An online searching course for health professionals was initiated at a university medical school. A group of end users were taught to search the medline database on data-star and their subsequent online progress was monitored. The preliminary survey by questionnaire, pretraining interviews, the tutorial programme, course evaluation and end-user feedback were described. Logsheets showed that most end-user searches were for research purposes, although some were for patient care. The effects of CD-ROM on online end-user searching were discussed and it was suggested that direct online access to information might be a more appropriate medium for busy clinical and academic staff.