I absolutely agree. PubMed is particularly bad on design- there are
loads of excellent features, but few are intuitive. OVID is better. But
none as easy as Google.
I can see you need to have more search options than Google to refine the
results (try putting breast cancer into Medline!) Medline does limit the
results to articles in peer-review journals, and in reverse date order.
But its an interesting point- how many of the search options do
clinicians really need? Maybe have something like PubMed's clinical
queries (see left menu on home page), with a search box and only a
couple of buttons to click as the 'home page' (plus buttons for English,
human and abstract to click?), and all the rest of the functionality as
a page as a link on...?
Of course, that then leads to all the usual questions about mediated
searching. If clinicians are only using quick/easy searching of Medline
they will be missing lots. But do they get enough? Do they know what
they are missing?
And if the software prioritises simple searching, will the more complex
functions we can need for difficult searches (or exhaustive searching)
be dropped or wither?
Back to some of the usual problems!
Fiona
Fiona McLean
Library and Information Service Manager
CancerBACUP
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London EC2A 3JR
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-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Prue [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 09 September 2004 11:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Google better than MEDLINE?!
*** SORRY FOR CROSS POSTING ***
Hi Folks,
While I certainly agree that it is a dangerous road for users to tread
in
putting their faith almost entirely into the power of Google there is a
key
issue to be addressed:
Why are senior lecturing staff/users prioritising Google over MEDLINE?
Rather than lambasting users should the library profession be trying to
understand why Google is becoming the preferred option?
Personally I think this would be a valuable exercise in understanding
user
search behavior.
By gaining an appreciation of what users expect from an information
service
(e.g. convenience and simplicity) and the problems that they face with
current information service structures, we might be able to add an extra
dimension to our service which can only be a positive thing.
Just a thought!!!!
Andy Prue
Web Development Librarian
Health Libraries Network
http://stlis.thenhs.com/hln/index1.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: Evidence based practice to librarianship and information science
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Feddern,
Tanya
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 7:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Google better than MEDLINE?!
***cross-posted***
Hello, everyone. I'd like your thoughts on this. I learned that
supposedly
a Missouri occupational therapy professor, who's also an author and
journal
editor, advocated using Google and Dogpile (instead of MEDLINE) to find
article citations for evidence-based practice. Obviously, she doesn't
know
about the powerful features of specialized literature databases such as
the
PubMed or Ovid software for searching MEDLINE. If she did, she wouldn't
be
using Google to find evidence for patient care (nor suggesting this in
an
invited lecture). Unfortunately, this idea is probably being picked up
by
others.
Have any of you heard of other respected faculty telling students and
healthcare professionals to use Google instead of MEDLINE? How did you
address that? Please feel free to forward this. I will summarize to
the
list(s).
Take care,
Tanya
Tanya Feddern, MLIS, AHIP, MOT, OTR/L
http://www.geocities.com/nqiya/EBMbib.html
http://www.geocities.com/nqiya/index.html
Evidence-Based Medicine Assistant Professor; Reference & Education
Services
Librarian University of Miami School of Medicine, Louis Calder Memorial
Library
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