tips for searching (and finding!): library elevenses

“Library Elevenses”

“…... And if the community is hungry for more than just

knowledge, then maybe it’s about time to open a snack bar.”

― Scott Douglas

Searching – the basics

• Browsing/surfing – serendipity

• Searching – plan ahead– Use PICO (Population or Patient; Intervention;

Comparative intervention; Outcome)– Identify key concepts– Keywords/synonyms

PubMed PubReminer:

http://hgserver2.amc.nl/cgi-bin/miner/miner2.cgi

What type of information?

• Guidelines: use NICE, SIGN, TRIP, National Clearinghouse, G.I.N., Associations/ Organisations

• Diagnosis: point-of-care tool e.g. UpToDate; OvidMD• Evidence-based research: Cochrane Library,

PubMed/Medline, CINAHL, PeDRO, Embase, PsycINFO, TRIP, Scopus, Scirus etc

• Management/Governance: Emerald Management Plus• Care measurement tools: HaPI (Health and

Psychosocial Instruments)

Get the most from databases

• Controlled language: MeSH (PubMed), CINAHL Subject Heading, Emtree (Embase). – know any limitations

• “pearl gathering”, “snowballing” & “forward tracking”

• Customisation and personalisation features– Save searches/create alerts, collections, filters etc

“Deep Web”searchingYou never get access to the full extent of the web, e.g.

- Paywall protected content

- Confidential data e.g. Patient records

Image: inventionmachine.com

Searching the Deep Web

Topic-specific databases:• http://aip.completeplanet.com

• http://infomine.ucr.edu/

• http://directsearch.net/

• http://scienceresearch.com/scienceresearch/advancedsearch.html

Statistics/calculations/data analysis & comparisons:http://www.wolframalpha.com

Other toolsMetasearch:• http://www.polymeta.com/ • http://www.webcrawler.com/• http://www.dogpile.com/ • http://mednar.com/mednar/ Grey Literature:• http://www.opengrey.eu/ National/Institutional Repositories:• http://www.lenus.ie (Irish healthcare)• http://www.opendoar.org/ (directory of open access

repositories)

Web Archives: http://archive.org/index.php

Other resources

• http://www.cdc.gov/datastatistics/ (tracking epidemics)

• http://clinicaltrials.gov/ • http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/NIHR_PROSPERO/ • http://findzebra.compute.dtu.dk/

Patient Information Sources

• UpToDate:http://www.uptodate.com/contents/table-of-contents/patient-information

• CINAHL: Evidence-based care sheets to assist healthcare staff when discussing condition with patients.

• HONcode:http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Search/search.html

UpToDate – patient info

Ref:http://www.theonion.com

Google extra

Google custom search: http://www.google.com/cse/

http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=009086512607993835352%3Ao0xi0hcchga

This icon appears after you have completed a search

Click here for advanced

scholar search

Security/Privacy

• https://duckduckgo.com/• https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere• http://fixtracking.com/ - a guide to privacy

when searching (Firefox)

Social MediaYou choose what information comes to you. Be very selective – regular culling required.• Follow max. 25 on Twitter. Separate Twitter work

account.• Blogtrottr/feedly/netvibes• http://scienceroll.com/about/ • http://www.slideshare.net • http://

www.netvibes.com/keeping-up-to-date#Specialist_Bulletins

Ignore this

Ask a Librarian“Librarians like to search while others like to find” (Roy Tennant)

…we do like to find too.

Contact:Library.svh@ucd.ieAnne.madden@ucd.ieNiamh.lucey@ucd.ie