Health & Medicine - Indexes, Medical Reference, Databases - General & Miscellaneous

Medline: A Guide to Effective Searching

Name: Medline: A Guide to Effective Searching
Author: Brian S. Katcher
ISBN: 9780967344508

by Brian S. Katcher

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Overview

is the collective product of a small army of indexers, who have, for more than 30 years, characterized the contents of more than 4,200 journals that publish information about the causes, prevention, and treatment of disease and injury. Each of the more than ten million journal articles, letters, and editorials that are catalogued in MEDLINE have been read by a skilled indexer, who has assigned to it roughly a dozen subject headings, drawn from a controlled vocabulary of more than 19,000 Medical Subject Headings MeSH. If you understand the elaborate indexing schemes that are embodied in MEDLINE, you can use this understanding to search it with a high degree of precision.

The intent of this book is the promotion of better searches, and, hence, better application of what is known. The story of MEDLINE's origins and evolution, which sets the stage for understanding how this powerful database works, is told in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 describes the key indexing elements that are used to characterize articles in MEDLINE. This chapter also begins to show how this indexing information can be used to find articles. Because Medical Subject headings are so important to searching in MEDLINE, they are described in greater depth in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 illustrates how the combination of Medical Subject Headings and Publication Types can be used to focus s search, and Chapter 5 contains some practical tips.

The book contains black-and-white illustrations.

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Editorials

Reviewer: Katherine R. Martin, MA, MLS(Willamette Falls Hospital)
Description: This short, paperback book quickly introduces novice researchers to the basics of Medline, independent of interface. Good examples and the necessary caveats are provided to make the key points clear.
Purpose: The author's purpose is the promotion of better searches. Since Medline is now free to all and the number of searches has increased dramatically, the need for such a title should grow.
Audience: The target audience seems to be beginning searchers in any health sciences field, including students. In addition, the book would be useful to an beginning library school student.
Features: This format works well for someone who needs to learn to be a better searcher, but has little time to devote. It proceeds logically from the origins of Medline through the mechanics of using the indexes to conclude with information about electronic use of Medline. Examples are used throughout and the topics chosen to make them are good ones. Also, experienced searchers know the pitfalls and dangers to avoid and this author makes them known. Cursory coverage, however, is given to the print (and online) tools available (annotated index, permuted index, and tree structures) and could have been expanded upon. Published in 1999, some of the information has or is scheduled to change so an excellent feature of the book is Appendix A: Medline Interfaces and Related Resources on the World Wide Web. While the printed data is shown from June 6, 1999, a corresponding Web site given updates the list to June 2, 2000.
Assessment: This would be a good starting point for a new searcher of Medline. The format of the book is its greatest strength, making the key points quickly and clearly. Move information could have been included, but the complexity may slow the reader. I recommend it.

Katherine R. Martin

This short, paperback book quickly introduces novice researchers to the basics of Medline, independent of interface. Good examples and the necessary caveats are provided to make the key points clear. The author's purpose is the promotion of better searches. Since Medline is now free to all and the number of searches has increased dramatically, the need for such a title should grow. The target audience seems to be beginning searchers in any health sciences field, including students. In addition, the book would be useful to an beginning library school student. This format works well for someone who needs to learn to be a better searcher, but has little time to devote. It proceeds logically from the origins of Medline through the mechanics of using the indexes to conclude with information about electronic use of Medline. Examples are used throughout and the topics chosen to make them are good ones. Also, experienced searchers know the pitfalls and dangers to avoid and this author makes them known. Cursory coverage, however, is given to the print (and online) tools available (annotated index, permuted index, and tree structures) and could have been expanded upon. Published in 1999, some of the information has or is scheduled to change so an excellent feature of the book is Appendix A: Medline Interfaces and Related Resources on the World Wide Web. While the printed data is shown from June 6, 1999, a corresponding Web site given updates the list to June 2, 2000. This would be a good starting point for a new searcher of Medline. The format of the book is its greatest strength, making the key points quickly and clearly. Move information could have been included, but the complexity may slow thereader. I recommend it.

3 Stars from Doody