This is a question medical librarians are often asked by prospective authors of systematic reviews. Books on the topic are usually weak on the librariany bits – the chapter on literature searching tends to consist of a descriptive list of databases, combined with the advice to ‘ask a medical librarian’… Fortunately, some colleagues have written useful guidance on the whole process. Here is a selection of some really outstanding library websites on literature searching for systematic reviews:

• Becker Library, University of Washington
• Duke University
• Mayo Clinic
• NYU Langone Medical Center
• Karolinska Institutet
• University of Western Australia
• Oxford
• HLWiki

Each of these sites contains a wealth of references to both further reading and training courses. Of course, the range of training materials provided by the Cochrane Collaboration should not be forgotten either.