This morning I got a call from a company conducting a survey on various medical and scientific electronic resources and databases. For once it was a legitimate survey and they didn't try and sell me anything, so I thought I would gladly participate since I work with the very databases that they want my opinion on.

They asked for my opinion on various databases such Ovid, Ebsco, UpToDate, MDConsult, StatRef, Medline and PubMed.

One the questions they asked me: "What database platform do you use the most when you conduct research? Ovid, Ebsco, UpToDate, MDConsult,CINAHL, Medline or PubMed?"

Huh?!? Uh Medline is in PubMed. Do they mean Medline from Ovid or Ebsco or PubMed? When I asked this question, the surveyor (who is just paid to conduct the survey and has no knowledge of these databases) didn't understand me. She said, no and asked if I used Ovid, Ebsco, UpToDate, MDConsult, CINAHL, Medline or PubMed first when starting my research.

I tried to explain that I didn't quite understand the question because Ovid had multiple research databases associated with it that you would search depending on the TOPIC and that if I search Medline I can search it from either PubMed, Ovid, or Ebsco. So if I answer Medline that really doesn't reflect specifically what platform I use.

She basically said I had to pick one of those because it was in her computer like that.

So I trudged on trying to answer her questions which became increasingly inaccurate or misleading as they constantly refered to the vendors such as Ovid and Ebsco as individual databases that would could be searched.

The survey questions were poorly written that any librarian answering the survey is going to be frustrated and confused over the questions. I really feel sorry for whatever company paid for this survey because the results they get will not be entirely accurate.