Keeping up to Date: Apps to Stay on Top of the Medical Literature

Clinicians, researchers, and students today are faced with the challenge of keeping up with the seemingly exponential growth of scientific literature. Health sciences libraries provide access to much of that literature in electronic format. In concert with these changes in the amount of and means of access to the scientific literature is the rise in usage of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, and apps for mobile devices. Since increasing numbers of library users prefer to read library-provided content on a variety of devices, including personal computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, librarians should be knowledgeable about apps that search and browse for journal content provided by libraries. This column will focus on several e-journal apps including: BrowZine, Docphin, Read by QxMD, and ReadCube, as well as citation managers and publisher-specific apps. The use of these apps to promote library resources and services will also be discussed.