Inside this Issue
Findings Magazine Online Archive
If you've been appreciating recent issues of UM SPH's award-winning Findings magazine online in HTML, now you'll appreciate them even more with a new searchable archive.
A four-month-long collaboration between UM SPH's Office of Communications and the Web Services division of Public Health Library and Informatics has produced a searchable database of four years' worth of Findings issues, representing hundreds of pages of information and photos about the work of school faculty and alumni. Web administrator Patty Bradley-Diehl built the archive's Cold Fusion database, which was planned in conjunction with Office of Communications web content specialist Mary Beth Lewis. Bethany Osborne assisted in data entry, and Findings editor Leslie Stainton consulted on the project (both from the Office of Communications).
Launched in beta testing mode in mid-April, the new searchable archive allows users to quickly find articles on important health research and policy, from aging to depression, influenza to zoonotics. Queries access fields of keywords and personal names. In addition, all text in the Findings web server folder is also searched for the HTML issues of the magazine. Cover images accompany search results, helping jog users' memory of particular theme issues.
New issues of the magazine will be added into the database as they go online in spring and fall of each year. Eventually the search will be expanded back in time to include pre-2003 issues (currently in composite PDF format).
An extra benefit of the project is that SPH web administrator Patty Bradley-Diehl integrated the Findings archive with the SPH Experts searchable database, which she also built. So news reporters searching sources will access both contact information for SPH experts and pertinent Findings articles.
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