Poster Board Number: 77
Title: So You Want to Use Google: Comparing Google and Medical Databases
Objective: The objective of this study was to compare search retrieval in Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, and CINAHL.
Methods: Searches on four topics were done in each of the resources, and results were compared. Comparators included relevancy of articles, currency, and total number of items retrieved.
Results: The comparison of the four resources was significant in that PubMed and CINAHL generally retrieved the most relevant set of articles, but Google, and particularly Google Scholar, sometimes had items that could be very relevant. The problems were that if Google and Google Scholar are used without using any of their advanced search features, retrieval was most often not current and always huge.
Conclusions: PubMed and CINAHL will give the most precise results, but for topics that are particularly hard to find, Google Scholar could be the best resource.
Author: Dolores Z. Judkins, AHIP, Head, Instruction, Research and Outreach, Library, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR
