The literature of women and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS): implications for collection development and information retrieval

The purpose of the study was to identify the pattern of publication about women and AIDS in scientific journals. Bradford zones were identified in each of six databases. The study determined that journal scatter for this subset of AIDS literature differed from the scatter in the general literature; further, the information indexed in the six electronic sources demonstrated little overlap. Consequently, key journal and newsletter titles identified by this study should form the core of any collection focusing on women and AIDS. The assurance of quality patient care management demands that librarians consult multiple resources for information retrieval that can assist health care providers, patients, and caregivers to enhance quality of life as well as to provide optimum care.     

UnCover on the Web: search hints and applications in library environments

Among the huge maze of resources available on the Internet, UnCoverWeb stands out as a valuable tool for medical libraries. This up-to-date, free-access, multidisciplinary database of periodical references is searched through an easy-to-learn graphical user interface that is a welcome improvement over the telnet version. This article reviews the basic and advanced search techniques for UnCoverWeb, as well as providing information on the document delivery functions and table of contents alerting service called Reveal. UnCover's currency is evaluated and compared with other current awareness resources. System deficiencies are discussed, with the conclusion that although UnCoverWeb lacks the sophisticated features of many commercial database search services, it is nonetheless a useful addition to the repertoire of information sources available in a library.     

Library school education for medical librarianship.

This paper reviews the current situation in library school education for medical librarianship in the United States and Canada based on information from a questionnaire sent to teachers of courses in medical librarianship in accredited library schools. Since 1939, when the first course devoted entirely to medical librarianship was offered at Columbia University, courses have been introduced into the curricula of at least forty-seven of the ALA-accredited library schools. In 1978 there were seventy courses available through forty-seven library schools. Possibilities for specialization in medical librarianship are examined. Course content is reviewed. Implications of the MLA certification examination for library school courses are explored.     

A study of clinical questions posed by hospital clinicians.

OBJECTIVE: This article presents the results of complementary research studies on the behaviors of hospital clinicians in asking clinical questions and the relationship between asking of questions, outcome of information searches, and success in problem solving. METHODS: Triangulation in research methods--a combination of mailed questionnaires, interviews, and a randomized controlled study--was employed to provide complementary views of the research problems under study. RESULTS: The survey and interviews found that clinical problems (concerned mainly with therapy and equipment or technology) were expressed as statements rather than questions (average number of concepts = 1.7), that only slightly more than half (higher for doctors) of problems could be solved, and that the majority of clinical questions were not well formed. An educational workshop however improved clinicians' formulation of questions, but the use of structured prompting was found to improve building of hypotheses in the doctors' group without training. The workshop also improved satisfaction with the obtained information and success in problem solving. Nonetheless, for both the experimental and control groups, more structured and complete questions or statements did not mean higher success rates in problem solving or higher satisfaction with obtained information. CONCLUSION: The triangulation methods have gathered complementary evidence to reject the hypothesis that building well-structured clinical questions would mean higher satisfaction with obtained information and higher success in problem solving.     

Unique unto itself: The records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation 1908 to 1945

This paper addresses several misunderstandings about the nature of the FBI's Central Records System. Although depicted in popular culture and much of FBI historiography as a tool for the Cold War suppression of American radicals, the FBI's records system grew out of Department of Justice systems already in place before J. Edgar Hoover became Director in 1924. The system grew in size and complexity according to the demands placed on it by the changing priorities of the FBI's criminal and intelligence missions, guided by a “progressive” drive for efficiency through centralization.