Ways to find medical information on the Internet

Web search tools Main types of web search tools Subject directories Search engines Meta-search engines Concept categorizing search engines Vertical search engines

Things to know about subject directories Selective collections of web pages or other information sources arranged by topic, hierarchically organized by subject category. Assembled by teams of editors who are specialists in their subjects. Information retrieval is realized by browsing catalog section, sometimes the searching by keyword is offered as well.

When to use subject directories When you are just beginning your search and have only a general idea of a topic. When you are interested in a broad range of information rather than a specific piece of information. When you are looking for a list compiled by an expert. This helps eliminate irrelevant pages and ensures quality results.

Recommended subject directories General Yahoo! Directory – http://dir.yahoo.com/ DMOZ – http://www.dmoz.org/ Academic & professional Infomine – http://infomine.ucr.edu/ IPL 2 – http://www.ipl.org/ Encyclopedias, Dictionaries The Free Dictionary – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ Mashpedia – http://www.mashpedia.com/ MedlinePlus (Encyclopedia) – http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/encyclopedia.html

Things to know about search engines Searchable databases compiled by automated programs that continuously search the full-texts of the web pages for new and updated sites. Vary in method, type and amount of material indexed. Vary in relevancy of achieved results. Operate by entry of keywords.

When to use search engines When you have a specific topic. When you want to combine relevant terms. When you want to retrieve a large number of web sites.

Recommended search engines General search engines Google – http://www.google.com/ Yahoo! – http://www.yahoo.com/ Altavista – http://www.altavista.com/ Ask – http://www.ask.com/ Excite – http://www.excite.com/ Bing – http://www.bing.com/ Academic search engines Scirus – http://www.scirus.com/ Science.gov – http://www.science.gov/ – government science portal

Things to know about meta-search engines Search tools of a federated search provide a single interface that enables users to search multiple search engines, indexes and databases simultaneously. Do not offer the same level of control over the search interface and search logic as individual search engines.

When to use meta-search engines When you want to get a general idea of what documents you can find with your terms. A good strategy at the very beginning of your research.

Recommended meta-search engines General meta-search engines Metacrawler – http://www.metacrawler.com/ Ixquick – http://www.ixquick.com/ Dogpile – http://www.dogpile.com/ Yippy – http://www.yippy.com/ Search.com – http://www.search.com/ Academic meta-search engines Academic Index – http://www.academicindex.net/ Google Scholar – http://scholar.google.com/schhp Meta Press – http://www.metapress.com/home/main.mpx

Concept categorizing search engines When to use concept categorizing search engines When a search is a general one and you want to learn about the component concepts of your topic. When you know very little about your topic and want help in identifying its scope and content. When your topic is indefinite.

Recommended concept categorizing search engines Clusty – http://www.clusty.com iBoogie – http://www.iboogie.com Theoma – http://www.teoma.com WiseNut – http://www.wisenut.com Quintura for kids – http://quinturakids.com/

Vertical search engines When to use vertical search engines When you search a specific area of the World Wide Web (WWW) – topic, geographical location, language, news, type of content (e.g. movies, images, blogs), etc.). When you have difficulty locating what you want on general, meta, or concept categorizing search engines.

Recommended vertical search engines Topical search engines MedNar – http://mednar.com/mednar/ ScienceResearch.com – http://www.scienceresearch.com/ World Wide Science – http://worldwidescience.org/ Image search engines Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog – http://www.loc.gov/pictures/ Picsearch – http://www.picsearch.com/ Full text books and articles Google Book Search – http://books.google.com/ The Online Books Page – http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

The content of the World Wide Web and its accessibility The Surface web (Visible web) – the information you can see in almost all subject directories and information you can find using general web search engines. The Deep web (Invisible web) – web content that is not part of the Surface web and is not accessible through standard search engines. It is approximately 500 times bigger than the Surface web.

Deep web content Databases and online catalogues which can only be retrieved by posting a query. Non-text files such as images, multimedia or software, non- HTML formats such as PDF, .zip, .doc and .xls files. Password-protected sites.

Recommended deep web search tools Brightplanet – http://www.brightplanet.com/ CompletePlanet – http://aip.completeplanet.com/ DeepWebTech – http://www.deepwebtech.com/ IPL2 – http://www.ipl.org/ Scirus – http://www.scirus.com/ Science.gov – http://www.science.gov/ – government science portal

How to search a topic Choose a topic Develop a search strategy Identify information sources Choose a database to search Search a database Evaluate the information sources retrieved

Evaluating sources Authority (What are the author's references?) Accuracy (Is the information reliable?) Objectivity (Does the information show bias?) Currency (Is the information dated?) Coverage (How in-depth is the information?)

General tips for online searching Did you check your spelling? One small spelling error can make a huge difference. Are you using the right search? Author and title searches look for known items. A keyword search looks for your terms anywhere in the document. A subject search will look for terms in a predetermined set of subject headings. It works good if you choose the right subject term; if not, you may get zero results. It's a good idea to browse subject headings if possible.

Logical operators Using "and" will find all your words, but they may appear in different parts of the document and in any order (hypertension and therapy). This will narrow your search. Using "or" will find either term and maybe both (therapy or treatment). This will broaden your search. Using "not" will exclude a concept (AIDS not HIV), will exclude documents containing the word „HIV" and make your search more focused.

Resources of information on the Internet Archives Dictionaries eBooks Library Cataloques Electronic Publications Organization websites Encyclopedias Portals and Gateways Electronic articles Repositories… Educational Resources Databases ……

Searching tools for medical content Name URL Description Cochrane Reviews http://www.cochrane.org/cochrane-reviews international network, collection of records of randomised controlled trials GoPubmed http://gopubmed.org/ knowledge-based search engine for biomedical texts Health-EU portal http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu/index_en.htm public health portal of the European Union Health Mash http://healthmash.com/ health knowledge base and semantic search for health information MedHunt Health on the Net Foundation http://www.hon.ch/Project/Hunt_medical.html full-text search engine Medscape http://www.medscape.com/ subject directory NHS Evidence (EBM Search) https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/ portal OmniMedicalSearch http://www.omnimedicalsearch.com/ search engine SearchMedica http://www.searchmedica.com/ subject directory with search query TRIP Database http://www.tripdatabase.com/ clinical research evidence WebMD http://www.webmd.com/

How to find free articles Recommended websites BioMed Central – http://www.biomedcentral.com/ Bioline International – http://www.bioline.org.br/ DIAJ – http://www.doaj.org/ –Directory of Open Access Journals Free Medical Journals – http://www.freemedicaljournals.com/ High Wire Press – http://highwire.stanford.edu/ PubMed Central – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ ScieLO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) – http://www.scielo.org/ PDF Full text of an article will usually open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, the free software that you can download and install on your computer. …

How to find free eBooks Recommended websites Bookshelf (NCBI eBooks) – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/ EbookBrowse – http://www.EbookBrowse.com/ Project Gutenberg – http://www.gutenberg.org/ Scribd – http://www.scribd.com/ eBooks for portabe devices Manybooks.net – http://manybooks.net/ Feedbooks.com – http://www.feedbooks.com/ Booksinmyphone.com – http://www.booksinmyphone.com/

Searching medical databases PubMed Bibliographic database covering the field of medicine, nursing, dentistry, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. The most important database of medical literature. Produced by the National Library of Medicine in the USA. Available via the WWW:  PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ – free, open access, very powerful database. Links to other NLM search systems, such as ClinicalTrials.gov®, MedlinePlus®, and PMC.

PubMed Contains bibliographic citations, indexing and abstracts with links to full-text journal articles of participating publishers. Database is daily updated. Over 75% of PubMed includes abstracts. There are currently more than 22 million records dating from 1950 to present. Provides access to a collection of books available full-text.

How to find books in our online collection To find books held by our library, go to the Academic Library FM CU homepage at http://www.fmed.uniba.sk/?library and select Online Catalog. From the catalog menu, select Author or Title or Subject and initiate search. If your search is successful, a number of titles will be displayed. Click the link to display records.

Bibliographic record of the book

Locating a book in the library The Location line tells you which CU library has your item. The Signature line is the "address" of the book, tells you where an item is located in the library. The Status line tells you if the item is available or is checked out.