Medical students using Grateful Med: analysis of failed searches and a six-month follow-up study.

Medical students at the University of Missouri were taught to search MEDLINE using the Grateful Med software. The traffic files of student searches were analyzed for search behavior. This paper reports on two specific aspects of these analyses: (1) failed searches where retrieval was either too large or too small (zero hits); and (2) a six month follow-up study which focused on error rates and retention of skills. The two major reasons for retrieving too many citations were entering a phrase on a single subject line and a search of only one concept. Of the zero hit searches, the most commonly occurring errors were MeSH (medical subject headings) not used, other MeSH errors, misspelling or keyboard errors, and faulty logic. During the six month follow-up study, the error rates of students declined in spite of the fact that they had not used the software in six months. Furthermore, a larger percentage of the searches showed a more sophisticated use of MeSH than previously employed.

[1]  D. Covell,et al.  Information needs in office practice: are they being met? , 1985, Annals of internal medicine.

[2]  F A Simon,et al.  A comparison of two computer programs for searching the medical literature. , 1988, Journal of medical education.

[3]  D S Ginn,et al.  A strategy for curriculum integration of information skills instruction. , 1989, Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.

[4]  V Welborn,et al.  End-user programs in medical school libraries: a survey. , 1988, Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.

[5]  R Ben-Shir,et al.  Fast Inter Library Loans and Statistics, enhanced version 2.0. , 1986, Medical reference services quarterly.

[6]  K Ann McKibbon,et al.  A Study of MEDLINE in Clinical Settings: Design and Preliminary Results. , 1988 .

[7]  P. S. Bradigan,et al.  End-user searching in a medical school curriculum: an evaluated modular approach. , 1989, Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.

[8]  Winifred Sewell,et al.  Observations of end-user online searching behavior over eleven years , 1986, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[9]  P Soben,et al.  GRATEFUL MED searching: a hospital library perspective. , 1988, Medical reference services quarterly.

[10]  H L Bleich,et al.  Self-service computerized bibliographic retrieval: a comparison of Colleague and PaperChase, programs that search the MEDLINE data base. , 1988, Computers and biomedical research, an international journal.

[11]  C J Walker,et al.  A review of medical education and medical informatics , 1989, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[12]  Martha Kirby Ms,et al.  MEDLINE Searching on Colleague , 1986 .

[13]  C. Burroughs,et al.  Clinicians' satisfaction with Grateful Med: an exploratory study. , 1989, Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.

[14]  V K Proud,et al.  New thoughts about medical students as effective searchers of MEDLINE , 1990, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[15]  M. Bonham,et al.  An evaluation of four end-user systems for searching MEDLINE. , 1988, Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.

[16]  Michael H. Zaroukian,et al.  Medline computerized literature searching using grateful med: A pilot instructional project for entering medical students , 1990 .

[17]  J E Rodnick,et al.  Teaching medical students to do bibliographic searching. , 1988, Journal of medical education.

[18]  D A DaRosa,et al.  A study of the information-seeking skills of medical students and physician faculty. , 1983, Journal of medical education.

[19]  D E Northup,et al.  Characteristics of clinical information-searching: investigation using critical incident technique. , 1983, Journal of medical education.

[20]  N Miller,et al.  MEDLINE on CD-ROM: end user searching in a medical school library. , 1988, Medical reference services quarterly.

[21]  E. R. Stinson,et al.  Survey of health professionals' information habits and needs. Conducted through personal interviews. , 1980, JAMA.

[22]  Paul B. Kantor,et al.  A Study of Information Seeking and Retrieving. III. Searchers, Searches, and Overlap* , 1988 .

[23]  K. A. McKibbon,et al.  Online access to MEDLINE in clinical settings. A study of use and usefulness. , 1990, Annals of internal medicine.

[24]  V K Proud,et al.  Teaching human genetics in biochemistry by computer literature searching. , 1989, American journal of human genetics.

[25]  S Kimmel.  Teaching third-year medical students to search MEDLINE. , 1989, Medical reference services quarterly.

[26]  D. Perkins.  The Fingertip Effect: How Information-Processing Technology Shapes Thinking , 1985 .