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Introduction to Medical Pharmacology Library & Information Resources

Pharmacology Resources
Medline and Other Electronic Indexes
Print Textbooks & Directories
Print texts and directories provide overviews of drug information including adverse effects, indications and usage, contraindications, mechanisms of action, pharmacological properties, precautions, information for patients, and more. Many texts also include extensive manufacturer indexes, brand and generic name indexes, product category indexes, and product identification tables.

Popular pharmacology texts include:

Physicians Desk Reference Remington: The Science and Practice of Pharmacy
Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference USP DI Vol. III Approved Drug Products and Legal Requirements
Drug Interaction Facts USP DI Drug Information for the Health Care Professional
Goodman and Gilman's:
The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics

To locate pharmacology texts in the Alumni Medical Library, go to the QV, RM, and RS sections in the Reference or Reserve/Circulation Desk areas.

The current edition of Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics is on Reserve: QV 4 G6532 2006 and at Reference, and older copies are available in circulation. This text is also available electronically.

The PDR and The Physicians' Desk Reference Supplement is shelved behind the Reference Desk at QV 772 P578. If a librarian is not at the desk, feel free to retrieve the book(s) yourself.

To find textbooks and directories in BU's online library catalog, search by title, author, or the Medical subject Heading (MeSH). Try any of the following Medical subjects: "toxicology," "pharmacology," "pharmacy," or "pharmaceutical services". You can also find information by locating books on the disease or condition that the drug is used to treat.

Electronic Textbooks

The Alumni Medical Library subscribes to over 280 electronic textbooks which are available from http://medlib.bu.edu/ebooks. To access e-books on pharmacology, you can pull the subject from the drop-down box and click on "Search." A list of titles will appear, and clicking on a title will bring you to that textbook. (You may also want to select "toxicology" for other texts.)

A number of our textbooks are in a collection called STAT!-Ref, which allows users to search a number of textbooks simultaneously or an individual title separately. The program is available on the Web at http://online.statref.com/default.asp?grpalias=BUSoM and can also be searched from computers in the Library or from remote locations to users who dial-in to the Boston University campus network.

Some of the Pharmacology textbooks available online include:

AHFS Drug Information
Basic & Clinical Pharmacology
Drug Index
Goldfrank's Toxicologic Emergencies
Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics
Mosby's Drug Consult
USP DI Advice for the Patient


The Biomedical Journal Literature: BUMC MEDLINE PLUS/OVID

The BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID system uses the OVID software, and includes MEDLINE, CINAHL (Nursing & Allied Health), and a variety of Evidence Based Medicine databases.

MEDLINE is the premier source biomedical journal literature. MEDLINE dates from 1950 to the present, and includes over 15 million bibliographic citations and abstracts from approximately 4600 journals published worldwide. MEDLINE can be searched by author, title & abstract words (text words), journal name or MeSH (medical subject headings).

BUMC MEDLINE Plus/OVID can be accessed on the Web from terminals on the 11th and 12th floor of the Library without an individual login name/password, or can be access from outside the library with an individual login name/password. For information on how to obtain and Ovid/MEDLINE password, click here.