Introduction to Literature Searching
This course is designed with novice library users in mind. The course begins by showing attendees how to develop research questions using the PICO format. Then the course provides an overview of the various library databases and resources that can be used to find information. The instructor leverages this newly acquired knowledge to show attendees how to translate a research question into a search string that is optimized for library databases. Finally, the course ends with a brief module on evidence appraisal and understanding the types of research.
Objectives
- Learn Best Practices for Developing Clinical Questions
- Understanding the different types of PICO questions
- Identifying ‘main concepts’ and themes within clinical questions
- Learn How to translate Clinical Questions into Search Strings
- Understanding Boolean Logic
- Understanding how to document searches and save results.
- Learn to Interpret the Results of the Database Search
- Understanding the difference between scholarly and popular sources.
- Reviewing the evidence pyramid
Agenda
- Developing Research Questions with PICO (30 Minutes)
- Translating a Question into a Library Database Search (30 Minutes)
- Understanding the Types of Research (20 Minutes)
- Question and Answer Time (10 Minutes)