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*** 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