MDC 2006 Reproductive health information on the World Wide Web Dirk Schoonbaert ITM Library May 19, 2006

1
MDC 2006 Reproductive health information on
the World Wide WebDirk SchoonbaertITM
LibraryMay 19, 2006
2
Program

• Internet information retrieval tools.
• Reproductive health resources on the W W W.
• Practical exercises.

3
Information overload

• Many millions of webpages are available on the
  Internet.
• There are huge differences in quality, relevance,
  reliability.
• Every day thousands of pages are added, updated,
  removed or have their address (URL) changed.

4
Information deficiency

• Not all data that are published on paper or in
  electronic databases are also available on the
  Internet.
• Not all electronic resources can be accessed by
  everybody (intranets!) or for free (commercial
  services!).

5
Web indexes

• Word-based machine-generated indexes generally
  far more pages than needed are found. But
  relevance-ranking is improving all the time.
  E.g.
• Google Google Scholar
• All the Web
• AltaVista

6
Web directories

• Subject-based human intellectual endeavour
  hierarchically structured, often evaluated,
  annotated. E.g.
• General, comprehensive Yahoo, Open Directory
  Project,
• Biomedical health related HealthWeb,
  MedlinePlus, Excite Health,
• Covering specific topics, e.g. sexually
  transmitted infections,

7
Reproductive health

• DHS - Demographic Health Surveys reports,
  data
• ELDIS - Institute of Development Studies
  documents, country profiles
• Engender Health fact sheets, guidelines
• FHI - Family Health International publications,
  programs
• HealthLink (formerly AHRTAG) bibliographic
  database, publications, ?
• HRP - Human Reproduction Program (WHO)
  documents

8
Reproductive health

• IPPF - International Planned Parenthood
  Federation resources
• Population Council journals
• Reproline (JHPIEGO) multilingual
• RHG - Reproductive Health GatewayComprehensive
  portal
• RHO - Reproductive Health Outlook
  (WHO)documents

9
Types of available resources

• General information e.g. fact sheets, problem or
  disease descriptions, major control or treatment
  measures, policy statements,
• Links, addresses, conference calendars, course
  materials, reading lists, software,
• Publication catalogs full-text versions may be
  available in print only, but descriptions,
  summaries and sample chapters are often offered
  freely on the website.

10
Types of available resources

• Newsletters often full-text and free.
• Electronic journals editions.
• Bibliographic databases Medline/ PubMed,
  Popline, Population Index,
• Factual databases DHS, UNAIDS,
• Knowledge databases Cochrane Library

11
Exercise

• Find information about your own country
• recent RH related data, vital statistics
• 3 RH related programs
• 5 substantial RH related scientific publications
  or reports

12
ITM Library linking pages

• http//lib.itg.be/biblinks.htm
• links to selected biomedical websites
• http//lib.itg.be/journals.htm
• links to selected journal websites
• http//lib.itg.be/ebooks.htm
• links to selected electronic books
• http//lib.itg.be/datab.htm
• links to selected databases