Information Seeking Skills in Online Databases of Iranian National Medical Digital Library: A Study among Residents of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

• Main Authors: Mohammadreza Hashemian, Mohammad Janatikia, Alireza Hashemian
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Vesnu Publications 2013-04-01
• Series: مدیریت اطلاعات سلامت
• Online Access: http://him.mui.ac.ir/index.php/him/article/view/1248
• ISSN: 1735-7853; 1735-9813

Introduction: Information seeking skills has an important role in independent searching and enables one to have a strong research. The aim of this study was to investigate information seeking skills among the residents of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: It was a descriptive study. Morgan sampling table used to select 248 residents from 659 residents of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire which was validated by expert and its reliability was tested with Cronbach’s alpha (0.83). Results: Only 3.9% of the residents attended in Iranian National Medical Digital Library (INLM) workshop and only 16.2% of them were registered to INLM. 38.3% of them were familiar with up-to-date database and 25.8% of them used it. 48.4% of them used "advanced search". 49.2% of them used "bullion operations" and only 13.3% of them were familiar with databases’ facilities to manage their search results. Only 5.5% of them always evaluated the retrieved information. Conclusion: Information seeking skills of residents was very low. Attending in workshops on database and information literacy can help them to improve their skills and have better research. Keywords: Information Retrieval; Databases; Internship and Residency; Universities