Effective bibliographic searching for animal alternatives in veterinary medical education: the UC Davis web site

To prepare students in just four years to enter veterinary practice, veterinary medical educators offer an array of laboratory and clinical experiences coordinated with didactic instruction. Recent curricular changes have reduced the numbers of animals involved in painful or terminal procedures. For each use of animals, veterinary educators are required by the USDA's policies 11 and 12 to complete animal-use protocols that include questions on alternatives to procedures causing more than momentary pain or distress. Veterinary medical educators seeking improved teaching resources and methods or completing animal-use protocols may find it frustrating to locate the relevant information, which is dispersed across many databases. This paper addresses a gap facing veterinary educators by presenting user-friendly searching tools that are targeted toward (a) locating teaching resources and (b) conducting effective bibliographic searches on standard teaching laboratory procedures, as required for animal-use protocols. These tools simplify searching by providing streamlined access to the resources being sought. Facilitating efficient and effective searching by users can improve teaching and simplify compliance with USDA requirements.