SmartSearch: automated recommendations using librarian expertise and the National Center for Biotechnology Information's Entrez Programming Utilities

• Published in: Journal of the Medical Library Association Vol. 98; no. 2; pp. 171 - 175
• Main Authors: Steinberg, Ryan Max, Zwies, Richard, Yates, Charles, Stave, Christopher, Pouliot, Yannick, Heilemann, Heidi A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL Medical Library Association 01.04.2010; University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
• Subjects: Algorithms; Application programming interface; Biotechnology; Brief Communications; California; Computational Biology - classification; Computational Biology - methods; Computational Biology - standards; Database searching; Design; Digitization; Exact sciences and technology; Expert Systems; Hospitals; Humans; Information and communication sciences; Information retrieval systems; Information retrieval systems. Information and document management system; Information science. Documentation; Information technology; Internet/Web search services; Kidney diseases; Knowledge management; Librarians; Librarianship; Libraries; Libraries, Medical - standards; Library Science; Management; Medical librarians; Medical Subject Headings; Methods; Online health care information services; Online searching; Practice; Sciences and techniques of general use; Search Engine - classification; Search Engine - methods; Search Engine - standards; Search engines; Services; Software; Software Design; United States; United States; California; Biomedical information; Information retrieval; Information retrieval system
• ISSN: 1536-5050; 1558-9439; 1558-9439
• DOI: 10.3163/1536-5050.98.2.012

[...] NCBI's ESearch and EFetch EUtilities are used to map a user's query to a MeSH term. [...] a locally developed mapping engine matches harvested headings to the librarian-created list of subject-appropriate resources. [...] the query "kidney stones" maps to the MeSH term "Kidney Diseases," which in turn produces two high-value clinical textbooks, Diseases of the Kidney and Urinary Tract and Brenner and Rector's The Kidney (Figure 1).\n Resources were not randomly assigned to each group, increasing the likelihood that confounding factors (e.g., random use spikes due to irregularly scheduled library classes, updated resource versions, changing resource providers and uniform resource locators) would affect results.