Introduction to Fun Searching Skills Activities

1. Introduction to Fun Searching Skills Activities Librarian Tutors Centre for Evidence Based Medicine

2. Aims and Objectives To demonstrate different activities that could be employed to liven up a searching skills session.

3. Icebreakers/fun activities Some examples of activities you can use: • Going shopping • “Search-off” • Source comparison • Matching questions to databases • Mix and matching terms • Question formulation exercise • Who wants to be a millionaire

4. 1. Going shopping Ask the audience: “Imagine you are buying a nice car. How do you choose one?” Encourage the audience to shout out answers, eg ask friends, watch Top Gear, buy car magazines, visit car specialists, etc. This demonstrates that they search for evidence at leisure and at work.

5. 2. “Search-off” • Identify a scenario and draw up a PICO • Give each person in the group a different resource to test the search on, eg TRIP, National Library for Health, PubMed Clinical Queries, Update, Sumsearch, Clinical Evidence, BMJ Updates, Essential Evidence Plus, etc • Give them 5 minutes to see if they can answer the question using their allocated resource • After 5 minutes, bring the group back together and compare results

6. 3. Source comparison • Useful for big groups • Give each group 2 source types, eg books, journals, databases, search engines, colleagues, Internet, newspapers, Cochrane Library, PubMed • Ask them to discuss in their groups the advantages and disadvantages of their 2 sources • After 10 minutes, ask them to feed back their findings to the whole workshop

7. For example

8. 4. Matching questions to databases • Give participants a handout describing the health care databases available • Put some clinical questions on the screen and ask participants to suggest which databases would be effective • Emphasises the importance of searching more than one database

9. For example • Which databases would you use to answer the following questions: • You want to find out whether newborns should be vaccinated against chicken pox, if the mother has been exposed to the illness. (ANSWERS: Medline, Embase, CINAHL) • You want to find out articles about the effects of Prozac on someone suffering from depression.(ANSWERS: Embase, Medline, CINAHL) • You want to find out if psychological debriefing alleviates the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(ANSWERS: Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL) • You want to find out about the benefits of modern matrons. (ANSWERS: DH-Data, Kings Fund, CINAHL) • You want to find out if alternative therapies can help manage obesity. (ANSWERS: AMED, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase, Medline)

10. 5. Mix and matching terms • This is good for big groups who don’t know each other very well • Prepare some cards: • One set has glossary terms on them • One set has definitions on them • You will need a matching set for each group – different colours helps • Split the group into smaller groups (6-8) • Give each group a set with terms and a set with definitions and ask them to match them up • Also useful for critical appraisal skills training

11. For example

12. 6. Question formulation exercise • Each person in the group is given an A4 sheet, with either a search term on it or a Boolean operator • They have to arrange themselves in the correct order to create a workable question

13. 7. Who wants to be a millionaire? • Based on ITV quiz show • Each question can be written on a PowerPoint slide with 4 possible answers • Split participants into small groups and give A4 cards with A, B, C or D on them • When the question is displayed, the groups have to vote the answer • Evidence Based Medicine Journal, 2007, 12(2), pp36-37http://ebm.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/12/2/36

14. For example

15. Icebreakers/fun activities • Going shopping – emphasises the importance of using a range of sources. • “Search-off” – allows participants to test and compare resources. • Source comparison – provokes discussion about pros and cons of different sources. • Matching questions to databases – helps recognise the most appropriate database. • Mix and matching terms – enables familiarity with terminology. • Question formulation exercise – illustrates the logic of formulating a question. • Who wants to be a millionaire – raises awareness of different terminology.

16. Useful resources • Teaching EBM wikihttp://tebm-libs.wikispaces.com/ • Wetpaint EBM Librarian wikihttp://ebmlibrarian.wetpaint.com • Teaching on the Run series by Medical Journal of Australiahttp://annietv600.wordpress.com/2006/04/17/teaching-on-the-run-tips-a-series-from-the-medical-journal-of-australia/ • Create your own EBM sitehttp://www.ebmpyramid.org/home.php • Exploring the evidence basehttp://clinicallibrarian.wordpress.com/2008/08/ • Evidence-based nursing resources – useful for all disciplineshttp://muhc.ebn.mcgill.ca/EBN_tools.htm

17. Top Tips • Collect scenarios from journal clubs or practical experiences and store them in log books and ask people to bring their own scenarios to the session • Do steps 1-6 away from the computers • Don’t assume that people understand clinical question formulation • Store all your links on a website, eg Connotea (http://www.connotea.org), Delicious (http://delicious.com/), or NLH My Library – NHS England only (http://www.library.nhs.uk/mylibrary/default.aspx) so that you have all your training resources in one place • Always have screen shots in case there is no Internet connection • At the end of the session, allow participants to discuss their experiences • Refer people to help pages and tutorials

18. Any questions? Mrs Caroline De Brún MA DipLIS MCLIP Librarian – National Knowledge Service caroline.debrun@institute.nhs.uk http://www.library.nhs.uk/knowledgemanagement