E-Resources in Health Sciences

bySukhdev Singh

E-Resource

Online tools that • index, • abstract, • or provide electronic access to

– articles, – books, – dissertations and – other types of content.

• Information (usually a file) which can be stored in the form of Electrical Signals usually, but not necessarily, on a Computer.

• Information available on the internet.

Health Sciences E-Resources

• Wait….

• We have a problem here.

• Well it is the Problem of Plenty.

• In 2003 there were over 100,000 health-related websites

– 1. World Health Organization. Proposal for ‘.health’ internet domain. Geneva: WHO; 2003. Report by the Secretariat.

• Just imagine there is scholarly journal on “Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries”.

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t792303999~tab=sample

• Knowing select quality resources would service as good start point

• But that won’t be enough

• Better would be to acquire skills in finding ‘quality’ resources

Search and Evaluate

• Have a plan– Without a plan you would be lost in the sea of

information

• Pick appropriate search tool for type of information you are seeking– Search

• Critically evaluate search results

Appropriate Tool?

Will depend on what you are looking for !!!

• General Information – Web Search Engines / General Web Resources

• Journal References– Databases like PubMed / IndMED etc) / Scholar Google

• Full Text Articles– Free Open Access.– Fee Based – From Libraries.

• Best Practices / Evidence Based Medicine– Cochrane Library

General Information

Best for Non-Scholarly Information

Web Search Engines

General Information – Web Search Engines / Resources

• Search Engines• Meta-Search Engines • Subject Directories • Subject Guides

Search Engines

• Full-text of selected Web pages.

• Search by keyword, trying to match exactly the words in the pages.

• No browsing, no subject categories.

• Databases compiled by "spiders" (computer-robot programs).

Meta-Search Engines

• Meta-Search Engines quickly and superficially search several individual search engines at once.

• Return results compiled into a convenient format. • They only catch about 10% of search results in any of

the search engines they visit.

Web Directories

• Hand-selected sites. Organized into hierarchical subject categories.

• Often annotated with descriptions.

• Browse subject categories or search using broad, general terms.

• No full-text of documents. Can search only the subject categories and descriptions.

Subject Guides

• Web pages of collections of hypertext links on a subject.

• Compiled by "expert" subject specialists, agencies, associations, and hobbyists.

Evaluating Your Web Search Results

Search results should be examined for accuracy and authenticity and currency -

1. Who? Who is the authoring agency or individual?2. What? What is the author's credentials?3. Where? Where is the author's affiliation?4. When? When was the page last updated5. Why? Why is the page in existence? What is the

author's purpose?6. How? How does the page appear?

So, What have we learned?

For General Information –Search Engines–Meta Search Engines–Web Directories–Subject Guides

•Evaluate Your Web Search Results

Scholarly Information

•References

Bibliographic Databases -PubMed-IndMED etc.

Search Engine -Scholar Google

Bibliographic Databases

• Cover Peer Reviewed Literature. • Index select scholarly and quality journals .• References along with abstracts are available

sometimes links to free full text of articles. • Require familiarization on searching. • Knowledge of Boolean Operators, Controlled

Vocabulary like Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and Qualifiers are required for advanced searching.

http://pubmed.govIncludes MEDLINE® (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online) is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's® (NLM) premier bibliographic database that contains over 16 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine. A distinctive feature of MEDLINE is that the records are indexed with NLM's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®).

Overview of Boolean Searching

Problems when using Natural Languages for Searching

• Synonyms – (One Concept – different Words)

• Female• Lady• Woman

• Homonyms – (One Word – different Concepts)

• Multiple Words (Phrase) • Punctuation • etc..

Controlled Vocabularies are used to “Index” and “Retrieve”

What about Indian

Research?

Coverage of Indian Journals

• Only about 35 Indian Medical Journals are covered in PubMed.

• This means world Indian research does not get exposed adequately.

• No credit for good work being done in the areas dealing with local medical problem.

IndMED

• IndMED Database• Bibliographic Database – indexes 77 Indian Biomedical

Journals

Google Scholar

"Google Scholar uses Google search technology to search for scholarly materials such as: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles and more. Results come from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Some of the literature will be freely found on the Web, while some links will offer the full-text of articles for payment."

http://scholar.google.com

So, for Scholarly Information

• We start with Bibliographic Databases having references to journals and other scholarly literature

• Knowledge of search techniques like use of Boolean Operators and Controlled Vocabularies is required for effective searching.

• PubMed, Scirus – International• IndMED – Indian• Scholar Google special in some aspects but scope

and coverage is not clearly defined.

Scholarly Information

Full text Journal Articles

• Most expensive library resource

• No Library can afford all the journals / Not even the core Journals of a subject

• Things can improve with “Open Access” to scholarly literature

Some Free Resources for Full

Text Articles

• From Open Access Publishers

• Indian Journals online

• From Institutional / Subject Repositories

http://uncat.nic.in

MedKnow

OA Archives or Repositories

• OA archives or repositories are free to access and allows uploading of articles and other scholarly materials by authors.

• Archives may belong to institutions, such as universities and laboratories, or disciplines, such as physics and economics.

http://archives.eprints.org/

So, What have we learned about Journal Articles?

• Most Scholarly Journals provides online fee-based to full text of their articles

• Libraries find it difficult to afford even the core journals.

• Some relief by Open Access Journals / Repositories

• Use Directories like DOAJ and ROAR locate free resources for journal articles

Evidence / Factual Resources

Cochrane Library

• Paid Service• Made accessible to Indian Residents through

Sponsorship by ICMR• Systematic Reviews

Can You Build It?

Remember !!!

• The Web just does not have it all yet. • Most of the premium and fee-accessible content

may be hidden.• Even the best search engine will only search what is

available. • Remember that the Web is only the first tool in your

arsenal of available resources.

THANK YOU,

Happy Surfing

esukhdev