Appendix eight: reading
2004 version 2
24 May 2004
Recommended reading and websites
Forrester WH and Rowlands JL. The online searchers companion. Library Association Publishing, 2000. Buy this book here
Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper: The Medline database. BMJ 1997; 315(7101):180-3. Read ths paper here
Haynes RB, Wilcynski N, McKibbon KA, Walker CJ, Sinclair JC. Developing optimal search strategies for detecting clinically sound studies in MEDLINE. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 1994; 1(6):446-58. Order a copy from here
Stave CD. Field guide to MEDLINE: making searching simple. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2002. Buy this book here
PubMed tutorial
Produced by the National Library of Medicine, this tutorial takes you through the features of the PubMed system. It contains animated demonstrations of procedures, for which you need the Flash media player installed on your computer.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_tutorial/m1001.html
University of Leeds online MEDLINE tutorial
A self-contained online tutorial using the Ovid system which will take about 20 minutes to complete. Covers all essential aspects of searching MEDLINE with Ovid.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/databases/indexguides/medline.htm
University of Sydney Evidence Based Medicine web tutorial
The tutorial aims to help users frame their search question and strategy and locate the best sources of information. Note the practical sessions are not available unless you have an Ovid Gateway username and password, but the preceding background information is very helpful.
http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/subjects/medicine/tutorials/ebmtut/
Any questions? Please contact the MEDLINE Plus help desk:
Tel: 020 7383 6224 or 6737
email: info.medline@bma.org.uk
web: http://www.bma.org.uk/medline