Instead of digging through filing cabinets, members of the Iowa State and Ames communities can use the Infotrac Search Bank Health Reference Center to obtain medical information.

The service is available at the ISU Student Health Center, Mary Greeley Medical Center, 1111 Duff Ave., and both the Ames Public Library, 515 Douglas Ave., and the library’s kiosk at Hy-Vee, 3800 W. Lincoln Way.

Randy Mayer, program coordinator for the Student Health Center, said the search bank provides access to many different medical journals and brochures, as well as definitions of medical terms.

“It’s got a pretty broad array of different types of information,” he said. “There are over 1,000 files [in the search bank].”

Previously, Student Health Center personnel would look up the topic and photocopy information, which Mayer said they still can do.

However, he said, the Infotrac Search Bank is “more user-friendly, more up to date [and] less work both for us and the people coming in.”

“We wanted to do something that would be continuously updated,” he said.

Dawn Hayslett, assistant director of the Ames Public Library, said the search bank “is useful for all kinds of health information … like if you’re trying to find out about a particular medical condition.”

Hayslett said the system “greatly expands the library’s collection of information.”

“It indexes hundreds of periodicals and medical reference books so you can get a background on a disease or condition,” she said.

Hayslett said students will benefit from the search bank.

“I think it will help students with their own medical conditions [or] if they’re doing research,” she said.

Mayer agreed that the system will be beneficial for people who are interested in research.

“Over the years, we get a lot of requests from people who are doing papers,” he said, “[but] we’re hoping that faculty and staff will also want to use it.”

Mayer said a receptionist at the Student Health Center can give interested persons a lesson on using the system.

The Infotrac Search Bank is provided through the health link partnership, which includes the Ames Public Library, Mary Greeley Medical Center and McFarland Clinic Pharmacy, 1215 Duff Ave.