An Analysis of the Cochrane Library Database for Medical Information Services.

Study Objectives: The aim of this study was to clarify the characteristics of the Cochrane Library (CL) by analyzing documents contained within the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), one of the major databases in the CL, to provide information to medical librarians that would enable them to make the best use of it.Method: The 49 Collaborative Review Groups, which carried out the systematic reviews, were classified into clinical fields according to the National Library of Medicine Classification (NLMC). A total of 1, 147 complete reviews from the July 2001 CDSR were analyzed.Results: 1. The collaborative review groups were divided into 20 clinical fields. Six groups performed reviews related to psychiatry, while reviews in the fields of obstetrics and gynecology, the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system were performed by five groups each. 2. The 375 reviews performed in the field of obstetrics and gynecology amounted to almost 2.5 times the number of reviews in the field of psychiatry, the second largest field. 3. Reviews that addressed the clinical category of therapy accounted for 82.1%, while those that addressed prevention accounted for 17.2% diagnosis 0.6% and risk 0.4%. 4. Screening of 1, 147 reviews revealed that conclusions could be drawn as a result of systematic reviews in 750 (65.4%) of them. Whereas in 387 (33.7%) conclusions could not be drawn because of a lack of explicit evidence.Conclusion: Medical librarians need to have a working knowledge of the CL's characteristics in order to properly guide library users to the CL and make the best use of it.