Find health and medical information from books, journal databases and reputable online resources at State Library Victoria.
These resources are all available at the Library from any catalogue and database PC, or from your laptop using our free wi-fi service.
Any Victorian-resident State Library Victoria members can access these ebooks online from home (except where noted).
Note: The purpose of this guide is to provide information about health and medical information resources at State Library Victoria. If you are experiencing a medical issue, please contact a qualified GP.
The following databases are recommended resources.
Find current Australian medicine information, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme restrictions and pricing, plus evidence-based drug interactions information.
Find articles, news or statistics related to health, medicine and wellness. Includes alternative and holistic medicine.
Browse research material on clinical and biomedical topics, consumer health and medicine.
Access over three million full-text biomedical and life sciences articles hosted by the US National Library of Medicine.
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
Search for medical practitioner registrations including GPs, dentists, osteopaths and specialists. You can also find cancelled registrations, make an official health complaint, and more.
Explore evidence-based reviews of medications, procedures and therapies.
Access a wide selection of encyclopaedias and reference works relating to health and medicine.
Includes information on almost 2,000 medical disorders and concepts. Each article includes in-depth discussion of causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatments, procedures, and other related topics. For access from home register as a State Library of Victoria member.
Search trustworthy content supporting evidence-based nursing, general, specialist and allied health. Coverage: 1977-onwards (full text)
Explore multiple perspectives on the history of injury, treatment and disease on the front line. Chart scientific advances through hospital records, medical reports and first-hand accounts, and discover the evidence of how war shaped medical practice across the centuries.
MSD Manuals (formerly Merck Manuals)
Search this trusted medical encyclopaedia available in three versions for medical professionals, patients or veterinarians.
Oxford Reference: Medicine and Health
Search medical encyclopaedias and dictionaries from Oxford University Press.
Browse a psychology focused database covering research into behavioural, clinical, cognitive, developmental, experimental, industrial and social psychology, along with personality, psychobiology and psychometrics.
Access academic journals and magazines on all aspects of cooking and nutrition, including thousands of searchable recipes, restaurant reviews and industry information.
Explore the evolution of food cultures and traditions through cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films, and more. Key issues include agriculture, nutrition, and food production
Explore changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender and sexual behaviours in America and beyond, from the late-nineteenth century to the present day.
This resource is an important exception to the rule about subscription database access to full-text articles; all of its contents are available in full-text. PMC (PubMed Central) is the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. It currently has over 1100 journals in the database. (It also contains material of historical interest as the digitised material extends back to the early 1800s.)
Catalogue screen accessed by the library patrons, State Library of Victoria. H2017.283/9
Remember, when searching a library catalogue, you are searching words in the title, author, subject heading, or occasionally other keywords or notes attached to the item - not the full text content.
If you look at the details of a relevant result, you can use one of the subject headings attached to it to determine better subject terms to conduct a further search on.
Publication date is a particularly important factor in the area of medicine; you generally will want the most recent thinking on a topic. You can use the date filtering options on the search page to limit your results to books published within the last few years. See the Evidence-based medicine & research page for more information.
