Database Searching

Finding Needles in Haystacks

Robert Williams

Nov 30, 2007

Updated Dec 1,2009

williamr@marshall.edu

691-1760

Picking the Right Database

What type of documents or resources are indexed? Disciplines: Education, Psych, Medical Journal List Format types: Journal Articles, Reports,

Conferences, books, Dissertations. Scope: International? Which Languages? Current or retrospective?

Databases Database Comparison

ERIC Psych Info PubMed

Type Bib + Full-Text

Bib + Full-Text Bibliographic

Disciplines Education Psychology BioMedical

Coverage 1966- 1927- 1950-

Citations 1.2 Million 2.4 Million 19 Million

Journals 600 2,150 5608

Other Materials

All Pub Types

Books & Diss None

Database Comparison Part 2

ERIC Psych Info PubMed

Thesaurus ERIC TPIT Mesh

Access Web – MU MU Web

Web Links Publisher Sites

Publisher Sites

Save Searches

My Eric My EbscoHost

My NCBI

PubMed/Medline from NLM

(National Library of Medicine)

Introduction to Searching Robert Williams

What is PubMed?

Bibliographic with Abstracts and Links to Full Text Comprehensive - Covers all Bio-Medical and Clinical

topics 5,608 Journals Indexed 19 Million Citations

International – Indexes journals in 37 Languages Very Current – Updated Daily Tuesdays through

Saturdays Goes way back – 1948 to Present Open to All – Free from NLM

What’s the difference between PubMed and Medline?

Medline is a database which is searched by using many different public and commercial search engines.

PubMed contains all of Medline, plus recently added entries that are in process to add MESH descriptors.

Also contains non-biomedical citations from General Science Journals, Consumer Health Articles

PubMed is both a database and a Web-based search engine.

National Library of MedicineBiomedical Indexing

Timeline

1879 - 1st volume of Index Medicus Published 1964 - Medlars Automated database used to produce Index Medicus 1966 - Batch searching by specially trained Librarians 1971 - Medlars Online or Medline accessible 1986 - Grateful Med searched by Health care Professionals 1997 - PubMed on the Web 1998 – MedlinePlus offers consumer info 2000 - Clinical Trials made Web searchable

What is MESH (Medical Subject Headings)?

A thesaurus that facilitates precise retrieval of relevant citations from the Medline and PubMed Databases

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html Automatic truncation (Fragments) Trained specialists apply unlimited headings to citations.

Headings can be weighted according relevancy. Trees, Scope Notes, Valid Sub Headings

PubMed Vs. Google

Pub Med Google

Biomedical Haystacks only All Haystacks

Terms assigned by Human Indexers Machine created

Controlled Vocabulary Cluster Analysis

Mostly Grain Mostly Chaff

Subject Searching PubMed

Use any term, Automatic Mapping Qualifiers

Limit by Fields TI, MH, AB in [ brackets] Subheadings /th /ci /ae /ep /sn /px /mo /bs

Explosion is automatic unless you turn it off.

TOO Much

Qualifiers Fields TI, MH, in [brackets]

Major Heading [mj] Subheadings Limits

Language Years Human Review

Advanced Search - History

Go Here if you are lost Use # to refer to statement numbers Combine statements using AND OR NOT Operators

Use & for AND | for OR Display Statement Results Preview runs faster than Search

Verification Searching

Starting with a “Known” citation Assume Errors Use Single Citation Search Any field can be searched

Vol., Issue Number, Pages Important title words with Author Use Author’s Last name and one initial

Displaying Results

Number of Citations per page (20 default, 200 Max) Format

Summary (Regular and Text) Abstract (Regular and Text) Medline XML PMID List

Sort Pub Date or Most Recent Added Author (First of Last) Journal Title Title of Article

Send to Collections E-Mail File Clipboard

Clipboard

Store citations up to 8 hours Deletes duplicates Use #0 to run clipboard contents against other statements

My NCBI

Can save search strategies to run at any time or schedule automatic execution.

Must be a single statement

Details is an easy way to update a saved search.

Collections providesstorage of Citations

Tips

http://musom.marshall.edu/library/documents/tips.pdf Use Mesh if you find a term that matches your topic Most recent (@30 days) citations don’t have Mesh terms yet. Use multiple statements. Large complex statements usually

have typos It’s easy to apply limits at the end of a search, but difficult to

adjust a search when limits are on top. Use NOT operator with care [Bracketed] citation titles indicate articles are written in a foreign

language.

Obtaining Documents

Check link provided by PubMed. Access may not always be granted Log In using URL from HSL Home Page http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/advanced?

holding=wvmuhslib Check MU Periodicals Request InterLibrary Loan

1-2 day Turn around – Patient Care 2 hours IDS offers online request.

http://206.212.0.150/default.asp Electronic delivery is often possible in PDF format. Denise Smith

wardd@marshall.edu