1 Comment on A Review of F.A. Davis PT Collection 605
Hal Bright, MLS, AHIP
University Library Director
A.T. Still Memorial Library
A.T. Still University of the Health Sciences
The F.A. Davis PT Collection on AccessPhysiotherapy is mounted on a McGraw-Hill Silverchair platform. Thus, the navigation layout will be familiar to anyone who has worked with the AccessMedicine or LWW Health collection navigation layout. The top menu bar has quick links to the F.A Davis physical therapy titles under “Books,” several reference titles under “Quick Reference,” Davis’s Drug Guide for Rehabilitation Professionals under “Drugs,” a large media library under “Multimedia,” and several case series titles under “Cases.” A search bar that searches across the F.A. Davis PT database or across all McGraw-Hill medical databases and a revolving book-cover carousel finish off the access points for the database.
This database is aimed primarily at postgraduate Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) programs, both students and faculty. Some content can also be used by occupational therapy, athletic training and kinesiology programs.
A subscription to this database can be obtained only in conjunction with a subscription to McGraw-Hill’s own physical therapy database, AccessPhysiotherapy. Subscribing programs have access to two of the most prominent physical therapy book collections, but this also presents a significant financial barrier to subscribing to the collection. F.A. Davis publishes several core physical therapy books, including Brunnstrom’s Clinical Kinesiology, Davis’s Drug Guide for Rehabilitation Professionals, and Diagnosis for Physical Therapists, with 40 more books included on the platform. Each book starts its navigation with a table of contents with an accompanying search bar that allows keyword searching within the book. Each chapter is then further broken up into sections from which users can access the full text. This approach is used by most large ebook platforms. This platform allows user to print and use a “read to me” feature at this level.
The search functionality in the F.A. Davis PT Collection is straightforward and organizes results in a logical and pleasing manner. Filters can be used after the search results appear to limit for multimedia, cases, and book chapter headings; narrow to a specific book; and narrow by topic. A box at the end of the search results list takes the user to results in AccessPhysiotherapy. It would be nice if the AccessPhysiotherapy results were integrated into the F.A. Davis results automatically or the AccessPhysiotherapy box were placed more prominently. One recent addition to the F.A. Davis platform (and all the McGraw-Hill databases), is the integration of the note-taking service, hypothes.is. This allows users to highlight, take notes, and share these with other students or even a class.
Typically, the F.A. Davis PT Collection is licensed to universities with physical therapy programs, and a subscription to AccessPhysiotherapy is required. The subscription is typically based on an FTE count of physical therapy students and is renewed yearly. Individual subscriptions are not permitted. Usage data is available through an administrator module with the standard COUNTER Release 4 and COUNTER Release 5 reports including book usage, multimedia, and platform reports. This module also contains several useful reports that measure non-standard measures such as case reports and other features in the database that are not physically part of an ebook. User authentication to the F.A. Davis PT Collection can be regulated through IP address, EZ Proxy, and OpenAthens, as well as other methods.
Review features (review questions, exam testing, gaming reviews, etc.) on all McGraw-Hill platform databases, including the F.A. Davis PT Collection, require a free “My Access Profile” account. This is to allow users to be able to resume where they left off when they return to the platform. Users are generally confused by this need for an extra account (on top of their own institution’s account) and it becomes a barrier to accessing review questions and practice exams. However, this is not a unique barrier of McGraw-Hill databases, as it is typical with most databases that have “extra features.”
Generally, this database is a strong addition to collections of libraries in schools that have any type of physical therapy program and is strongly recommended.
1 Comment
Brilliant. Thank you!