Emergency Management: Articles & Databases

 Try our study guide Finding Periodical Articles online.

Why use periodical articles?

Periodicals cover events more quickly and concisely than books

Books are usually better at giving thoughtful, historical information. Magazines and newspapers provide current, focused information, and specialized magazines and journals provide in-depth coverage.

Periodical articles are usually on specific topics

Many topics do not have entire books written about them (or the specific information you need is buried within a book).

Check out these free, web based databases and web sites from departments in the U.S. government and the United Nations:

• ChemIDplus (NLM free)
  • Chemical database is a dictionary of over 400,000 chemicals (names, synonyms, and structures). ChemIDplus includes links to NLM and other databases and resources, including links to federal, state and international agencies. ChemIDplus Lite is designed for simple searching on name or registry. ChemIDplus Advanced helps users draw their own structures and perform similarity and substructure searches.
• Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management
  • Enables first responders, first receivers, other healthcare providers, and planners to plan for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of mass-casualty incidents involving chemicals. Provides a comprehensive, user-friendly, web-based resource that is also downloadable in advance, so that it would be available during an event if the internet is not accessible.
• Hazardous Mitigation Assistance (FEMA)
  • This page provides general information on hazard mitigation and the Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) grant programs.
• Medline Plus Disaster Page
  • Information on different disasters from the National Institute of Health.
• OSHA Hazard Communication
  • A database of materials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
• Public Health Emergency (USHHS)
  • Information from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, including the Office of Emergency Management.
• Toxline (NLM free)
  • While most of NLM's toxicology information services have been integrated into other NLM products and services, this page still includes a list of where one can go to find that information.
• United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
  • This is the Disaster Statistics page from the UNISDR. This site has many useful articles on disasters around the world.

Would a short online tutorial help?

Finding Articles - online tutorial

Identifying Keywords - online tutorial

These modules are designed to take about 10 minutes to complete and include lots of examples and some interactive practice.