SaudiMedLit is a database which provides access to references from medical journals published in Saudi Arabia . Many of the medical journals published in Saudi Arabia are not available for searching via the Internet and the ones which are now available must be searched individually. Medical libraries often receive requests from health professionals to search for medical topics related to Saudi Arabia . As far as we are aware, most of the medical information related to Saudi Arabia is published in Saudi medical journals. As there is no method of searching all these journals in one online database, the Information Services staff must search individual journals on the Internet and then search others manually, an inefficient and time-consuming method of accessing information.
The Health Sciences Library of the North West Armed Forces Hospital has taken the challenge to remedy this longstanding deficiency by providing an alternate, efficient method of searching for citations to articles in medical journals published in Saudi Arabia .
Ms. Terry Bouchard (Health Management Research Consultant) and Mr. Vipula Ranjith (Library Information Technologist) have designed and developed a database-driven website and a user friendly search engine capable of Boolean searching. They are in the process of indexing articles, editorials, case reports, letters to the editor, etc. These are indexed by author, title, medical subject headings (MeSH), keywords, year, ISSN, etc, all into one database. When searching utilizing any of the indexed criteria, or a combination of these, anyone searching for a topic will find citations to as many articles on the topic as are available in any of these journals, all in one search and all in one database, without having to search in numerous sites or journals.
We believe that there is a need for such a database as much of the information in SaudiMedLit is only available in print format, so this would be the first database of its kind. We are confident that this service will serve a useful purpose for health care professionals, physicians, researchers, nurses, and allied health personnel, not only in Saudi Arabia but around the world.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Major General Dr. Ketab E. Al-Otaibi, MSD Director, Major General
Dr. Saleh M. Al-Deeb, MSD Deputy Director Training & Research, and Brigadier General Dr. Ghaleb Ghaleb Bin Huraib, NWAF Hospital Director for their approval and support of this project.
I would also like to thank Ms Terry Bouchard and Mr. Vipula Ranjith for their vision, innovation and dedication to this project. They have identified a long standing problem and found a solution. They have initiated, designed, developed and contributed to a most valuable resource we hope you will find useful, the SaudiMedLit database.
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