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ACIMED

Print version ISSN 1024-9435

Abstract

GONZALEZ RIVERO, María del Carmen  and  SANTANA ARROYO, Sonia. Behaviour of medical students in their search for information on the Internet . ACIMED [online]. 2008, vol.17, n.4. ISSN 1024-9435.

With the objective to determine the behaviour of the medical students who search for information on the Internet, a study was made on the use of health databases and sites available in Infomed: Medline, Cochrane and the Virtual Library of Health of the Cuban Health Network, among others. For this study, 60 anonymous surveys were applied at random among sixth-year medical students that used the service of Internet navigation offered by the National Medical Library. 58 % of the polled students visit the Library at least once a week; nevertheless, 80 % of them do not consult or do not know about PubMed; Medline presents a similar situation, and only 3 % of them use the Mesh Browser for system searches; 95 % of the students do not make use of the Cochrane database; only 23 % of the polled students visited the site of the Virtual Library in the last 6 months. There is a manifest ignorance and subutilization of the information resources offered by Infomed among the users of the Library, above all, if the high value and the deserved international prestige of the above-mentioned sources is considered. A systematic process of information literacy is needed - from the early undergraduate stages - among the users, as well as motivation and a demanding environment that lead to the adequate use of the available resources in Infomed.

Keywords : Databases; medicine; information research; behaviour; students.

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