Introduction to the Workshops on Searching

These workshops cover a confusing subject. Using search engines seems simple on the surface, but not so simple when you want to know how accurate the search is - are you finding everything you need or just "something". In the main workshop on PubMed I have tried to follow this path - how do you establish that your search has accomplished what you set out to do? This exploratory approach may be valuable to some and confusing and indefinite to others. As a result I have added a much more didactic approach along the lines of "this is what you do".

These tutorials thus consist of -

• Medline Tutorials
  • PubMed the National Library of Medicine Medline Portal
    • Exploratory approach
      • PubMed Basic
      • Expanding the Search
      • Refining the Search
      • Using Boolean Logic to customize your search
      • Summary and Links to PubMed features
    • Didactic Approach
      • Defining your aim
        • Finding something/anything
        • Finding the "best" (evidence based) papers
        • Getting a short, high quality reading list
        • Assembling a comprehensive list
        • Finding a specific paper
      • Broadening the search
      • Narrowing the search
      • Saving the search
  • Osler/OVID Portal at the CMA (by Christian Veillette MD)
• Searching the Internet
  • Searching the Internet and Finding what you need
  • Internet Searching Workshop
  • Using Orthopaedic Web Links (OWL)

Myles Clough MD, FRCSC, Clinical Instructor, Dept. of Orthopaedics,
University of British Columbia
Nov.2001
Email comments most welcome mylesclough@shaw.ca