ABSTRACT
End user online searching is a part of the health professional’s information transfer process. That searching is affected by each participant in the process—creator of knowledge, primary publisher, secondary publisher, vendor, librarian, and end user. Critical needs for optimizing such searching are categorized under: awareness, accessibility, and assistance. Satisfying all of those needs will facilitate the incorporation of online searching into end users’ problem solving.
The term “end user” has appeared frequently since the advent of online searching. It refers to that scientist or practitioner who consolidates into his own thinking some or all of the information that has been transmitted to him through an information transfer chain. Sometimes he serves a dual function by writing a paper about findings, thus becoming the creator of information, which starts a new trip through the information transfer path.
