Answering health and medical reference questions

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Introduction

see also Research for librarians - portal

Overview

Despite an increasingly open and extensive corpus of available electronic information on the web, health librarians continue to provide basic print reference services to their users in medical and health libraries around the world. Health librarians are also typically responsible for providing physical tours of their libraries and, increasingly, how to search online databases, catalogues and subject-specific information sources.

The theme of this five (5) hour workshop -- "Answering health & medical reference questions" -- is rooted in traditions of providing reference services for specialized clienteles. To achieve the goals of the workshop, our focus will be on examining information sources, strategies for answering questions and interview etiquette. Tools such as the eCPS, Cochrane Library, OvidSP and Ebsco will be shown. Top consumer sites such as MedlinePlus will be shown as well as print and online dictionaries.

The workshop will include the following methods:

• Lecture: to provide a general overview of health care in Canada and the importance of health information
• Discussion: different kinds of questions that can be expected in libraries and how to analyze questions; selecting information sources; it might be good to see what kinds of health-related questions you have dealt with at your own libraries
• Demonstration: Show how to use PubMed and other information sources. Demonstrations of how to use online resources will probably take up the majority of the workshop.
• Group activity: we will break into small groups in the afternoon, with practice questions; you will come up with a search strategy and select information sources. Each group will demonstrate their search strategy to the rest of the class.

Topics

This 5-hour course focuses on using high-quality sources of health information to answer reference questions. Participants are introduced to key print and electronic sources in health and various techniques used to evaluate sources ‘on the fly’.

• Types of health information; personal health issues; public health; online & print/license and 'free'; evaluating information 'on the fly'
• Consumer health information questions
• Top Ten (10) Canadian Health Websites 2010
• Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
• Biomedical research questions
• Current events and media awareness
• BCLA workshop - websites
• References

See also

• Social media landscape
• Top Biomedical Texts 2010, Print & Online
• Medline & PubMed
• Expert searching
• Filters (ie. hedges)
• Hand-searching
• Nucleotide searching
• Point of care decision-making tools - Overview

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: The HLWIKI Canada team makes consumer health information (CHI) available to all but this information should not be construed as advice or as a substitute for consulting a doctor. Only personal contact with qualified health providers will give context to your situation e.g., they will take your health history, examine you, and bring experience (and expert opinion) to bear on evaluating you. Put simply, advice regarding your care should always include your physician and other health providers.