Testing

Elizabeth ChoinskiScience LibrarianUniversity of Mississippi Librariesulemc@cypress.mcsr.olemiss.edu
Research scientists who are using animals as test subjects are required by the Animal Welfare Act (7 USC 2131-2156) to consider alternatives to animal testing prior to beginning a research project. These investigators are required to search the literature for alternatives and to supply their findings to their Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). If no alternatives are available, investigators must supply to their IACUC a written description of their search history and databases used to look for alternatives. The Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC) of the National Agriculture Library provides in-depth information, in a question and answer format, concerning why literature searches must be conducted for animal testing alternatives and provides definitions of alternatives (Kreger 1998).
When the Animal Welfare Act took effect, literature searches were primarily accomplished using paper indexes or by employing the services of an information professional who could do mediated searches using databases from DIALOG, BRS, or other dial-up search services. Shevell and James (1995) discuss the role of the information specialist in terms of providing mediated searches. They stress the particulars of an effective reference interview with the investigator. They provide a detailed discussion of search methods and strategies available to the information specialist. Likewise, AWIC provides tips for doing a literature search that emphasizes communication between the information specialist and the investigator as well as the search strategies that are likely to be useful when searching CD-ROM based databases (Smith 1994). Snow provides very specific examples of searching Biosis Previews, Medline, EMBASE, and other databases via a dial-up connection to DIALOG (1990).
With the advent of web-based bibliographic databases and web sites full of information, the roles of the research scientist and librarian have changed. Many scientists do their own searching now. Instead of providing search services, librarians may be called upon to educate end users in navigating web-based sources of information. Librarians may even be called upon to help investigators with regulatory compliance concerning their search for animal testing alternatives. Based on personal experience with scientists in an academic research environment, investigators are usually not too interested in the policy-making or political aspects of animal rights when they are trying to get their grant proposals finished for a deadline. They are interested in finding literature specific to their research topic. This article focuses on bibliographic databases and web sites that provide information on the scientific aspects of animal testing alternatives and not on the pros and cons of animal rights.