1. Evidence-Based Emergency
Management Part 1:
Introduction to Searching the Safety
Literature
Robin Featherstone, MLIS Julie Jones, MLIS
Life Sciences Library Humanities & Social Sciences Library
robin.featherstone@mcgill.ca julie.jones@mcgill.ca
Course website: http://www.mcgill.ca/library/library-
findinfo/subjects/humanities/disaster-emergency-
management

2. Should emergency management be
evidence-based?

3. Agenda
• Intro to EBEM
• Question formation and Boolean
• Intro to Safety Literature
• WISER
-- 10 min BREAK –
• Library catalogue
• EBSCO databases
• Google Scholar
• Grey literature
-- 10 min BREAK --
• Evaluating the evidence
• Summary
• Homework instructions
• Hands-on searching

4. Evidence-Based Medicine Process
Formulating
Evaluating the clinical
the Process question
Your patient for whom
you are uncertain about
therapy, diagnosis, or Searching the
Incorporating prognosis Evidence
evidence into
decision-making
Appraising
the Evidence

5. Evidence-Based Emergency
Management Process
Formulating
Evaluating the question
the Process Workshop 1
Workshop 2
For assistance planning
for, responding to, or
recovering from an Searching the
Incorporating emergency or disaster Evidence
evidence into
decision-making Workshop 1
Workshop 2
Evaluating the
Evidence
Workshop 1

6. EBEM Program Objectives
At the end of the EBEM program, you will be
able to:
1.Describe the body of emergency management literature
2.Develop an effective strategy for locating and monitoring
evidence-based emergency management literature
3.Identify, based upon critical appraisal of research
methodologies, best practices in emergency management
4.Share with peers relevant evidence to inform the
development, evaluation and modification of services and
programs offered through University Safety

7. Introduction to searching the safety
literature – course objectives
At the end of this course, you will be able to:
1.Differentiate between "grey literature" and indexed literature
2.Name three sources to search for safety literature
3.Correctly use simple Boolean operators: AND, OR
4.Apply simple limits (date range, language, publication type)
5.Locate books using the McGill Library catalogue
6.Utilize the C.R.A.P. test to evaluate information

8. Formulating the Question

9. Case Scenario
Recently, a student committed suicide following
an incident of cyber-bullying. Public opinion, as
reported in the local media, suggest that the
university should have intervened. An
administrator asks you to develop an action plan
for preventing cyber-bullying on campus.

10. Why do you need to formulate a question?
What question(s) could you ask with the
cyber-bullying scenario?

11. How questions influence search
High =
results
lots of
articles Broad
Questions
Retrieval
(# of search
results)
Narrow
Questions
Low =
very few
articles
Low = mostly High = directly
irrelevant articles Relevancy relevant articles

12. What are best practices for preventing
cyber-bullying at a university?
What are the key concepts in this
question?

13. Developing a Search Strategy

14. university
cyber-
bullying
prevent

15. university OR cyber-bullying
University
Cyber-
bullying

16. University Campus AND Cyber-bullying
university
cyber-
bullying

17. university AND cyber-bullying AND prevent
university
cyber-
bullying
How do you combine these
three concepts in a search to
answer the question: what are
best practices for preventing
cyber-bullying on a university
prevent campus?

18. university OR cyber-bullying OR prevent
university
cyber-
bullying
What if I combined with OR?
prevent

19. Search strategy: What are best practices for
preventing cyber-bullying on a university
campus?
Concept #1 Concept #2 Concept #3
AND AND
OR universit* cyber-bull* prevent*
OR social media bull* mitigat*

20. How to search
• Start with your first concept
universit*
• Combine any synonyms with OR
universit* OR college*
• Repeat for your second, third, and subsequent
concepts
cyber-bull* OR “computer crime*”
prevent* OR mitigat*
• Finally, combine large search results sets with AND
(universit* OR college*) AND (cyber-bull* OR “computer crime”)
AND (prevent* OR mitigat*)

21. Introduction to the Safety
Literature

22. Filtered Information
•Synthesized guidelines
•Systematic reviews
Scholarly Literature
•“Peer-reviewed” journal articles
•Indexed articles and books
Other Indexed Publications
•News articles
•Trade magazine articles
“Grey Literature”
•Organizational reports
•Training and workshop materials
•Conference proceedings
•Blog entries

23. WISER
•For HazMat (hazardous materials) /
CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological,
and nuclear) events
•Designed for: First responders (fire
fighters), HazMat teams,
EMS/Paramedics, Emergency
Department personnel
•Web-based or downloadable app
http://wiser.nlm.nih.gov

24. WISER
Includes:
• Substance characteristics/properties
• Department of Transportation (DOT)
Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG)
data: Fire-fighting procedures, safe
protective distance, etc.
• Human health/medical treatment data
Features/Capabilities
• Chemical identification support – via
chemical properties, signs/symptoms,
transportation, etc.
• Safe protective distance mapping – GIS

25. WISER Exercise
1. Search WISER http://wiser.nlm.nih.gov/ to
answer the question:
What type of personal protective equipment
(PPE) & protective distance is required for a
large spill of xylenes?

26. Break – 10 Mins

27. Can you find this book in the
Library Catalogue?
Coombs, W. T. (2007). Ongoing
crisis communication: Planning,
managing, and responding. Los
Angeles: SAGE Publications.

28. How are these different?

29. “Peer-review”?

31. Searching indexed literature
• Sample search in in Academic Search
Complete:
What are emerging trends in communication
strategies during campus emergencies?

32. Academic Search Complete
Exercise
• Search Academic Search Complete for
information to assist you in answering this
question:
What are current best practices for preventing
sexual assaults on campus?
Email at least one relevant article to yourself.

33. Not finding enough information in
your chosen database?
• Try other keywords and synonyms – the
research process is iterative.
• Try another database or source.
• These searching skills are transferable – you
will use versions of them everywhere that you
search.

36. Searching Google Scholar

37. Searching Google Scholar

38. Google Scholar exercise
• Search Google Scholar for information to
assist you in answering this question:
What are some of the limitations and concerns
with current Mass Notification Systems?
Choose one pertinent article that you want to
read. Can you access the full-text? Has it been
cited by other articles?

39. “Grey Literature”
"Information produced on all levels of
government, academics, business, and
industry in electronic and print formats, but
which is not controlled by commercial
publishing, i.e. where publishing is not the
primary activity of the producing body."
http://www.greynet.org/greynethome.html

40. Grey literature
• Reports, working papers, cases studies, etc.
produced by institutions, governmental and
non-governmental organizations, and
research groups.
• Grey literature is often produced by people
“on the ground” or “in the field”.

41. Grey literature
• More of the emergency management
information will be found in the grey literature
than in indexed, academic sources.
• Important to use a combination of source
types so you have a full picture of the best
available evidence.

42. Searching for Grey literature
• Google
• IGO Search
• Carleton University’s Canadian Government
Publications Search
• NLM’s Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine
and Public Health
• Professional association, organization,
research centre, government websites

43. Grey literature exercise
• Search the Resource Guide for Disaster
Medicine and Public Health and another Grey
Literature source of your choice for
information to assist you in answering this
question:
What are best practices for dealing with a flood
on a university campus?

44. Break – 10 Mins

45. How do you decide whether or not to use the
evidence you’ve found?

46. Is it C.R.A.P.?
Currency How recent is the information?
How recently has the website been updated?
Is it current enough for yourincluded?
What kind of information is topic?
Reliability Is content of the resource primarily opinion?
Who is the author?
Is it balanced?
What are their credentials?
Does the creator provide references?
Authority Who is the publisher or sponsor?
Are they reputable?
What is the publisher’s interest?
Purpose / Point of view
Are there advertisements?
Is this fact or opinion?
Is the author trying to sell you something?
Is it biased?

47. Is it C.R.A.P.?
1. http://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/c
ampus-communications-1
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P
MC2631455/?tool=pubmed
3. http://campus-
safety.blogspot.ca/2010/01/how-much-is-
enough-to-spend-on-mass.html

48. Summary
1. Where would you look to find a government
report?
2. What are three sources you can search for safety
literature?
3. How do you combine synonymous search concepts?
4. How do you reduce the number of search results?
5. Where would you look to find a book on pre-crisis
planning?
6. What does C.R.A.P. stand for?

49. Homework
• Formulate a question related to your work
• Search the evidence to find one
article/report/website/etc. that best answers
your question
• Evaluate the evidence using the C.R.A.P. test
• Prepare a 5 minute presentation for next
Thursday
– What did you pick? Who wrote it? What did you learn from
it? What is its C.R.A.P score? How will it influence your
work at McGill?

50. Questions & Practice