MEDLINE-for-Medics: an outline searching course for health-care professionals.
An online searching course for health professionals was initiated at a university medical school. A group of end users were taught to search the MEDLINE database on DATA-STAR and their subsequent online progress was monitored. The preliminary survey by questionnaire, pretraining interviews, the tutorial programme, course evaluation and end-user feedback were described. Logsheets showed that most end-user searches were for research purposes, although some were for patient care. The effects of CD-ROM on online end-user searching were discussed and it was suggested that direct online access to information might be a more appropriate medium for busy clinical and academic staff.
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D003200:Computer User Training / Q000379:methods*; D003625:Data Collection; D004739:England; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D007993:Libraries, Medical; D008523:MEDLARS; D010865:Pilot Projects; D014481:United States