Page 18 - Pharmacy History 34 February 2008

ISHP Website
offers new
tools
Christine Staiger, Neu-Isenburg
The homepage of the International Society for the History of Pharmacy (ISHP) has recently established two new tools for scientific inquests. A database of oral presentations and short introductions of national online search tools may help to strengthen the network of ISHP members.
The homepage www.histpharm.org has a new category ‘Tools’. There, users find the database ‘ISHP oral presentation list’. The page contents all talks given since 2005 related to the history of pharmacy worldwide. Beside the title the database keeps the keywords, the name of the author and a contact email address. Further, date, place and occasions are available. At present, the database comprehends more than 500 entries.
The makers of the website focused on a comfortable and user friendly design. Therefore, visitors can choose between a simple and an advanced search mode. The simple search offers a first orientation, the advanced allows to specify the findings. The search fields will be connected by the AND- operator.
ISHP assigned this new online tool in order to bring international pharmacy historians closer together. Therefore, the search-mode offers an automatic function on international letter variations. For example, instead of the letters ś, ș, s used in other European languages a simple ‘s’ will link to the correct finding. If users are looking for ‘François’, either the correct writing or the simplified ‘Francois’ will provide the database results. Looking for ‘Müller’ simple entering ‘Muller’ will do.
The database is located on a public server to save money for the ISHP. However, most public servers bother the uses with regular advertisements or popup-windows. ISHP managed to find a less aggressive server. Opening the page, only one winder will popup. After closing this, users can search un disturbed for the complete session.
The second new service tool on the ISHP homepage offers short introductions to history of pharmacy and medicine related Worldwide literature databases of several countries. The General Information includes name, URL, a short description of the database content, and the available languages. The Search strategy is explained comprehensively and an example is also given. A direct link may take you to the related website.
The new content of the ISHP-homepage has been improved and enlarged constantly. In particular, pharmacy historians are invited to notify their talks by email to be included into the oral presentation list.
18 Pharmacy History Australia volume 4 no 35 September 2008
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