Bibliographic Databases

What:
    Searchable inventory of resources

And:
    inventory may be subject, publisher, contract, or format limited

And:
    resources need not be local. (resources=that which exists)

HINT: concepts developed for bibliographic databases are used in web search engines

History

Bibliographic database: developed in the early ‘60s as NLM research at Syracuse University and New York Upstate Medical Center for Index Medicus

Computer enhancement of print resources. Concepts not changed from ancient techniques.

Print format:

• Arranged by single subjects (word or phrase)

• List of articles

Example:

• Ethics, Nursing

• Trafton KL. Home care nursing informatic guidelines. Home Healthc Nurse 1999 Apr;17(4):253-6

Complication: Synonyms

Should you look for any or all synonyms?

Example: Teen, teens, teenager, teenagers, adolescent, adolescents, adolescence, youth, youths, high school student, high schooler, secondary school, etc.

• Possible solution: look for each synonymous term and hope you think of them all

• Possible solution: all possible references are listed under each synonym

• Possible solution: use controlled vocabulary and have cross references

  Example:

  MeSH is NLM's controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in PubMed. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information that may use different terminology for the same concepts. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/meshbrowser.cgi, 10/10/01)

Complication: combining concepts

Example: articles about Nursing ethics as it related to informatics.

• Possible solution: Search each concept separately and check for overlap

• Possible solution: Figure out a way for a computer to do the overlap

Complication: multiyear search

Example: informatics utilization since development of the Web

• Possible solution: Check each year separately

• Possible solution: Use a multiyear compliation

Technology now works with these issues well

Continuing issues are:

Database design:

Flat file: One big list

MH - Community Health Nursing/*standards MH - Computer Security MH - Confidentiality MH - *Ethics, Nursing MH - Guidelines MH - Home Care Services/*standards MH - Human MH - Medical Records Systems, Computerized/*standards MH - *Patient Advocacy EDAT- 1999/06/26 10:00 MHDA- 2000/07/15 11:00 PST - ppublish SO - Home Healthc Nurse 1999 Apr;17(4):253-6. 

Databases commonly link record parts (fields) by numeric ID:

1. 99311449	TI - Home care nursing informatic guidelines.
   99311449	AU - Trafton KL
   99311449	SO - Home Healthc Nurse 1999 Apr;17(4):253-6
   99311449	MH - Ethics, Nursing
   99311449	MH - Medical Records Systems, Computerized/*standards

• Record fields are listed (indexed) and searched separately

• Matches recombined and displayed from ID

Example of Medline record:

• UI - 99311449

• PMID- 10382440

• DA - 20000713

• DCOM- 20000713

• LR - 20001218

• IS - 0884-741X

• VI - 17

• IP - 4

• DP - 1999 Apr

• TI - Home care nursing informatic guidelines.

• PG - 253-6

• AB - Technology presents benefits and special challenges to home care nurses in their attempt to safeguard patients' rights. This article presents a set of home care informatic standards that can assist nurses in managing patient-sensitive information in computer networks and suggests ways to avoid risks while using informatics.

• AD - Johns Hopkins Hospital, Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

• AU - Trafton KL

• LA - eng

• PT - Journal Article

• CY - UNITED STATES

• TA - Home Healthc Nurse

• JC - G3C

• JID - 8403379

• SB - N

• MH - Community Health Nursing/*standards

• MH - Computer Security

• MH - Confidentiality

• MH - *Ethics, Nursing

• MH - Guidelines

• MH - Home Care Services/*standards

• MH - Human

• MH - Medical Records Systems, Computerized/*standards

• MH - *Patient Advocacy

• EDAT- 1999/06/26 10:00

• MHDA- 2000/07/15 11:00

• PST - ppublish

• SO - Home Healthc Nurse 1999 Apr;17(4):253-6.

Example of CINAHLrecord:

• Accession Number             1999042593 NLM Unique Identifier: 99311449.

• Special Fields Contained          Fields available in this record: abstract.

• Authors             Trafton KL.

• Institution          Johns Hopkins Hospital, Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland.

• Title      Home care nursing informatic guidelines.

• Source  Home Healthcare Nurse, 17(4):253-6, 1999 Apr. (8 ref)

• Abbreviated Source  HOME HEALTHC NURSE. 17(4):253-6, 1999 Apr. (8 ref)

• Document Delivery NLM Serial Identifier: H15574000.

• Journal Subset   Core Nursing Journals. Double Blind Peer Reviewed. Editorial Board Reviewed. Expert Peer Reviewed. Nursing Journals. Peer Reviewed Journals. USA Journals.

• Cinahl Subject Headings           American Nurses Association / st [Standards], Computerized Patient Record, Ethics, Nursing, *Home Nursing, Professional / st [Standards], *Nursing Informatics / st [Standards], Privacy and Confidentiality / lj [Legislation and Jurisprudence]

• Abstract            Technology presents benefits and special challenges to home care nurses in their attempt to safeguard patients' rights. This article presents a set of home care informatic standards that can assist nurses in managing patient-sensitive information in computer networks and suggests ways to avoid risks while using informatics. (8 ref)

• ISSN     0884-741X

• Publication Type            Journal Article.

• Language            English.

• Entry Month            199906 Revised: 990000

Expert searching

Natural language vs concept terms & phrases

• Natural language

• HINT: don’t

Most software will not even notice for certain words (stopwords)

• Example:

• In written English, the ten most common words are: the, of, to, in, and, a, for, was, is, that. In spoken English, however, the top three are: the, and, I.

• From The Hutchinson Family Encyclopedia. 2000. Helicon Publishing Ltd (ebooks.whsmithonline.co.uk/htmldata/ency.asp 10/10/01)

• Some software will look, not find, and will not find anything

• Some words are special codes to be used in special ways:

• And, or, not, with, near, adjacent (boolean and positional operators)

HINT: analyze concept words/phrases and combine these

Thinks to know about

• Search by field

• Search by keyword

• Abbreviating

• Methods of combining

• Boolean

• Positional

Since the databases are often indexed by field

Understanding available fields is empowering.

A simple use of field searching:

Have and article and lost first page. Do not know article title or author. Do have the bit of information at bottom of page: abbreviated journal title, volume, issue, pages (first page is the one that is missing), year of publication.

Subject Searching

You can use words you think are useful but does the resource use the same words?
(Web documents had hidden subject terms called Metatags)

Why not get help with ideas? Professional indexers read these items and analyze content. In databases with controlled vocabulary these people assign consistent terminology. Four databases with well structured controlled vocabulary are:

Medline, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycInfo

Medline (PubMed) uses MeSH.

MeSH is NLM's controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in PubMed. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information that may use different terminology for the same concepts.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/meshbrowser.cgi

CINAHL uses CINAHL’s MeSH derived headings, enhanced with more nursing concepts and terms, example: concept analysis, nursing interventions

Disadvantages of controlled vocabulary:

National Library of Medicine - Medical Subject Headings, 2001 MeSH (www.nlm.nih.gov)

Ethics, Nursing

MeSH Descriptor Data

• MeSH Heading            Ethics, Nursing

• Tree Number            K01.316.333.466

• Tree Number            K01.752.712.416

• Tree Number            N05.350.340.550

• Annotation            specify geog if pertinent; DF: ETHICS NURS

• Scope Note            The principles of proper professional conduct concerning the rights and duties of nurses themselves, their patients, and their fellow practitioners, as well as their actions in the care of patients and in relations with their families.

• Entry Term            Nursing Ethics

• Allowable Qualifiers            ED HI

• Entry Version            ETHICS NURS

• Unique ID            D004993

Relationships are shown by Tree Stuctures

MeSH Tree Structures

But sometimes the term does not exist in MeSH

Example:

Informatics

2001 MeSH

Term not found

Please select a term from list:
Computational Biology
Bioinformatics
Bio-Informatics
Medical Informatics
Clinical Informatics
Informatics, Clinical
Informatics, Medical
Medical Informatics Applications
Application, Medical Informatics
Applications, Medical Informatics
Informatics Applications, Medical
Medical Informatics Computing
Computing, Medical Informatics
Informatics Computing, Medical

Techniques:

Grow a pearl

Find one article on target. Determine which subject headings have been used. Do a new search using these found terms.

Search broadly

Use keywords in “all fields”, “fulltext”, “Textword” fields.

Combine concepts

SEARCHING TECHNIQUES

BOOLEAN LOGIC 

AND                 Nursing AND Informatics  Sample CINAHL Search: 1 nursing.mp. 76264 2 informatics.mp. 1012 3 1 and 2 507
OR                   (Nursing OR nurses) Sample CINAHL Search 1 nursing.mp. 76264 2 nurses.mp. 57853 3 1 and 2 19008 4 1 or 2 115109
NOT                  nursing NOT nursing homes Sample CINAHL Search 1 nursing.mp. 76264 2 nursing homes.mp. 4276 3 1 and 2 2849 4 1 or 2 77691 5 1 not 2 73415 6 9 not 2 1427

POSITIONAL (phrase searching)

Field limits            Nursing ethics.hw. AND informatics.hw.  

ADJ                  concept ADJ informatics; concept ADJ4 informatics

Adjacent to and within x words
Concept ADJ informatics    Nothing found
Concept ADJ4 informatics    4 records found

NEAR               any order, or, in same field, or in same sentence

WITH                this order, or, same paragraph

 These codes may change depending on database

Truncation

Terminal truncation

Nurs*  
Nurse, nurseries, nursery, nurses, nursing

Wom*  
Woman, womb, wombat, women

Internal truncation

Wom?n  
Woman, women

P?ediatric  
Paediatric, pediatric  

Truncation symbols are database dependent. Always check help screen for allowed symbols. Common ones are:
    *,    $,    +,    #,    !

Example how a series of these strategies may be used:

updated: 10/10/01

Helen Hough, MLS
University of Texas at Arlington
Arlington, Texas  76019
Hough@uta.edu