Expert searching in public health

Area of Science:

• Public Health Information Science
• Health Sciences Librarianship

Background:

• Public health information needs present unique challenges.
• Identifying and accessing relevant resources requires specific expertise.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the distinct characteristics of public health information needs.
• To identify the resources and expertise required for effective public health searching.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of public health searching activities from a large urban health department library.
• Review of reference questions and literature search requests to identify challenges.

Main Results:

• Discrepancies between information request terminology and database vocabularies were common.
• Effective searching necessitated the use of multiple, diverse databases and web resources.
• Database scope and features presented significant considerations for search success.

Conclusions:

• Expert public health searching demands broad subject knowledge and technical database skills.
• The fluidity and lack of standardized vocabulary in public health pose challenges.
• Scarcity of geographically specific, high-quality investigations requires specialized search strategies.
• Health sciences librarians need extensive exposure to databases, gray literature, and public health terminology.