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Resources for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Public Health Agencies
Staff at State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial (STLT) Public Health Agencies have several options for obtaining library resources. Most of the options listed below are available at no cost.
CDC Library access for CDC assignees
Assignees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) working at STLT public health agencies can access resources from the Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library (CDC Library) using CDC login credentials to log into the CDC intranet. This includes CDC assignees such as Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, Public Health Associate Program fellows, and Career Epidemiology Field Officers.
DART Pilot Project
The Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library has collaborated with the CDC Foundation, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, and the National Association of County and City Health Officials to pilot the project, Delivering Access to Resources Today (DART).
DART is designed to offer local and state health departments the opportunity to order free peer-reviewed publications for health departments that are having difficulty obtaining necessary material for assistance in local public health prevention activities.
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NLM Public Health Digital Library
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Public Health Digital Library (PHDL) provides access to e-journals, e-books, and databases on an annual fee basis. State and local health departments are eligible to participate in the PHDL. They must have a partner library that provides articles to users when the article is not part of the PHDL collection.
Public access to government-funded research
To comply with requirements to increase public access to government-funded research, U.S. government agencies have online resources for scientific articles and reports. Here is a selection of a few such sources:
- CDC Stacks
- National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Library of Medicine (NLM), PubMed Central
- Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
- Department of Defense, Defense Technical Information Center
- Department of Education, Education Resources Information Center
- Department of Transportation, National Transportation Library (NTL) Repository and Open Science Access Portal (ROSA P)
- Environmental Protection Agency, Science Inventory
State and academic libraries
Many states have libraries that serve state agency employees. Access to public health literature will vary across states, and turnaround time will vary. Here are a few examples of state libraries offering access to state employees:
- Georgia
- Georgia Public Library Services
- Georgia resident can access for free even if they aren’t affiliated with a school or public library that has access.
- Users must apply for a PINES card & set up a password.
- Galileo: Georgia’s Virtual Library
- Georgia Public Library Services
- Louisiana
- Ohio
- Vermont
In addition, STLT public health agency staff who serve as faculty at academic institutions can access library resources at their academic libraries.
Emergency access to resources
Information resources usually have a fee; however, many resources are generally available for researchers during emergencies.
- NLM’s Emergency Access Initiative can be activated following a disaster to offer information resources to individuals in areas affected by the disaster.
- The Public Health Emergency COVID-19 Initiative made articles freely available via PubMed Central.
- Relief Central offers resources, including the CDC Yellow Book.