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Medline

Database publishers sell the rights to use their data to vendors who deploy them in various online interfaces. For example, Dr Felix's Free Medline lists over 30 different Web sites where users can search Medline. Unfortunately, searchers cannot safely assume that the content of different versions of the same database are the same. Vendors sometimes load abbreviated versions of databases without clearly labeling what their version contains. Frequency of loading updates also varys. No wonder different versions of database yield different retrieval results.

If you want to login from home or any other non-Marshall workstation, you will be asked to enter an User Id and Password. To find out what User Id and password to use, login to Marshall University Libraries Passwords. Access to the password page is protected. So Marshall people will be asked to give their Marshall User Id, Password, and Domain. The Domain for users at the School of Medicine is MUSOM and MARSHALL for those on Main Campus. User Ids and Passwords are the same as when you login into your Marshall E-Mail.

It's recommended that users enter the databases provided by Marshall from the MUL home page. Using bookmarked URL's doesn't always gain access. First Search databases are available only from campus workstations.

Those in the clinical medicine and biomedical disciplines will find That Medline on PubMed will be their best starting point for searching the journal literature. Occasionally the databases discussed below may be of use for searching medical topics. Check MUL's List of Databases for additional Marshall databases that cover non-medical disciplines.

CAS (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts)

is a family of related databases which includes the following files

• Biological Sciences Search
• AIDS & Cancer Research Abstracts
• Biotechnology
• Microbiology Abstracts
• Biology Digest
• Conference Papers Index
• Medline
• NTIS
• Plant Science
• TOXLINE

The citations from the Conference Papers Index covers clinical medicine and biochemistry among many other biological related fields. NTIS indexes reports and articles from Federally funded research. Most of the citations in these two databases would not be included in Medline.

Make sure to use Version 5.0, the older version lacks features that Web searchers expect to see.

CINAHL

"is the database equivalent to the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature print index. The most widely used index in its field, the CINAHL database provides access to virtually all English-language nursing journals, publications from the American Nurses' Association and the National League for Nursing, and journals from 17 allied health disciplines. The database also covers consumer health, health sciences librarianship, chiropractic, and health services administration literature. "

Marshall users can access it from the WebSpirs link on the MUL Home page or on First Search. The First Search version has quite a few advantages over the Webspirs version.

• First Search shows whether a journal is held by Drinko
• Response time is better than Webspirs
• The First Search interface is easier to use.

We do not know of any free Web sites for this database.

PsycLit

indexes journal articles, books and book chapters, but not dissertations and technical reports as does PsycInfo. It's a well constructed database with a good thesaurus. The Webspirs interface at MUL is ok, but with very slow response times and frequent crashes. Early or Mid-Mornings are the best times to search.

Mental Measurements Yearbook on WebSpirs

"contains fulltext information about and reviews of all English-language standardized tests covering educational skills, personality, vocational aptitude, psychology, and related areas. . ." The actual test or instrument, score sheets, and manuals are not online, but ordering information and price are given. The "Full-Text" button is misleading, it gives the full-text of a one or more critical reviews not the full-text of the instrument. There is no thesuarus and only limited field searching.

Eric

covers all fields related to education and indexes citations and abstracts for three document forms:

• ERIC documents are usually research reports, conference papers, issue papers, or monographs and have an ED number. Its hard copy counterpart is called Resources in Education (RIE). ERIC Documents with ED numbers can be ordered via the Web
• EJ numbers are assigned to journal articles. Its hard copy counterpart is called Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE).
• Eric Digests are online, full-text reports on topics that target teachers and educational administrators. There are about 2,500 of these brief review articles in ERIC.

The Eric Document Reproduction Service (EDRS) is a Link on MUL's home page. The function of EDRS is to fill orders for ED documents. PDF formats can be downloaded or paper and micro forms can be ordered. This is not a site to do a subject search. Go to National Library of Educations(NLE) ERIC site to perform topical searches, then order documents from EDRS using the ED number from your ERIC search. Remember that EDRS only provides ED documents not journal articles nor ERIC Digests.

EBSCO's version of ERIC, which is on the MUL site, is an abbreviated version. EBSCO claims to index 750 journals compared to 980 on ERIC at the NLE site. Sample searches retrieved 30% fewer entries in EBSCO ERIC than at NLE for the publication years 1998-99. Also, no passwords are needed at NLE's site.

First Search

has a few medical databases:

• AIDS/Cancer
• CINAHL Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health
• HealthRefCtr Health Reference Center-Academic with full text
• HRCtr Health Reference Center with full text
• MDXHealth Digest of medical and health information

The Health Reference Center and MDXHealth are designed to be used by health care consumers.