Resource Types

This section provides an overview of what types of resources are available on the internet for those studying or working at Oceania University of Medicine and how they can be used.

Learning Objectives

Raise your awareness of the types of resources available
Begin to collect your own list of favorite sites
Provide ideas for how to use Internet resources in your studies or teaching

Introduction

The Internet is a mirror to society and anything you can find in the ‘real’ world is likely to be available in this virtual world also.

From a medical perspective this includes:

Basic Information – dictionaries and encyclopedias of a general nature or specifically on medical topics.
Breaking news - there are a number of health news services available which are updated daily or weekly and provide quick snapshots on medical topics.
Journals - the growth of electronic journals means that articles can be published quicker online than they can in print. Many are available freely, others by subscription or individual article purchase only. Some, such as the Medical Journal of Australia are also available in print, others are e-journals only, for example BMC Medicine
Documents – a wide range of documents are available from student essays through to extensive government reports and complete textbooks.
Databases – collections of information such as the human genome project results can be accessed through the internet.
Multimedia – such as images (photos, x-rays, diagrams), audio files and even video are widely available.
Communication – blogs are web logs or discussion areas where anyone can express an opinion or ask questions. They can be used to keep track of key issues affecting the profession.
Learning materials – many established universities and professional bodies place Continuing Medical Education (CME) modules and online medical tutorials on the internet. These provide a way to continuously upgrade your knowledge, even after your formal education is complete.
Organizations - most health and medical organizations have a web site that contains information about their activities, aims and research projects. A useful example is the World Health Organization.
Discovery tools - Many searching tools can assist you to find information. These include large search engines, specialist subject gateways, Internet guides and library catalogues.

Challenges

There are challenges to using internet resources for your information needs, however, including:

Cost - Many excellent materials have an access charge attached. This includes journals and the searching tools used to find relevant articles.
Privacy – Many sites will require you to register before you can access their materials (often this is free registration). Therefore you provide a way for these organizations to contact you again, as well as track your movements within their sites. If possible check their privacy policy to see if they sell "mailing lists" of contacts to other organisations as a revenue raiser.
Relevance - It can be very difficult to determine just how reliable any given information source is. Virtually anyone can publish anything on the Internet, there is no quality control, and author details and medical qualifications are not always available on an internet resource you locate.
Size - The Internet is constantly increasing in size and, for example, a Google search on a medical topic such as Alzheimer’s Disease can net you over 8 million hits. Do you trust Google that the first few items listed will provide what you are looking for?

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