26467 - Documentation and Information on Pharmaceutical Products

Academic Year 2007/2008

  • Docente: Aldo Andreani
  • Credits: 3
  • SSD: CHIM/08
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Scientific Information on Pharmaceutical Products (cod. 0037)

Learning outcomes

Basic knowledge on personal computer and network are required. The students will learn to find information about problems related to drugs.

Course contents

CIB (Centro Inter-Bibliotecario dell'Università di Bologna), OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) and in particular ACNP (Archivio Collettivo Nazionale dei Periodici). Strategies for the search of books but mainly for the search of patents and articles published on scientific journals. Chemical Abstracts: the paper edition, query via telnet with STN (Scientific and Technical Network) and query via graphical interface(Scifinder). Beilsteins: the paper edition and query via Crossfire. Medline and Micromedex. Use of other online databases. How to select the appropriate keywords. How to restrict the search. Use of wildcards and logical operators (AND, OR, NOT). Practical examples of research strategies, result analysis and related feedback for the strategy optimization.

Readings/Bibliography

The students will receive the necessary links to their email addresses.

Teaching methods

The teacher will display the general concepts and the main methods allowing the retrieval of information related to drugs.

Assessment methods

Every student will receive a series of links and will be invited to report his opinion about their usefulness. The final examination will be the development of a search, previously agreed with the teacher, from the strategy to the analysis of the result.

Teaching tools

The libraries of the Faculty of Pharmacy and the University network.

Office hours

See the website of Aldo Andreani