MEDLARS: Its Utilization in Research, Education and Practice

A study of the utilization of the MEDLARS bibliographic service at one of the regional MEDLARS Centers is described. Data were obtained by sending a questionnaire to a sample of users who had requested bibliographic searches in previous months. The characteristics of the users, their awareness of the service availability, the purposes of their search requests, and their satisfaction with the results of the search were analyzed. The relation between outcome of the search and user’s satisfaction was examined.

There was a ratio of 2:1 between high and low satisfaction. A favorable appraisal of the MEDLARS search was found to be prevalent among users who had received large bibliographies. The group of requesters with teaching status also showed a higher proportion of satisfied users than the group of students or trainees.

Verf. legt eine Untersuchung über die Nutzung des MEDLARS-Literaturdienstes in einem der regionalen MEDLARS-Zentren vor. Die Auswertung basiert auf Angaben aus Fragebögen, die an eine Stichprobe von Benutzern des Literaturdienstes versandt worden waren. Die Charakteristika der Benutzer, ihre Kenntnis der verfügbaren Dienstleistungen, der Zweck ihrer Anfragen und der Grad ihrer Zufriedenstellung mit dem Suchergebnis wurden analysiert. Die Relation zwischen dem Suchergebnis und der Zufriedenheit des Benutzers wurde untersucht.

Das Verhältnis von hohem zu niedrigem Zufriedenheitsgrad war 2:1. Eine positive Einschätzung der MEDLARS-Suchergebnisse herrschte bei denjenigen Benutzern vor, die umfangreiche Bibliographien erhalten hatten. Auch zeigte sich bei den Anfragem mit Lehrfunktionen ein höherer Anteil von zufriedenen Benutzern als bei Studenten oder Praktikanten.

Key-Words

Biomedical Information Systems - MEDLARS Bibliographic Service - MEDLARS Users - MEDLARS Utilization

Schlüssel-Wörter

Biomedizinische Informationssysteme - MEDLARS-Literaturdienst - MEDLARS-Benutzer - Nutzung von MEDLARS

• Bibliography

• 1 Back H. G. What information dissemination studies imply concerning the design of on-line reference retrieval systems. J. Amer. Soc. Inf. Sci 23 1972; 156-163.
• 2 Brittain J. M. Information and its users: a review with special reference to the social sciences. New York: John Wiley; 1971
• 3 Caceres C. A, Weihheh A. L, Pullman R. Information science application in medicine. In Cuadra C. A. (Ed.): Ann. Review of Information Science and Technology. Vol. 6, 325-367 1971
• 4 Cleverdon C. W. Progress in documentation: evaluation tests of information retrieval systems. J. Docum 26 1970; 55-67.
• 5 Coleman J. S, Katz E, Menzel H. Medical Innovation. Bobbs-Merrill Company 1966
• 6 Crane, Diane: Information needs and uses. In C.A. Cuadra. (Ed.): Annual Review of Information Science Technology. Vol. 6, 3-39 1971
• 7 Harley A. J. MEDLARS: a comparison with hand searching in Index Medicus. Inform. Scient 02 1968; 59-70.
• 8 Hjerppe E. R, Lindquist M. G. A model for the evaluation of information-retrieval systems considering the decision situation of the user. In North J. (Ed.): Proc. Ann. Conf. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sci. Vol. 8, 77-81 1971
• 9 Horvath W. J. Applicability of the lognormal distribution to servicing times in congestion problems. Operations Research 07 1959; 127-128.
• 10 Katzer J. The development of a semantic differential to assess users’ attitudes towards an on-line interactive reference retrieval system. J. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sci 23 1972; 122-128.
• 11 Lancaster F. W. Evaluation of the MEDLARS demand search service. Washington, D. C: U.S. Public Health Service; 1968
• 12 Lancaster F. W. MEDLARS: Report of the evaluation of its operating efficiency. Amer. Doc 20 1969; 119-142.
• 13 Lancaster F. W. The cost-effectiveness analysis of information retrieval and dissemination systems. J. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sci 22 1971; 12-27.
• 14 Miller W. L. The efficiency of MEDLARS titles for retrieval. J. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sci 22 1971; 318-321.
• 15 National Library of Medicine: Guide to MEDLARS Services. Public Health Publication. No. 1694. Bethesda/Maryland; National Library of Medicine: 1970
• 16 Paisley W. J, Parker E. B. Information retrieval as a receiver-controlled communication system. In Heilprin L. B, Markuson B. E, Goodman F. L. (Eds.): Proceedings of the Symposium on Education for Information Science. 23-31. Washington, D. C: Spartan Books; 1965
• 17 Prescott S, Griffith B. C. A descriptive study of information needs and practices of clinical psychologists. (National Information System for Psychology Report. Washington, D.C: Office of Communication Management and Development, American Psychological Association; May 1970
• 18 Rosenberg V. Factors affecting the preferences of industrial personnel for information gathering methods. Inform. Stor. Retr 03 1967; 119-127.
• 19 Salton G. A new comparison between conventional indexing (MEDLARS) and automatic text processing (SMART). J, Amer. Soc. Inform. Sei 23 1972; 75-84.
• 20 Stevens N. D. MEDLARS: a summary review and evaluation of three reports. Libr. Res. tedm. Serv 14 1970; 109-121.
• 21 Swets J. A. Effectiveness of information retrieval methods. Amer. Doc 20 1969; 72-89.
• 22 Tagliacozzo R, Kochen M, Everett W. The use of information by decision-makers in public service organizations. In North J. (Ed.): Proceedings of Annual Conference of American Society for Information Science. Vol. 8, 53-57 1971
• 23 Virgo J. A. An evaluation of Index Medicus and MEDLARS in the field of ophtalmology. J. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sci 21 1970; 254-263.