Letters to librarians, and they have told Reference me that they have trouble communicating library successes, 1. DALRYMPLE PW. Book reviews. Bull needs, and problems because they Med Libr Assoc 1990 Jul;78(3):329-30. do not know how to use the quantitative language of their supervi- MEDLINE and BIOSIS sors. My book teaches this language and, consequently, will help Sharon Suer's letter raises some librarians communicate their worthwhile points about the serpoints more effectively. vices provided by BIOSIS [1]. Dalrymple has confused the staOur study [2] focused on evalutistical needs of one segment of the ating MEDLINE in comparison to library community with those of other databases. Each of the other the entire community. Researchers three databases were selected with and academic librarians conduct- this purpose of comparison in ing research need comprehensive mind. The paragraph Suer refers textbooks focusing on inferential to on page fifty-one briefly destatistics. The practicing librarian scribes the way in which each dawill profit more from a general me- tabase contrasts with MEDLINE. thodical introduction to statistical We were able to include a major thinking with a focus on descrip- medical database alternative to tive statistics. Descriptive statistics MEDLINE, a database encompassare the backbone of goal setting, ing all fields of science, and a very performance appraisals, and bud- different sociological database. get planning. I believe most li- Major databases covering other arbrarians could benefit from learn- eas of science, such as BIOSIS, ing more about these techniques. would have been reasonable additions in a larger study. Arthur W. Hafner American Medical Association 515 North State Street Chicago, Illinois 60610

Bull Med Libr Assoc 79(1) January 1991

Our intention was not to exclude any specific database, but there were limits to the number of databases we could search reasonably. Valerie Yonker Drexel University College of Information Studies 32d and Chestnut Streets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 Penny Young SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals 709 Swedeland Road, P.O. Box 1539 King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406-0939

References 1. SUER SF. BIOSIS previews (letter). Bull Med Libr Assoc 1990 Oct;78(4):412. 2. YONKE VA, YOUNG KP, HORWrrZ S, CousIN K. Coverage and overlaps in bibliographic databases relevant to forensic medicine: a comparative analysis of MEDLINE. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1990 Jan;78(1):49-56.

99