Conference turris::womannotes-v3

428.0. "Is this a follow-on to 424?" by NATASH::WALKER () Tue Oct 09 1990 16:41

    I did a fascinating thing at the Shrewsbury (MA) library last week.
    
    I'd been wondering how many articles/books existed about weight loss,
    and I thought maybe someday I'd get around to counting them.
    
    WELL, Shrewsbury library has on loan (until 16 Oct, I think), a CD-ROM
    reader with several databases on it.
    
    So, I searched, using the word "diet" the database from the Readers
    Guide to Periodic Literature, for January 1983 through April 1, 1990, 
    and I got FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX records!
    
    Then I checked Books in Print, using keyword = diet and got ONE
    THOUSAND SIXTY THREE books in print.  Using subject = diet, I got
    (only) FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO books.
    
    Then checking another database called Magazine Article Summaries (by
    Ebsco Abstracting) for 1/84 through 6/90, and I got SEVEN HUNDRED AND
    EIGHTY SEVEN  articles.
    
    Then I had a brainstorm.  What if, I thought, I put "men" as a
    subheading after "diet?"  So I did.  And I got SIXTEEN entries, of
    which 9 were on cholesterol, heart, and hypertension.  All the others
    were on health in general.
    
    Of course, with all this truly wonderful, helpful information out
    there, there couldn't be even one overweight female person -- and we
    all eat our spinach, our high-C fruits, our high-carotene vegetables
    every day!  Imagine, all these people interested in our health and
    beauty, and truly desiring the best for us!
    
    And it is helping us, isn't it?  Don't you feel helped?  Encouraged? 
    Energized?  Important?
    
    Briana