The Medical Library Association Essential Guide to Becoming an Expert Searcher: Proven Techniques, Strategies and Tips for Finding Health Information

Terry Ann Jankowski has served on the Medical Library Association Expert Searching Task Force, and edited the expert searching column in the MLA News. Her experience and background in teaching are evident in her lucid explanations throughout this guide to expert medical searching, and she catches our attention quickly with a report of the untimely death of a volunteer medical subject due to inadequate literature searching by medical researchers whose skills could be described as startlingly non‐expert. The MLA's subsequent policy statement sought to define expert searching and the value of librarians as expert searchers in the health sciences. This document (included as an appendix) clearly informed much of the work that has gone into this book.

The book is intended for beginning librarians as well as seasoned professionals, and the content mix reflects this. Topics covered range from relatively basic information, such as keywords and Boolean operators, to more technical considerations, such as what PubMed actually does with search terms that are entered into a query. The overall structure is straightforward, beginning with an introductory section discussing health information experts and their role in light of the MLA's policy statement. Various issues are raised concerning the professionalism and liability of searchers, which occasionally crop up throughout the book.

Subsequent chapters consider:

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  the process and documentation of the search interview;

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  database evaluation and selection;

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  some key bioscience resources;

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  methods for construction database searches;

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  effective use of database structures and interface features;

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  subject searching (focussing on MEDLINE and MeSH);

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  reviewing searches;

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  improving and maintaining search skills; and

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  an annotated bibliography.

Jankowski urges familiarity with a variety of databases, although MEDLINE and PubMed receive most attention for practical reasons. The book is not aimed at just anyone seeking health information on the internet – even Google does not rate a mention. In fact, one of the few criticisms of the book is the failure to mention the use of Google Scholar for finding citing articles (something it often does better than the Ovid databases or Web of Science, which are described). That said, this is an excellent resource that provides exactly what the title promises.