OvidSP
By now everybody who has Ovid should have been switched to OvidSP. We made the switch a little earlier at our library. We made OvidSP Advance Search (previously OvidSP Syntas, thank you Ovid for the name change) our default. We also had the search history box and limits box default to be open. We allowed our users to have personal accounts which also allowed them to use the sticky notes feature.
I really like the sticky notes feature. (See Annotate your Search Results from St. John's Medical Library) You can click on the yellow "note" next to the citation and add your own personal notes about that citation. That note stays with the citation. Users must have a personal account to do this. I can see so many possible applications for the use of the sticky notes.
Because we made it so the search history box would always be displayed, it makes searching a little "jumpy" at times. After you have searched for a term in Ovid, it automatically loads the main page with the search box up top. But as soon as it loads completely on the screen, the page then automatically jumps to the top citation listed. It is kind of distracting, especially if you have multiple parts to your search and you want to type in the search box.
I wish Ovid would have added the option to email citations in HTML or text format. This is long overdue and their competitors EBSCO and PubMed already have this feature. Emailing in HTML preserves the full text links to the article and is VERY helpful to have when you are emailing a search request to somebody. If Ovid allowed HTML emails, they could even have the sticky note feature come through on the email. Two or more colleagues who do research could email their search results to each other with their notations on the sticky note.
There are more libraries who have created OvidSP help guides.
If you are still scrambling around to find online tutorials or documents on OvidSP to either link to or inspire you to create your own, check out the following sites:
Online Tutorials:
Combining and Limiting Searches in OvidSP - Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale University of Medicine
OvidSP Search Result Display -Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale University of Medicine
New Features of OvidSP *note some content is unique to Yale* -Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale University of Medicine
OvidSP Tutorial -Medical College of Wisconsin Library
Learn about Medline OvidSP Basic Search -University of Sydney Library
OvidSP –University of Michigan Taubman Medical Library
Using PICO to search the OvidSP CINAHL Nursing Database – North Colorado Medical Center Medical Library
Documents:
OVID databases starter workbook (pdf) -Leeds University Library
OVID databases advanced workbook (pdf) -Leeds University Library
Ovid SP Tips From Your Medical Librarian -St. John's Medical Library
OvidSP User Guide -St. John's Medical Library
OvidSP Basic Search -St. John's Medical Library
Ovid Syntax Search / Ovid Advanced Search -St. John's Medical Library
Annotate your Search Results -St. John's Medical Library
OvidSP RSS Feeds -St. John's Medical Library
Library Starter Guide to OvidSP -University of West England
Library Advanced Guide to OvidSP -University of West England
Multiple Search Modes in OvidSP for MEDLINE (and more): What to Expect – Himmelfarb Library
Natural Language Searching Medline (and more) on OvidSP – Himmelfarb Library
RSS Feeds on OvidSP –Himmelfarb Library
Embase OvidSP crib sheet [PDF file] -Cambridge University Library, Medical Library
I am sure there are more out there, add any that mist to the comments.
posted by The Krafty Librarian @ 12:54 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Sending HTML email is easier said than done; for example, see http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200701/microsoft_makes_accessible_and_standards_compliant_html_email_impossible/
Is it better to have pretty email that many people can't see properly, or ugly email that is at least guaranteed to be usable (at a basic level)?
It might not be easy but the fact is that Ovid's competitors are already doing it. And their emails are quite readable. EBSCO and PubMed give the users a CHOICE to select HTML or Text emails.
It is not about aesthetics, it is about having easy one click access to the full text. There is no easy one click access to the full text in Ovid's Text emails.
If you send PubMed citations in HTML format you get a nice readable email that preserves the links to the full text of the article.
That is a HUGE time saver and service to our patrons who want us to send them searches. They call, ask me to send them a search, I perform the search and email the results to them. They can browse through the HTML email and just click on the articles they want. They don't have open up an other window and search the library's site to get the article.
(Woah. February 5th. Getting behind on my bloglines.)
Have you noticed how public those annotations seem to be in OvidSP? We thought they were pretty useful too until we played around with them and found that they seemed to be available to anyone using the group Ovid username and password, not just their personal account. We have all our various hospitals and faculty groups (and even some of the student groups) on "departmental" passwords through which they can create their personal accounts. Suffice it to say, we turned off that function.
The post it notes are for personal accounts. My guess is that Ovid can't tell the difference between your group accounts and personal accounts. We use IP validation for everything, so there are no departmental passwords. Off campus access is regulated through our Athens, so there aren't even any group off campus access passwords.
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