Searching Skills Toolkit

The distinguishing feature of this pocket-sized searching skills book will be its user-friendliness, as in all the Toolkit series titles. The guiding principle is that readers do not want to become librarians, but they are faced with practical difficulties when searching for evidence, such as lack of skills, lack of time and information overload. They need to learn simple search skills, and be directed towards the right resources to find the best evidence to support their decision-making.

Typical settings when searching skills are required include:
o Clinical practice: supporting evidence based practice by demonstrating effective methods for finding the best quality research to enable informed and appropriate decision-making.
o Education: awareness of the relevant databases, how to access them and how to use them appropriately and effectively.
o Research: locating relevant papers to justify research projects, based on a clearly focused research question.

Readers will be taught searching skills concepts using the following techniques:
o Real life clinical scenarios
o Utilising flow charts to highlight the sections that really matter.
o Clear graphical layout, including screenshot images
o Use of tables, figures and diagrams
o Use of icons (e.g. to represent a learning point, or a task) and full colour.