Online research is the core service we provide. Often, a Google or Google Scholar search can pull up a few useful references, so if that’s your approach and it meets your needs, that’s great — you probably don’t need our services.
However, if you’re…
- … conducting a systematic reiew and synthesis of the literature on a topic, or
- … looking for the latest evidence-based treatment options for patients, or
- … trying to find updated association standards for best practices, or
- … looking for examples of funded grants, or
- … trying to find a clinical trial for a patient, or
- … something else,
… then “good enough” is never good enough! You need a comprehensive search across multiple databases, data repositories, government registers, grey literature, and other resources. Our years of experience, training, and continuing education prepare us to provide this service in a fraction of the time it would take you. One study found that one hour of expert searching time can save an average of three hours and twenty minutes of the clinician’s or researcher’s time.1 Multiple studies demonstrated that the quality of the research is improved significantly by consulting a medical information specialist for your online search needs.2,3,4
- Edwards C, Gilroy D, Mallender J. Evidence searches undertaken by knowledge and library specialists save the time of health care professionals and produce an economic benefit to the NHS in England. J Hosp Librariansh. 2022;22(4):284–298. doi: 10.1080/15323269.2022.2124772. ↩︎
- Rethlefsen ML, Farrell AM, Osterhaus Trzasko LC, Brigham TJ. Librarian co-authors correlated with higher quality reported search strategies in general internal medicine systematic reviews. J Clin Epidemiol. 2015;68(6):617–626. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2014.11.025 ↩︎
- Rethlefsen ML, Murad MH, Livingston EH. Engaging medical librarians to improve the quality of review articles. JAMA. Sep 10 2014;312(10):999–1000. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.9263 ↩︎
- Li L, Tian J, Tian H, et al. Network meta-analyses could be improved by searching more sources and by involving a librarian. J Clin Epidemiol. Sep 2014;67(9):1001–7. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2014.04.003 ↩︎