A comparison of MEDLINE CD-ROM and librarian-mediated search service users

Respondents performed searches primarily for themselves and for academic research. Overall, they preferred librarian-mediated searching to CD-ROM searching. Respondents who preferred the former did so because librarians are more familiar with MeSH headings and search strategies and because of time constraints. Respondents who preferred CD-ROM liked doing their own searches and the fact that there is no cost involved. While respondents preferred librarian-mediated searching over CD-ROM searching, overall they used CD-ROM more often, presumably because of other factors, such as time constraints and cost. This dichotomy could have significant implications for a library. Should the library strive to make mediated searches more attractive by providing immediate and cost-free results? Or, because CD-ROM is used more, should the library continue to purchase in this area and possibly reduce support for librarian-mediated overhead (e.g., training, search tools, etc.)? And do librarians have a responsibility to encourage patrons to use the tool that offers the higher quality of retrieval?