Evaluating and filtering electronic information
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Evaluating and filtering electronic information Tom Roper, Librarian RCVS Wellcome Library
description
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3 April 1998
Transcript of Evaluating and filtering electronic information
Evaluating and filtering electronic information
Tom Roper, Librarian
RCVS Wellcome Library
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Evaluating and filtering electronic information: the
problem
• information explosion: biomedical journals increasing both in number and quantity of articles
• electronic publishing: opened up to the world, especially on the Web
• Gutenberg or alphabet
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Growth of the Internet
• 112.75 million people online (February 98)– (Source: NUA Internet Services:
http://www.nua.ie/)• of these 20 million in Europe and 70 million in
North America
• each one potentially a publisher
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
The problems of electronic media
• Contextual clues are absent
• Speed of publication
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Searching on the Web
• help or hindrance?
Netscape Hypertext Document
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
The problem of misinformation
• Imppicattore, P et al: Reliability of health information for the public on the world wide web BMJ 1997 314: 1875-9
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
The veterinary context
• emphasis on life-long learning, CPD
• development of veterinary informatics
• changes in political, economic, social contexts
• changes in animal populations
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Conventional sources
• defined well-understood criteria for evaluation
• are these criteria applicable to electronic documents?
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Filtering in a bibliographic database
• Developments in Medline– new document types
– better veterinary coverage
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
New insights into evaluation
• Evidence-based medicine movement
Netscape Hypertext Document
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
The hierarchy of evidence (1)
• Best Evidence
• No evidence
• Randomised controlled trials
• Non-randomised controlled trials
• Well designed cohort or case-control analysis
• Opinions of respected authorities, case reports, descriptive studies, reports of expert committees
• Misrepresentation, fraud
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
The hierarchy of evidence (2)
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Two aspects: relevance and quality
• relevance requires filtering
• quality requires evaluation criteria
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Elements of resource evaluation
• Context
• Content
• Access
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Context
• scope: is the subject coverage appropriate?
• audience: public or academic
• authority: • responsibility
• qualifications
• publisher
• sources
• copyright
• sponsorship
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Context (2)
• Authority (continued)• moderated (if discussion list)
• refereed (if electronic journals)
• indexed/abstracted (if electronic journals)
• reviewed elsewhere (reputably?)
• recognised by a professional association/learned society/ specialist information service
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
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Content
• coverage
• accuracy
• currency
• uniqueness
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
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Access
• accessibility and usability
• charging policy
• special requirements
• software
• copyright
• language
• design and layout
• user support
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Evaluative services/ Subject Gateways
• OMNI: www.omni.ac.uk– E-lib programme
• NetVet: www.avma.org
Netscape Hypertext Document
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
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Metadata
• Data about data: HTML meta tags– Dublin core and Warwick framework– integration with established cataloguing
practices (AACR2, ISBD)
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
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Ratings
• Jadad, A R Rating health information on the Internet JAMA 1998 279:611-14– Identified 47 rating instruments– 14 described the criteria used for ratings– of those 14 only 5 provided instructions on
their use
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Other reviewing tools
• all the above value coolness over content– Excite Web Reviews– Lycos Top 5%– Magellan Internet Guide
• PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection)
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
Some other criteria:
• British Healthcare Internet Association Quality Standards for Medical Publishing on the Web:
• http://www.bhia.org/
• Evaluating Web Sites for Educational Uses:
http://www.iat.unc.edu
Evaluating and Filtering Electronic Information BSAVA Congress 3
April 1998
A solution
• VAHIC (Veterinary and Animal Health Information Consortium)
– AHT, CABI, Moredun, RCVS, RVC, VLA, ZSL
• subject gateway (resource evaluation)
• clumps (Z39.50): OPACS, journals holdings
• document delivery
