Keeping Current with the Literature

Mark MacEachern

Liaison Services Librarian

Health Sciences Libraries

markmac@umich.edu

The problem

• Pubmed alone indexes approximately 5200 US journals

• MEDLINE contains 18+ million citations• About 2000-4000 citations are added each week• 670 943 added in 2007 (NLM data)*

*http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/bsd_key.html

The problem is not new

So, how much time would it take?

627.5hours / month

So, how much time would it take?

What can I do?

1. Table of Contents alerts (PubMed, OvidSP, ISI)2. Literature alerts (PubMed, OvidSP, ISI)3. Google alerts4. Blogs5. Twitter6. iTunes U (podcasts)7. iGoogle 8. Read synthesized literature

– Cochrane– ADA EBD

Definition aside – RSS

• Really Simple Syndication• Communication medium (like email)• RSS feeds – coupled with client

aggregators – provide a way to keep track of frequently updated, web-based content…

• …without having to constantly go to individual websites to see if they’ve changed

• Updated web content automatically comes to you– Blogs, News, TOCs, Searches, Grant

opportunities, etc.

RSS

Common Craft. RSS in Plain English (http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english)

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – Find Journal(s)

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – Find Journal(s)

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – Find Journal(s)

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – Save Search

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – Save Search

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – Save Search

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – Save Search

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – RSS

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – RSS

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – RSS

1. TOC Alerts – PubMed – Google Reader

2. Literature Search Alert – PubMed – Conduct Search

((periodontal diseases) OR (periodontium) OR (periodont*) OR (periodontics)) AND (((diabetes mellitus) OR (diabetes insipidus) OR (diabet*) OR ("dm 1" OR "dm i" OR "dm 2" OR "dm ii")) OR ((glycosylated hemoglobin a) OR (a1c OR "hb a1c" OR hba1c) OR (blood glucose) OR ("blood sugar") OR ("glucose control") OR ("glucose level") OR ("sugar control") OR ("sugar level") OR (hyperglycemia) OR (hypoglycemia) OR (glycemi*) OR (glycaemi*) OR (hyperglyc*) OR (hypoglyc*)))

2. Literature Search Alert – PubMed – Conduct Search

2. Literature Search Alert – PubMed – Save Search

2. Literature Search Alert – PubMed – Save Search – MyNCBI

2. Literature Search Alert – PubMed – Receive Email

2. Literature Search Alert – PubMed – RSS

2. Literature Search Alert – PubMed – RSS

3. Google Alerts

e.g.: (smoking OR smoker OR tobacco) AND dental implants

e.g.: “mark maceachern”

3. Google Alerts

3(a). Google News Alerts

3(a). Google News Alerts (email)

4. Blogs – Dental

http://www.thenewdentistblog.com/

4. Blogs – Dental

http://implantblog.wordpress.com/

4. Blogs – Dental

http://dentaltechnologyblog.blogspot.com/

4. Blogs - General

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/

5. Twitter

http://twitter.com/

6. iTunes U – Dentistry

6. iTunes U – Dentistry

7. iGoogle

http://www.google.com/ig

8. Synthesized Litearture – ADA EBD

http://ebd.ada.org/

8. Synthesized Literature – Cochrane

Questions?

Mark MacEachern / UM Librarian / markmac@umich.edu