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Creating local bibliographic databases: new tools for evidence-based health care
J H Sable1, B G Carlin, J E Andrews
1Department of Health Management and Informatics, School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia, 65211, USA.
Bulletin of the Medical Library Association
|April 28, 2000
Summary
Librarians can create inexpensive, locally maintained bibliographic databases using off-the-shelf software. This enhances clinicians' access to evidence-based health information via the web.
Area of Science:
- Library and Information Science
- Medical Informatics
- Evidence-Based Healthcare
Background:
- The internet offers new avenues for librarians to deliver literature search results to clinicians.
- Effective utilization requires locally maintained bibliographic databases.
- Existing methods may be complex or costly.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe a simple, cost-effective method for creating and publishing a local bibliographic database on the web.
- To enable librarians to enhance their support for evidence-based healthcare.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing off-the-shelf software with minimal programming.
- Implementing a hedge search strategy for clinical process intervention outcome studies.
- Searching MEDLINE via Ovid, importing results into EndNote, modifying citations, and exporting to Microsoft Access for web publication.
Main Results:
- A bibliographic database containing 13,803 MEDLINE citations was created.
- Web-based searches were efficient, taking 4-10 seconds and retrieving 10-100 citations.
- The total software cost was under $900.
Conclusions:
- Locally maintained bibliographic databases are easily and affordably created.
- These databases significantly expand library services for evidence-based healthcare.
- This approach empowers librarians to better serve clinicians seeking research evidence.