Updates to national databases/HDAS
Longer queries in CINAHL
We reported previously that a defect at the provider side was resulting in zero search results in HDAS. The issue revolved around the web service that EBSCO use to provide us with results. It was struggling to return results for long queries, most often seen when combining multiple rows together.
EBSCO have now released a fix for this to the API and this should be working as expected in HDAS. This means that you can now search for longer queries in CINAHL via HDAS.
Exploding terms in the Medline thesaurus
We reported previously that ProQuest were working to make changes to the MeSH subject term in Medline so that in the future it excludes the subheading field in its searches (except when the subheading is specifically requested in the search). Users were seeing fewer results when they exploded some terms such as Radiotherapy, when you would expect to see more results.
This work has now been completed and the thesaurus is now exploding in line with user expectations.
BNI Update – transition to the ProQuest Thesaurus
The ProQuest thesaurus has been implemented into the BNI for selection and search and the old BNI thesaurus retired. For all new records added from October 2017, the new headings are being used exclusively. For older records, ProQuest headings have been added alongside existing BNI headings.
A full list of BNI headings and their equivalent ProQuest headings (or suggested alternatives) can be viewed from the ProQuest support page in the Helpful Documents section “BNI to PQ Terms Crosswalk” at: http://proquest.libguides.com/nhs
What has changed?
- There is some overlap between the two thesauri. For 209 BNI headings, the ProQuest heading matches exactly. For others, there is a very minor change of structure, e.g. Children : Health is replaced by Childrens health; Nursing : Education becomes Nursing education.
- Many of the broader headings are replaced by more specific terms, e.g. Cardiovascular System and Disorders is replaced by two headings: Cardiovascular system and Cardiovascular disease. The “prevention and screening” headings are covered by Disease prevention and Medical screening as two separate terms.
- A very small number of BNI terms have been retired, as they are underused or are no longer relevant. For example, Community Medicine has been retired and the content found under the terms Public Health, Pandemics, or Epidemics.
- There is no ability to ‘explode’ terms in a thesaurus search (this is only a feature that advanced thesauri like MESH and PsycINFO in ProQuest have available).
- As of mid-2017 BNI additional entity terms have been indexed as they apply to the article. These are: “Company/Organization names “ and “Personal names”.
Full details and rationale for the transition to the ProQuest thesaurus can also be found in the Helpful Documents section “British Nursing Index-Updates November 2017” at: http://proquest.libguides.com/nhs”
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