Web-Based Information Retrieval Pattern of Medical Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the web-based information retrieval pattern of the students of Calicut Medical College, Kerala. Structured questionnaires were employed to collect data from a representative sample of 100 MBBS students. The study found that a majority of the students often use the web for communication and to get general information and recent advances in Medicine. A good number of the students use web-mail and social networking sites very frequently. All the students use simple search methods for accessing the web. Google is the most preferred search engine followed by Yahoo. Only a very few of the students use e-journals and databases. Lack of training/orientation, lack of computer infrastructure, lack of fulltext e-journals and low Internet backbone speed are the major reasons of underutilization of web-based information resources. The findings of this study would assist medical institutions in India to develop strategies and policies that could make better use of web-based information resources for medical education and research.