for a particular title such as, “Happy Valley”, you can type in the full title.

 

Library Website

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like Britannica and World Book which both have entries for Patrick White.  

If you then go to the Reference Databases webpage try using the name “Patrick White” to search in Biography in Context, Literary Reference Center Plus and Novelist which will give you some great information. 

Online

If you decide to Google once again you can use the name Patrick White, other terms you could try include;

·         Patrick White Australian Author

·         Patrick White Nobel Prize Literature

If you are interested in specific works then I would recommend searching by the title as well as or instead of the author as this makes it a more specific search, i.e.

·         “Happy Valley” Patrick White

·         “The Aunt’s Story” Patrick White

·         Voss Patrick White

Other websites that you might find useful

Nobelprize.org

This website contains biographical information about Patrick White as well as facts and even his banquet speech which was presented by Sidney Nolan.

ABC 

This website has information on White’s life, pictures, audio clips, war diary and information about his works including excerpts.

Australian Dictionary of Biography

This site has a complete and quite thorough biography on Patrick White with relevant links.

Australian Rainforests



Image source: clipart

 

When looking for information on Australia’s rainforests there are a few different places you can search.

In the Library

Searching the catalogue with the following keywords will get you some good results:

·         Rainforest

·         Australia Rainforest

If you are looking for information about a specific rainforest you could enter the name e.g. Daintree

 

Library Website

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like Britannica and World Book. World Book in particular has some good results using keywords like “Australian rainforest”.

Online

You might also choose to Google in order to find some websites with more information, if you need to use Google I would recommend being as specific as possible in the keywords you use. Here are some suggestions for keywords:

·         Australian rainforests

·         Daintree rainforest

·         Gondwana rainforests

·         Tarkine Tasmania

·         Littoral rainforest

Other websites that you might find useful

World Heritage Places - Gondwana Rainforests of Australia -New South Wales and Queensland
This website has been written by the Australian Government Department of the Environment. It contains extensive information about the Gondwana Rainforests including where they are located, information on the Heritage database records, images, links to maps, fact sheets and other important material as well as relevant contact information.

Australian Rainforest Foundation
This website has information about rainforests in each of the different states and contains important information such as the threatened species in each state and links to other relevant sites or groups.

The Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust – AustralianRainforests
This site has a lot of information about all types of Australian rainforests, including, history, habitats and environment, soil fertility and how rainforests are categorised. This is a very useful site.

Victor Chang

Try this page for information about Dr chang himself, or this page, which has plenty of information for school assignments.
If you need books as well, we have entries on Dr Chang in "A Century of Great Australians" and "The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Famous and Infamous Australians" and in "The Dictionary of Famous Australians". Look up these titles on our Library Catalogue to see which branches have copies available.

Business Case Studies

If you're looking for Business Case Studies for your assignment, go to www.afrbiz.com.au which has a list of companies to choose from, with information compiled by the Australian Financial Review specifically for students.
Also, got to the website of your chosen company, where you will usually find plenty of useful information, including company histories and Annual Reports.
You can also get recent news stories from the Australian Financial Review (available daily at HJ Daley Library) or via our newspaper and magazine article databases at our Reference Databases webpage.
Good luck

Science experiments and projects

If you need a science experiment or project for school, or if you're keen to learn some cool science, check out the free info at the Fizzics Education website.
There's lots more science information besides the experiments, and even some games to play. It's all designed for primary schoolers, but anyone can have fun with this stuff - and learn as well.

Anzac Day

Assignment on Anzac Day? Try the following links:

Australian War Memorial http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/anzac_tradition.asp
The Federal government's culture and recreation portal http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/anzac/ (good links to relevant sites)
NSW government ANZAC Day site http://www.anzacday.gov.au/ (good links to other sites including NZ government site)
Also try our Online History Library, which has information, diary entries and even some video footage - access it via the Information Desk Online.

Number systems

Also known as Numeral or Numeration Systems. Links below to useful information about Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek number systems and more.
www.math.wichita.edu/history/topics/num-sys.html
http://mathforum.org/alejandre/numerals.html
Try a search in our online Encyclopedia Britannica. Find EB halfway down our Information desk Online page. Type in "number sytems" and you'll get great results. Also, don't forget we have books in the library that can help. Come visit us.