#database searching

It's a hot topic in medical literature, but how do you find sources for lab tests?

Searching for evidence: a guide to finding the evidence in laboratory medicine.

Ann Clin Biochem. 2014 May;51(Pt 3):326-34.

Abstract

Three factors were used to evaluate the results of four search queries from three different databases.  The databases were to be evaluated to determine their level of performance in terms of results returned to the user.   The four search queries were necessary to test for one on the three factors.  

Introduction

There are many methods and databases used to search for information.  The results will vary depending on the methods and databases used.  This makes which methods and databases that are chosen very important because the results will vary depending on the ones used to search for information.  

Results

Three databases were searched:  Google, library catalog, and my database containing  the information in the previous post titled Project Part 1.  I evaluated the results of four search queries with the building block approach, relevance, and aboutness.  

My initial search query was "ships".  This returned many results in Google and the library catalog, but only one in my database.  The results were relevant and were satisfactory in terms of aboutness.  

For the building block approach I continued my search of the three databases with the search queries "ship*", "ships AND space", "ships OR space".  

Under the query "ship*", Google returned many results that were not very relevant, but were satisfactory in terms of aboutness.  The library catalog returned similar results.  My database did not return anything more than previously.  

Under the query "ships AND space", Google returned results that were very relevant and were satisfactory in terms of aboutness.  The library catalog returned very few results that were not very relevant, but were satisfactory in aboutness.  My data base returned only one result, but a different one than previously as the previous result did not include space.  It was relevant and was satisfactory in terms of aboutness.  

Under the query "ships OR space", Google returned different results that were relevant and were satisfactory in terms of aboutness.  The library catalog return very few results that were not very relevant and was not very satisfactory in terms of aboutness.  My database returned both of the aforementioned results, both of which were relevant and were satisfactory in terms of aboutness.

Summary

Overall my database performed the best under each of the four search queries with the building block approach, relevance, and aboutness.  Google came in second  and the library catalog was last.  Judging by the results of the tests for relevance and aboutness for each of the queries, the results from my database were always relevant and were satisfactory in terms of aboutness, the results from Google were not always very relevant, but were almost always satisfactory in terms of aboutness, and the results from the library catalog were not very relevant at all, but was relatively satisfactory in terms of aboutness.  Using these two factors in evaluating for the building block approach, my data base returned the best results, but very few, Google returned very good results, and the library catalog returned unsatisfactory results.  

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                        |  Google  |  library catalog  |  my database

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Relevance       |    5254    |         5321         |     5555

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Aboutness       |    5544    |         5542        |      5555

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Building Block  |       4       |            3           |         5