BIOME Evaluated Internet Resources in the Health and Life Sciences

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BIOMEEvaluated Internet Resources in the Health
and Life Sciences

• Best of the Web Workshop
• (Funded by the Higher Education Academy for
  Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine)
• University of Nottingham
• Laurian Williamson
• BIOME Content Coordinator

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Overview for the day

• Development of BIOME
• BIOME subject gateways and what they cover
• Web site evaluation issues and high-quality Web
  resources
• Virtual Training Suite
• Where to find teaching materials to support
  teaching and learning

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eLib, OMNI and the RDN

• Electronic Libraries programme (eLib) began in
  1994 http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/
• Development of a number of subject gateways
  OMNI, SOSIG, EEVL
• 1998 call for proposals to extend the work of
  the subject gateways
• Led to the development of the Resource Discovery
  Network (RDN) http//www.rdn.ac.uk/

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RDN Hubs

• The RDN comprises a number of subject Hubs
• BIOME health and life sciences
• SOSIG social sciences, law and business
• EEVL engineering, maths and computing
• HUMBUL humanities
• PSIgate physical sciences
• ALTIS sports, tourism and leisure
• GEsource geography and environment
• Artifact creative arts and industries

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BIOME

• BIOME was launched 2000
• Free access to a collection of hand selected,
  evaluated, quality Internet resources in the
  health and life sciences
• Aimed primarily at the UK HE and FE communities,
  but attracts users from other communities
  including the NHS

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BIOME Partners

• University of Nottingham (core team)
• Reading University
• Oxford University
• Royal Free Hospital
• Royal Veterinary College
• Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
• Royal College of Nursing
• Royal College of Midwives
• Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
• University of the West of England, Bristol
• MIDIRS

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BIOME Subject Scope

• BIOME comprises six subject gateways
• OMNI Health and Medicine
• NMAP Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health
• BioResearch Biological Sciences
• AgriFor Agriculture, Food and Forestry
• VetGate Animal Health
• Natural Selection the Natural World

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The BIOME Gateways
BioResearch Biological Sciences VetGate
Animal Health
Natural Selection The Natural World OMNI
(Est. 1995) Health Medicine
AgriFor Agriculture, Food
Forestry
NMAP (Est. 2001) Nursing, Midwifery,
Allied Health
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The NMAP Subject Gateway

• NMAP is a partnership between the University of
  Nottingham, the University of the West of
  England, and the Royal College of Nursing
• NMAP is provided by a team of information and
  subject specialists
• NMAP provides access to evaluated, quality
  Internet resources covering Nursing, Midwifery
  and Allied Health

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BIOME Evaluation Guidelines

• http//biome.ac.uk/guidelines/eval/
• BIOME approach assesses the applicability of each
  information resource for its inclusion into BIOME
• We are concerned with indirect indicators of
  quality
• The onus will always lie with the individual
  BIOME user in deciding whether the resource is
  right for them

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Alternative and Complementary Medicine

• BIOME Guidelines developed for complementary and
  alternative medicine
• Evolving document available at http//biome.ac.uk/
  guidelines/eval/cam.html
• Due to the controversial nature of this topic,
  separate guidelines had to be developed

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Resource Discovery for BIOME

• New resources are evaluated and included on a
  weekly basis for each gateway
• Monitoring on a weekly basis key Web sites
• BIOME currently contains over 30,000 resources

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BIOME Collaborations

• NHS Direct Online in 1999 and 2001
• National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH)
• LTSN/RDN Interoperability Project health cluster
• http//www.ltsn-01.ac.uk/interoperability
• HONNI (Health on the Net Northern Ireland)
  http//www.honni.qub.ac.uk/
• NHS Scotland eLibrary http//www.elib.scot.nhs.uk/
  portal/elib/pages/index.aspx

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What can academics use the Internet for?

• Teaching and learning
• Continuing Professional Development
• Maintaining current awareness of activities
  within their subject field
• Keeping up with HE news
• Making professional contacts
• Finding data, images, video and film

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Pros and cons

• The Internet is a powerful international source
  of information
• Internet usage is growing
• Repository of a vast amount of information
• Information overload?
• Huge powerful search engines
• Poor quality information
• Plagiarism

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Searching and browsing

• Demonstration of features and services provided
  by BIOME
• Hands-on practical session

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And finally.

• November 2005 Happy Birthday OMNI!
• General enquiries to help_at_biome.ac.uk
• BIOME mailing list http//www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists
  /biome.html
• BIOME Content Coordinator
• laurian.williamson_at_nottingham.ac.uk