Hello



Tried to send to the list twice once with template first page as attachment and second time a screenshot - both rejected.  Please email me if you're interested and I can send individually.



I was looking at this only yesterday in order to compile advice for a colleague - mainly on the issue of summaries.  What I said about summaries / extra organisation:  



There is no set or best way of doing this – lots of variables so whatever feels best for the particular search.



•             How comfortable you feel with the topic.  I wouldn’t attempt it for a topic I can’t properly understand like in-depth medical genetics stuff.



•             Who / for what purpose the search is for.  I couldn’t do it for every search – far too time consuming, although this may get more manageable as I have more practice.  I’m unlikely to do it for a search for a doctor who’s doing a systematic review – they will be expecting to have to wade through every single result themselves anyway and will just be pleased that you’ve saved them time on the initial search process.  I’m more likely to do it for management / service development queries – managers have even less time / inclination to wade through things themselves so it may be the case that if they aren’t presented with the information with sufficient extra navigation they may not bother with it at all if it seems overwhelming.



•             Whether it’s a request or pre-emptive (e.g. we just did a search in response to a Trust bulletin article).  I’m more likely to do it for a pre-emptive search as an extra tool to get their attention.



•             How many results.  If it’s just a few pages it’s not so important because it won’t be a daunting number for them.  If it’s a large number of results it helps them to do some extra organisation / summarising.



•             Lowest level of added value would be clustering the articles into sub-topics with links at the top to each category.  Alternatively split by type of evidence, so secondary (guidelines, reviews, etc) and primary research.  More advanced is linking in with levels of evidence (with a link for explanation) – see http://www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=1025 .  I haven’t ventured to do one with levels of evidence yet, but I do in the summaries tend to discuss secondary sources first then primary with most recent first (or depending on topic UK results before non-UK).



•             Alternative ways of summarising.  Could be in bullet points or in prose.  Could be hyperlinked or referenced.  How to do hyperlinks: first highlight the text you wish to link to, then Insert --> Bookmark --> Add.  Then highlight the text you wish to link from, then Insert --> Hyperlink --> Bookmark --> Select your term --> Add --> OK --> OK



Would be interested in others' opinions / advice.



Kind regards

Catherine



Catherine Pritchard

Librarian

JET Library

Leighton Hospital

Middlewich Road

Crewe

CW1 4QJ

01270 612538, internal X3172

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-----Original Message-----

From: UK medical/ health care library community / information workers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of James Wilson

Sent: 11 July 2012 13:25

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Literature searches - presenting the results



Dear List



Our Library is looking into the way we send out literature searches in terms of output / how literature searches are presented to users.



Could anyone share tips about how they do this? we're interested in the format searches are sent out in, do you use front covers? if so what do they look like?, that sort of thing. If anyone could provide us with some examples that would be great.



Thank you in advance



Kind Regards



James Wilson

Assistant Librarian

Health Management Library

Scottish Health Service Centre

EH4 2LF



Tel: 0131 275 7761

Library Reception: 0131 275 7760

Fax: 0131 315 2369 http://www.healthmanagementonline.co.uk

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