HaPI-the health and psychosocial instruments database available from Ovid

HaPI is the database of choice for locating information on all manner of measurement instruments, including questionnaires, interview schedules, rating scales, and much more. The database is easy to use, and offers unique fields to search, and a few choice limits.     

Global health database

The Global Health database is available from Ovid Technologies, Inc., and also from CABI Publishing, EBSCO, and DataStar/ DIALOG. This database is really the combination of two others--the Public Health and Tropical Medicine database, formerly produced by the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases, as well as human health and diseases information that is extracted from the CAB Abstracts database. This column will provide readers with an overview of the Global Health database, as well as present some searching hints. The Ovid interface will be used.     

CHID: a unique health information and education database

The public's growing interest in health information and the health professions' increasing need to locate health education materials can be answered in part by the new Combined Health Information Database (CHID). This unique database focuses on materials and programs in professional and patient education, general health education, and community risk reduction. Accessible through BRS, CHID suggests sources for procuring brochures, pamphlets, articles, and films on community services, programs at HMOs and hospitals, aspects of coping, and more. CHID is a joint project of six federally funded agencies in the Public Health Service. CHID provides citations with abstracts to major health journals, books, reports, pamphlets, hard-to-find information resources, and to health education programs under way in state and local health departments and other locations.     

The health periodicals database: full-text access to consumer and technical health information

The HEALTH PERIODICALS DATABASE, produced by the Information Access Company, is a unique online file which provides full-text access to both general interest health-related literature and key technical resources in the medical field. Available on DIALOG and CompuServe, the database is described as a useful tool for information on the health, fitness, and nutrition industries. Special features of the database are reviewed and comparisons are made with resources of similar scope.     

Accessing public health information: a preliminary comparison of CABI's global health database and medline

Background: Access to a comprehensive public health index or database has been identified as problematic for health professionals. Public health literature contains many varied sources including reports, journal articles, and grey literature. Traditional biomedical databases such as medline often do not meet the needs of public health workers and researchers. Aim/Methods: The aim of the study was to examine the unique content of the global health database, by comparing it to the medline database. Pre‐determined terms were used as baseline comparators where controlled vocabulary definitions in each database were sufficiently matched. Retrieved results were stored and compared using EndNote libraries. Results: Results obtained from the terms used in the comparison study protocol suggest that the global health database holds a high proportion of unique records in comparison to medline . The largest overlap of duplicates from the global health database perspective came from the coccidiomycosis results set which contained 70.5% of references retrieved from both databases. Analyzing the results from a medline perspective, the subject with the largest overlap was dengue, with a 43% overlap. Conclusion: The results of this study show that the global health database is complimentary to medline in the subject areas of public health and global health.     

A bibliographic database on sociology: Principles and instruments of formation,structure, and search properties

This paper describes the goals and tasks of creating a bibliographic database on sociology at the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (INION) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Its problem and thematic structure, along with the specific and language composition of documents are determined. The basic principles of the analytic synthetic processing of documents and queries based on a set of linguistic tools on sociology are considered. The interdisciplinary access to information resources (domestic and foreign) is found to be necessary to improve the quality of scientific and information support to users of sociological information.     

A health/patient education database for family practice

Using pilot project funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation (AAFP/F) developed a program by which health/patient education print materials were reviewed. Favorably reviewed materials were entered into a database accessible through the AAFP/F's Huffington Library. The review service and resulting database were designed to help the busy clinician identify scientifically accurate, reliable materials for use in patient education. The review process developed for the project is described, as is the database and its use by family physicians. Research findings from the pilot project are discussed, some of which assisted in planning the self-supporting second phase of the program.     

Teaching reprint file management: a hands-on approach

The development of user-friendly search systems has enabled physicians to perform their own MEDLINE searches These physicians are recognizing a need to learn how to organize their growing reprint collections. Librarians at the University of Michigan, Alfred Taubman Medical Library have developed a unique course that presents a variety of techniques to meet the needs of a wide audience. For some users, such as students or house officers who have limited funds or lack support devices, a variety of manual methods are presented. Advantages and disadvantages of using manual versus computerized systems are discussed. Following the illustration of the manual methods, users are introduced to a simple computerized method using a utility type database management package, PC-FILE. Hands-on training under the direction of librarians allows students to develop and use a practice database while having experts available to answer questions. Users are encouraged to take a copy of PC-FILE (shareware) with them to experiment with before committing themselves to a more expensive database management software package. Before the class ends, those interested in a more sophisticated package with specialized report formats and downloading/uploading capabilities are given a brief demonstration of PRO-CITE. Evaluations have shown that there is interest in all three methods.     

Graduate student research instruction: Testing an interactive Web-based library tutorial for a health sciences database

Interactive electronic tutorials offer flexibility in delivering library instruction; however, questions linger regarding their effectiveness compared to traditional librarian-led classroom lectures. This study examines a tutorial introducing health science students to the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature database. Half the student sample completed the tutorial and half attended a parallel lecture. A pre/post-test instrument measured mastery of the material. While results varied by subject focus tested, students completing the tutorial demonstrated greater improvement in post-test scores than those attending the lecture.     

Full-text and bibliographic database searching in the health sciences: an exploratory study comparing CCML and MEDLINE

An exploratory study to investigate perceived differences between searching full-text databases and bibliographic databases was undertaken. BRS's full-text database, Comprehensive Core Medical Library (CCML), and BRS's current MEDLINE file (MESH) were compared. Identical literature search topics were run in the two databases and the results evaluated regarding currency of search results, success in answering specific questions, uniqueness of information retrieved, and relevancy of retrieval. Additionally, connect time and costs were noted to aid in determining the feasibility of offering full-text database searching as a service for which the authors' institution would charge.     

Searching a biomedical bibliographic database from Bulgaria: the ABS database

BACKGROUND: The University of Sofia, Bulgaria, disseminates local biomedical literature (1994 to present) through a free online database, ABS. OBJECTIVES: Our objectives were to systematically search ABS, identify citations to controlled trials and discover what proportion of these studies are to be found on medline. METHODS: We searched using Bulgarian and English phrases; manually selected citations of controlled trials and sought these citations on medline. Results: Using the two languages, we found a total of 628 unique citations, 47 of which seem to be relevant controlled trials (precision 7.48%, 13% of ABS citations were found on medline). The trials in ABS commonly focused on evaluation of care for people with cardiovascular or urological problems. DISCUSSION: ABS is another source of easily accessed trials not readily available elsewhere.     

案卷装订问题大观

近年来,虽然电子文件数量剧增,但在各类归档文件材料中仍以纸质载体为主。尽管案卷质量问题常抓不懈,但案卷装订工作作为直接影响案卷质量的关键环节,屡屡暴露出的问题直接影响了档案的外观质量和保管利用,而且有许多是因档案人员疏忽大意亲……     

高校学位论文管理之我见

论述了高校学位论的三个特点：价值高，献特殊，保密性和我馆目前的状况及存在的六大弊端，提出在管理上需要改进的四点设想。     

PEDro: a physiotherapy evidence database

PEDro is produced by the Centre for Evidence-Based Physiotherapy (CEBP), located in Sydney, Australia. PEDro is intended to be used to gain "rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy." This column will provide some background information on the database, as well as cover the basics of searching its content.