GERONTOLOGY SUBJECT GUIDE
Gerontology is the study of aging and what it means in/for society. Geriatrics, which is much more to do with the biological aging of the body, is a part of it but is not the same subject. Gerontology is also closely related to Sociology.
DATABASES/JOURNALS
ULM has access to fantastic databases contain information you can't get on your own. This is a great entry point for finding journals and articles. These links should work on campus, but for accessing them at home you will need to connect with a login.Annual Reviews
Another databases that provide access to scholarly literature in the sciences, including the Social Sciences, but only of the specific publisher Annual Reviews (all the titles begin with "Annual Review of"). It can make articles available in html full text and/or .pdf.
EBSCO
As ever, EBSCO is a great way to do research. It is actually an aggregator, and that means that it searches lots of different databases at the same time. For Gerontology, one might want to select these particular ones (to avoid getting irrelevant hits):
Academic Search Premier
Alt HealthWatch
CINAHL Plus with Full Text
Legal Collection
Newspaper Source
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
SocINDEX with Full Text
MEDLINE
PsycINFO
Academic Search Complete
LexisNexis Academic Search
This is best known for its excellent news searches and worldwide scope, but don't forget the "legal research" option and "legal news." Since the law is a reflection of society in many ways, how your topic is being handled by the legal community is worth consideration. (This is not the same LexisNexis that lawyers use, however)
JSTOR - The scholarly journal archive
There are many journals on JSTOR-- it means "Journal storage." You can search by issues and genres, and inside the article text itself. JSTOR brings you journal pages just as they appear in print-- and just as usefully, as they are in .pdf format and you can't select text.
ProQuest (through LOUIS Statewide Databases)
Proquest is an aggregator similar to EBSCO, so its content depends on which databases the University has bought. At ULM, it allows access to two potentially useful databases, "Dissertations & Theses" and "ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source."
GOVERNMENTAL WEBSITES
AgingStats.gov
"The Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics (Forum) was initially established in 1986, with the goal of bringing together Federal agencies that share a common interest in improving aging-related data." This site has current data sets specifically about older Americans across other subjects.
Dept. of Health & Human Services Administration on Aging
The Dept. of Health & Human Services has an administration specifically about aging, which covers many aspects of aging and especially ones useful to people, such as laws, information, and programs which they may benefit from.
Senior Citizens' Resources at USA.gov
Usa.gov (once known as firstgov.gov) has collected some useful links about and for seniors in America. Relevant issues and services are listed, and other articles, statistics and more are linked at the right. Usa.gov itself is a portal to sundry government websites and more information, and thus can be useful
Senate Special Committee on Aging
Senate committees are a part of the law making process in the government, and this is the website of the one made to discuss matters related to aging. It lists committee members, its rules, issues, hearings (complete with video), news, and more.
Office of Elderly Affairs
This is not in fact a federal government resource, but a resource from the state of Louisiana. It explains services available to the Louisiana elderly and provides useful links.
GENERAL INTERNET RESOURCES
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS)
"The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is a not-for-profit organization of over 6,700 health professionals devoted to improving the health, independence and quality of life of all older people." The website has employment information, some listings of its publications, news, and various resources under the link "public education.”
The Merck Manual Of Geriatrics
This is full text and browse able in html and can be searched. It contains information on a variety of disorders associated with the elderly.
The Gerontological Society of America
The website of the GSA has information on meetings, programs, employment, and more. You can search their publications at http://www.gerontologyjournals.org/, and astonishingly, you can get full text articles (that's important enough to warrant highlighting) if you log in from campus and the site can recognize your IP address as such.
This list doesn't represent everything available in the collection, of course. While compiling this list, I tried to stay away from particularly aged materials, although this doesn't mean that they can't be potentially useful. Visiting the library and checking the catalog (including those of other libraries, as they may loan those materials) is still a good idea. Also, since aging is an inescapable aspect of life, related articles may be found in materials meant for psychology, sociology, philosophy, history, and more.
If you are a faculty member and you know of any materials that should be on this list (or in the collection period), please inform me at niemla@ulm.edu . If you are a student, ask your instructor what she/he thinks.