Health Science Librarianship Quiz

From Trend Spotting - Whither Health Science Librarianship?:

Quiz – Key dates in medical librarianship relating to automation 

1. When was the 1st edition of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) released for use in both indexing and cataloguing?

2. In what decade did the demand for mediated online searches in the health sciences begin? 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s?

3. Modern machine methods were first applied to the production of index Medicus in the middle of which decade?

4. In what year did the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS) become operational?

5. When was the 1st International MEDLARS Centre (to implement batch bibliographic retrieval services using NLM data) established?

6. When did the NLM initiate experiments in real time, interactive online access to the MEDLARS bibliographic database?

7. In what year did MEDLINE become operational?

8. When did widespread searching of online commercial databases by academic reference librarians begin?

9. When did services oriented to end users of online databases begin to appear?

10. What was the real breakthrough in end-user searching in the mid-1980s?

11. In what year did NLM develop the software package Grateful Med? (A personal computer-based search interface for health professionals who wanted to do their own searches)?

12. When did MEDLINE on CD-ROM first appear?

13. What was the major benefit of CD-ROM technology compared to online commercial databases?

14. When did the NLM release Internet Grateful Med?

15. When was access to MEDLINE over the Web made free of charge?

Answers:

1. 1960
2. 1960s
3. Mid-1960s
4. 1964
5. 1966
6. 1970–1971
7. 1971
8. late 1970s
9. early 1980s
10. the introduction of CD-ROM technology
11. 1986
12. early 1987
13. cost-effective, fixed annual cost rather than variable cost of online connect charges
14. in 1996
15. 26 June 1997

<thoughts>

1. I need to brush up on the history of my profession.
2. I'm glad I missed the MEDLINE on CD-ROM generation.

</thoughts>

Clinical Queries Are Effective

The use of the clinical queries filters is strongly recommended by proponents of evidence-based medicine and is often taught in courses for physicians about literature searching. Our results support the use of this PubMed filter.

The authors also point out that the filters were infrequently used by the sample.  Unless you know they're there, they're difficult to stumble upon.  Perhaps they can be integrated into the main search in some way.  

 The abstract in PubMed.

RCT [pt]

Not a surprise, but this study demonstrates that the randomized controlled trial publication type in PubMed is insensitive.  Bottom line: Don't rely on it entirely.  Use a validated filter whenever possible (like one from this excellent paper that compares and validates 38 RCT filters).  

Clifford Lynch on 'Biomedical Libraries in the Next Decades'

Rethinking articles.  Increasing computation and data mining efforts and capabilities.  Linking genomics and patient data.  Creating largescale, sharable databases of patient data and medical records.  The ethics related to all of this.  Worth a listen.  

Librarian Assistance Improves Search Outcomes

This comes from a small randomized trial in the UK.  Pediatric residents who were assisted by experienced librarians performed better PubMed searches than the control group.

'Effectiveness of bibliographic searches performed by paediatric residents and interns assisted by librarians. A randomised controlled trial.

Health Info Libr J. 2011 Dec;28(4):273-84

Authors: Gardois P, Calabrese R, Colombi N, Deplano A, Lingua C, Longo F, Villanacci MC, Miniero R, Piga A

Abstract
Background:  Considerable barriers still prevent paediatricians from successfully using information retrieval technology. Objectives:  To verify whether the assistance of biomedical librarians significantly improves the outcomes of searches performed by paediatricians in biomedical databases using real-life clinical scenarios. Methods:  In a controlled trial at a paediatric teaching hospital, nine residents and interns were randomly allocated to an assisted search group and nine to a non-assisted (control) group. Each participant searched PubMed and other online sources, performing pre-determined tasks including the formulation of a clinical question, retrieval and selection of bibliographic records. In the assisted group, participants were supported by a librarian with ≥5 years of experience. The primary outcome was the success of search sessions, scored against a specific assessment tool. Results:  The median score of the assisted group was 73.6 points interquartile range (IQR = 13.4) vs. 50.4 (IQR = 17.1) of the control group. The difference between median values in the results was 23.2 points (95% CI 4.8-33.2), in favour of the assisted group (P-value, Mann-Whitney U test: 0.013). Conclusions:  The study has found quantitative evidence of a significant difference in search performance between paediatric residents or interns assisted by a librarian and those searching the literature alone.

PMID: 22051126 [PubMed - in process]