MEDLINE access (4)
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Source: ahila-net@who.ch
I enjoyed reading the comments from Tom Flemming, and thought I'd add
mine for what they're worth!
We have been training end users to use various value added CD-ROM
products of Medline for several years now, and tracked over 8000 end
user searches last year. We presume that end users were satisfied
with the results obtained, because there was very little comeback in
the form of requests for further assistance.
Since the introduction of free searching on both IGI and PubMed (over
Internet) since June, our end users are turning to these services in
significant numbers. But interestingly enough, they are now request-
ing seminars from the Library on how to achieve the same meaningful
results they were used to in the CD-ROM product!
So I concur heartily with Tom Fleming's assessment, but would be in-
terested to hear the views of others as to whether libraries will
continue to provide CD-ROM products as an alternative to the Internet
versions of Medline? I'm well aware that for Africans, telecommunica-
tions (or the lack of adequate telecommunications infrastructures)
continue to present problems, but if this obstacle were overcome,
would we still use the CD-ROM based products, and if so how?
Best wishes
Glenda Myers
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Glenda Myers
Medical and Dental Librarian
Witwatersrand Health Sciences Library
P O Box 351
2050 WITS
South Africa
Tel: +27-11-647-2050/2047
Fax: +27-11-643-8617
mailto:Myers@minerva.med.wits.ac.za
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PS FROM IRENE BERTRAND <bertrand@who.ch> - thank you Glenda for add-
ing to this discussion. Tom Flemming did say:
"My own belief is that Internet routes of access to Medline are fine
for the casual user, the non-professional searcher and the uniniti-
ated who want to search without cost, but are not the librarian's
choice. Here in Canada, our Internet access is not good enough to
make searching Medline via the Internet a satisfactory experience for
the professional searcher."
So it would seem that even if African communications reached those of
the level of of Canada, the CD-ROM products would still be preferable
from a searching point of view. However, you ask if we would still
use CD-ROM based products... I would like to say - yes, we should,
but perhaps the answer lies once again in the financial aspects.
Could we justify purchasing / leasing CD-ROMs to our library commit-
tees if, in theory, the Internet provides the same service. I rather
fear that our professional reasons for continuing them would not
carry much weight in such circumstances.
I would also like to pick up Glenda's remarks that "we presume that
end users were satisfied with results obtained, because there was
very little comeback..."
This may well be true in a University environment with lots of young
students but I don't think one can always be so optimistic about our
users. I rather fear that, as in the topic of front line health work-
ers, doctors do not like to admit that they don't know something:
they do not always come to a librarian and admit that their search
has not produced the expected or required results. Sometimes one sees
the results of in-depth literature searches (parts of studies lasting
several weeks or more) which are totally false because the person has
not understood the search techniques or the limitations of a database
because they did not consult the librarian first.
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