Searching for veterinary evidence: strategies and resources for locating clinical research.

This article offers information regarding selected veterinary information resources, along with basic search strategies for locating clinical evidence within these resources. No one database provides adequate indexing and abstracting to all literature relevant to the veterinary clinical question. An understanding of a database's syntax and field structure is necessary to formulate a functional search strategy and evaluate the outcome of search results. Flexibility when identifying, selecting, and combining search terms is also required to avoid overlimiting a search.

The effects of portfolio purchasing on a specialized subject collection.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of portfolio purchasing on a small, highly specialized medical collection at The Ohio State University. METHODOLOGY: In this citation analysis, cited references for articles published by faculty in the College of Veterinary Medicine between 2000 and 2004 were collected and analyzed to determine whether The Ohio State University Libraries provided print or electronic access to the publications cited or the publishers of the cited journals, and whether the university purchased a subscription to each journal or received the subscription through a consortium-sponsored portfolio purchasing agreement. RESULTS: Of the 419 journals veterinary faculty cited more than 10 times, only 13 (3.1%) were in Zone 1, and 63 (15.0%) were in Zone 2 of the Bradford distribution, a citation analysis model which demonstrates that a small number of journals account for the bulk of literature utilized in any established field. Of these, only 23 (5.5%) were procured through an OhioLINK or other consortium portfolio purchasing agreement. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: The costs of acquiring a publisher's portfolio, even through a consortium, should be balanced with the costs of purchasing content required to provide a balanced collection for all user populations.

Consumer health information for pet owners.

OBJECTIVE: The author studied health information available for veterinary consumers both in print and online. METHODS: WorldCat was searched using a list of fifty-three Library of Congress subject headings relevant to veterinary consumer health to identify print resources for review. Identified items were then collected and assessed for authority, comprehensiveness of coverage, validity, and other criteria outlined by Rees. An in-depth assessment of the information available for feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD) and canine congestive heart failure (CHF) was then conducted to examine the availability and quality of information available for specific diseases and disorders. A reading grade level was assigned for each passage using the Flesch-Kincaid formula in the Readability Statistics feature in Microsoft Word. RESULTS/DISCUSSION: A total of 187 books and 7 Websites were identified and evaluated. More than half of the passages relating to FLUTD and CHF were written above an 11th-grade reading level. A limited quantity of quality, in-depth resources that address specific diseases and disorders and are written at an appropriate reading level for consumers is available. CONCLUSION: The library's role is to facilitate access to the limited number of quality consumer health resources that are available to veterinary consumers.

Standards for the academic veterinary medical library.

The Standards Committee of the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section was appointed in May 2000 and charged to create standards for the ideal academic veterinary medical library, written from the perspective of veterinary medical librarians. The resulting Standards for the Academic Veterinary Medical Library were approved by members of the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section during MLA '03 in San Diego, California. The standards were approved by Section Council in April 2005 and received final approval from the Board of Directors of the Medical Library Association during MLA '04 in Washington, DC.

Research methodology search filters: are they effective for locating research for evidence-based veterinary medicine in PubMed?

OBJECTIVE: The study examined the effectiveness of research methodology search filters developed by Haynes and colleagues and utilized by the Clinical Query feature of PubMed for locating literature for evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM). METHODS: A manual review of articles published in 6 commonly read veterinary journals was conducted. Articles were classified by format (original study, review, general article, conference report, decision analysis, and case report) and purpose category (etiology, prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment). Search strategies listed in PubMed's Clinical Query feature were then tested and compared to the manually reviewed data to calculate sensitivity, specificity, and precision. RESULTS: The author manually reviewed 914 articles to identify 702 original studies. Search #1 included terms determined to have the highest sensitivity and returned acceptable sensitivities over 75% for diagnosis and treatment. Search #2 included terms identified as providing the highest specificity and returned results with specificities over 75% for etiology, prognosis, and treatment. DISCUSSION: The low precision for each search prompts the question: Are research methodology search filters practical for locating literature for the practice of EBVM? A study examining terms related to appropriate research methodologies for advanced clinical veterinary research is necessary to develop filters designed to locate literature for EBVM.

Applying methodological search filters to CAB abstracts to identify research for evidence-based veterinary medicine.

OBJECTIVE: The study sought to determine whether methodological search strategies identified by Haynes et al. as most effective for locating information for evidence-based medicine in MEDLINE would be effective in locating information in CAB Abstracts for evidence-based veterinary medicine. METHODS: Articles published in the year 2000 volumes of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and Veterinary Record were manually examined and classified by format (original study, review, general article, conference report, decision analysis, case report) and purpose category (etiology, prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment or prevention). Search strategies identified by Haynes et al. were then modified and run on the CAB Abstracts database. Sensitivity and specificity were determined by comparing results to the manual review of the literature. RESULTS: The author manually reviewed 390 articles, 289 articles of which were identified as original studies. Overall, the sensitivity and specificity of the search strategies were disappointing. DISCUSSION: The methodological search strategies developed by Haynes et al. for MEDLINE were not effective in locating literature for evidence-based veterinary practice in CAB Abstracts. A study examining methodological search strategies for identifying research for evidence-based veterinary practice in the CAB Abstracts database is necessary.