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The increasing use of databases in all areas of knowledge has produced important changes in scientific practice. These databases allow for more efficient searches of indexed and published journal literature in all areas of specialisation. This study attempted to learn which strategies were used by faculty members of the Health Sciences Schools of the University of Los Andes in searching for scientific information. We performed a cross sectional study in which the faculty of the departments of Medicine, Dentistry and Nutrition were interviewed to identify their skills in searching. The majority of the professors considered themselves as "good" or "very good" in their skills in using the Internet. However, 71% of them use general search engines to retrieve scientific information, whereas only 29% used databases exclusively on health, such as Medline, Lilacs, Cochrane and others. The main difficulties reported for accessing full text articles are their cost and the means of acquiring them. We conclude that the university faculty members do not know which are the best tools for obtaining reliable scientific information. Hence the quality of the documentation they use for staying informed and for their future research is questionable.
