publicdata/nih-gov
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions
nih-gov/www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj98/mj98_mla.html
Scott Williams 7bcb500d37 Initial commit.
2025-02-26 13:17:41 -05:00

677 lines
19 KiB
HTML
Raw Blame History

<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>MEDLARS Online Users' Meeting - Remarks. NLM Technical Bulletin. May-Jun 1998</title>
<meta name="DC.Subject.IssueNum" content="302" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.IssueCover" content="/pubs/techbull/mj98/mj98_technote.html" />
<!--do not remove!! nlm survey script - contact wwwnlm@nlm.nih.gov with questions -->
<script src="/share/scripts/survey.js" type="text/javascript" language="javascript"></script>
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Abridged Index Medicus" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Abstract" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Advanced Search" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Age Groups" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Automatic SDI" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="BIOETHICSLINE" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Cease" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Citation Matcher" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Consumer Health" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Customer Service" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="DOCLINE" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="ELHILL" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="E-mail" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Entrez Date" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="feature" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Filter" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Full Text" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Grateful Med" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Health Services Technology Assessment Text" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Index Medicus" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Indexing" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Integrated Library System" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Internet Grateful Med" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Language" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="License" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Limits" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Machine Readable Cataloging" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Medical Library Association" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Medical Subject Headings" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="MEDLINE" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Meeting Abstracts" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="MeSH Terms" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="National Library of Medicine" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="National Technical Information Service" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="OLDMEDLINE" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Publication Type" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Publisher" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="PubMed" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Redesign" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Regional Medical Libraries" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Release" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Subheading" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Title" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="TOXNET" />
<meta name="DC.Subject.Keyword" content="Training" />
</head>
<body bgcolor="#f0f0f0" link="#083184" vlink="#960044"><noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-MT6MLL" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden" title="googletagmanager"></iframe></noscript><script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='//www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-MT6MLL');</script>
<style type="text/css">
#skip, .skip, .skipnavigation {
position:absolute;
left:0px;
top:-500px;
width:1px;
height:1px;
overflow:hidden;
}
</style>
<div class="skipnavigation"><a title="Skip the navigation on this page" href="#skipnav" class="skipnavigation">Skip Navigation Bar</a></div>
<a href="/nlmhome.html"><img src="/pubs/techbull/tb_graphics/tbhead4.gif" border=0 alt="NLM Technical Bulletin"/></a>
<h3><em>NLM Technical Bulletin</em> 1998 May-Jun; 302</h3>
<hr />
<a id="skipnav" name="skipnav"></a>
<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=10>
<tr>
<td valign=top bgcolor="#CB9966" width=140>
<hr />
<center><strong>In This Issue:</strong></center>
<hr />
<p>
<a href="/pubs/techbull/mj98/mj98_technote.html">Technical Notes</a> - e1
</p>
<p>
<a href="/pubs/techbull/mj98/mj98_truncation.html">PubMed: Truncation, Automatic Explosion, Mapping, and MeSH Headings</a> - e2
</p>
<p>
<img src="/pubs/techbull/tb_graphics/blutri.gif" alt="dot" height=10 width=10/> MLA 1998 [corrected 1998/07/14] - e3
</p>
<p>
<a href="/pubs/techbull/mj98/mj98_bioethics.html">BIOETHICSLINE Regenerated</a> - e4
</p>
<hr />
<center><strong><a href="/pubs/techbull/current_issue.html">Current Issue</a></strong></center>
<hr />
<center><strong><a href="/pubs/techbull/tb.html">Home</a></strong></center>
<hr />
<center><strong><a href="/pubs/techbull/back_issues.html">Back Issues</a></strong></center>
<hr />
<center><strong><a href="/pubs/techbull/new_index.html">Index</a></strong></center>
<hr />
</td>
<td valign=top width=440>
<center><h2>MLA 1998</h2></center>
<hr />
<dl>
<dd><img src="/pubs/techbull/tb_graphics/blutri.gif" alt="dot" height=10 width=10/> MEDLARS Online Users' Meeting - Remarks</dd>
<dd><a href="mj98_onlineqa.html">MEDLARS Questions and Answers</a></dd>
<dd><a href="mj98_rlremarks.html">DOCLINE Users' Meeting - Remarks</a></dd>
<dd><a href="mj98_doclineqa.html">DOCLINE Questions and Answers</a> [corrected 1998/07/14]</dd>
</dl>
<hr />
<h3>MEDLARS Online Users' Meeting - Remarks</h3>
<p>
Hello, I'm Sheldon Kotzin and along with the other persons on the panel, I
represent the National Library of Medicine staff who index, develop
databases and their interfaces, and provide access and user support to
these databases. As always, we thank you for using our products and
services, for suggesting improvements and for promoting the use of our
databases and interfaces in your hospitals, medical centers, and
companies. We value your opinions, suggestions and your constructive
criticism. Send us a message at <a href="mailto:custserv@nlm.nih.gov">custserv@nlm.nih.gov</a>
or call 1-888-FINDNLM.
We will be happy to receive it.
</p>
<p>
Each year I like to begin my remarks with data entry and indexing. These
unsung heroes and heroines make it possible for users to retrieve citations
and abstracts for more than 9 million records from over 3,900 journals in
MEDLINE. Last year a record 512,000 new citations were added.
</p>
<p>
The indexing operation can be divided into three broad activities: data entry of
descriptive information; the addition of MeSH headings and Publication Types,
etc.; and quality assurance activities. Last year, Dr. Lindberg challenged the
staff to increase its use of scanning and Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
technology for one-third of the daily input of roughly 2,000 records per day. We
have succeeded. Also, we have begun to request electronic data from all
MEDLINE journal publishers. Though this program started only about six months
ago, we can state that more than 60 publishers regularly send us data for over
200 titles. After securing acceptable data, we begin to discuss linking to publisher
home pages. These two efforts have greatly reduced our dependence on
double-keying of records for data entry and have greatly
speeded up the availability of citations in MEDLINE.
</p>
<p>
On June 26, 1997, NLM announced that its MEDLINE database of more than 9
million references to articles published in 3800 biomedical journals may be
accessed free of charge on the World Wide Web via PubMed and Internet
Grateful Med. A few years ago NLM eliminated all domestic usage charges
which should have brought some of your search costs down. Another change
that occurred last year may have saved you money, whether you search
MEDLINE through NLM or a licensee's products. NLM eliminated the surcharge
that licensees had to pay for foreign use of MEDLINE. Now all NLM licensees
pay the U.S. Treasury only one annual fee of no more than $16,000 for MEDLINE,
whether their product is used domestically or internationally, on the Internet or
via CD-ROM. Most licensees pay less than this amount. Not bad for 9 million
records each year!
</p>
<p>
I'd like to acknowledge the other staff with me: Carolyn Tilley, Head of MEDLARS Management Section;
Janet Zipser, Head of Online Training; and Kathi Canese, PubMed and IGM
search expert.
</p>
<p>
Much has happened since PubMed access
was announced. It is now used by 46,000 different IP addresses each
weekday, conducting 320,000 daily searches. On an annual basis we expect
PubMed use to exceed 75 million searches.
</p>
<p>
As you know, improvements introduced in PubMed in late January included: document
ordering capabilities; the Entrez date showing when a citation was added to
PubMed; a "details" button that allows users to see and edit their search
strategies; moving the citation matcher that enables users to locate a
specific article or issue by journal citation information to the gray sidebar;
and a chance to display and select MeSH terms from a hierarchical structure.
On April 16, a group of librarians, selected by MLA, the RMLs
and NLM staff, met with Dr. Lindberg and others. They talked about
system features they liked and didn't like as well as impediments to good
telecommunications. Already, some of their suggestions
have resulted in changes in PubMed.
</p>
<p>
MeSH terms with subheadings are now exploded with the subheadings attached to the MeSH headings--no longer free floating; and the variations available on a truncated term have been increased from 100 to 150. Also, PubMed now lets users know if the truncated term produces more than 150 variations.
</p>
<p>
Another recent enhancement of PubMed is a link to HSTAT documents.
Users who retrieve a MEDLINE citation for a practice guideline whose full
text is in HSTAT, will see a box that says "get original document." It links to
the HSTAT full text. Users of HSTAT can search PubMed and HSTAT
records simultaneously and can link from an HSTAT document back to a
MEDLINE citation.
</p>
<p>
Many of you may have heard that NLM is planning to expand PubMed
with data from other NLM databases. We will consider how to handle the
addition of information in citations, on a database by database basis. The likelihood is
that unique journal citations will move to PubMed, the monographs to the
new Integrated Library System (ILS), and meeting abstracts to a separate resource, all linked to
PubMed.
</p>
<p>
With the availability of the PubMed and IGM interfaces, NLM realized that it
had a responsibility to train new searchers and retrain experienced
searchers on these products. In addition to the classes being offered we have put all course workbooks up on the
Web and we urge you to use them as is or modify them.
</p>
<dl>
<dt>Work continues on PubMed enhancements. Expect improvements to be
introduced regularly, not as annual updates. Among the improvements
scheduled for release later this summer are:<br /><br />
<dd>A complete redesign of the way in which PubMed stores and retrieves
information, that will dramatically increase the speed of retrieval.
Complex searches that now take 18 seconds will run in under 2
seconds in the new system. <br /><br />
</dd>
<dd>A redesigned Advanced search page to allow users to
select limits such as language, age groups, and gender, and will
include filters, such as AIM and nursing, and for dental journals.
</dd>
</dl>
<p>
A longer term goal is to develop a place in PubMed for users to store individual
information and preferences. One could develop and store search queries;
access other home pages and document delivery services; and access a
variety of features that rely on storing individual preferences.
The redesign also will make it possible to select a variety of print
commands.
</p>
<p>
The availability of PubMed has resulted in one other program change. The
flat rate arrangements with medical associations are ending.
The program that began about six years ago with the American College of
Physicians helped to introduce thousands of physicians to MEDLINE, but
most of those users have moved to the Web.
</p>
<p>
Now let's cover what's in and what's out. Emphasis on consumer health is
in. Since the introduction of free access, many patients and their families
have searched MEDLINE looking for useful health information. In response
to this growing user group, NLM is expanding its coverage of publications
whose primary audience is the lay public. Recently twelve publications were
selected for indexing and you can find citations for them in MEDLINE.
</p>
<p>
Printed <em>Abridged Index Medicus</em> is out. <em>AIM</em> was initiated in 1970 to "afford
rapid access to selected biomedical journal literature of immediate interest
to the practicing physician" when online services were not readily available.
<em>AIM</em> citations from 119 journals was of value to the community over the
years, with subscriptions peaking at more than 2,000. But in the 1990s
subscriptions dropped, many new journals provided equally
valuable information, and the costs of production and distribution of <em>AIM</em>
rose. An electronic version of <em>AIM</em> still lives on as the tag continues to
accompany these citations in MEDLINE.
</p>
<p>
In a manner of speaking, OLDMEDLINE is in. Last year, more than 307,000
citations published in the 1964 and 1965 <em>Index Medicus</em> were made available
through IGM. This summer, about 250,000 records from 1962-63 will become
accessible in OLDMEDLINE so that it will be a four-year file, and by this fall,
we hope to release about 225,000 more records from 1960-61. We intend
to keep going back, hopefully in larger chunks.
</p>
<p>
The Auto SDI program isn't quite out, but it is barely hanging on. In October
the decision was made to stop adding new users, and to tell existing users
to add no new search strategies. The program will disappear in its entirety
when ELHILL ceases to exist. Many users have found it convenient to
bookmark the URLs for PubMed searches that they perform repeatedly.
This technique was first proposed by Linda Milgrom and Michael Boer at RML 6. Future PubMed
enhancements may offer another alternative.
</p>
<p>
Back to what's in. MeSH on the Web is in. Now anyone can download
three different versions of the MeSH file free from the NLM Home Page.
One version has all MeSH main headings and tree numbers arranged
hierarchically by tree number. A second version includes main headings,
subheadings and allowable combinations in MARC format. The third
version contains all terms, subheadings and supplementary chemicals in
ASCII format. This is the only way to get access to the information that used
to be printed in the now defunct <em>Supplementary Chemical Tool</em>. Many of you
have taken advantage of using MeSH to organize and index curricula,
training materials, and the like. And now it's free.
</p>
<p>
A Web interface for some of the TOXNET databases will soon be available. Initially, this interface
will be a simple one, with access only to the factual databases. A
more advanced search capability will be developed soon. PubMed will link
its users to this Web site.
</p>
<p>
Improved Customer Service is in. In the past year NLM formed a new
Customer Services Team to provide: a single point of access for offsite
users; collect information to improve service; and turn user feedback into
product improvement. I have two requests, however.
</p>
<p>
When you call, use the new 1-888-FINDNLM phone number, not the old
800-638-8480. That number is being phased out. Use the new phone
number and the new <a href="mailto:custserv@nlm.nih.gov">custserv@nlm.nih.gov</a> e-mail for all kinds of questions, including
those times when you wonder why NLM is doing something that seems
unusual. Sometimes you discover a problem before we do, like a missing
issue of a journal. So let us hear from you directly, not by reading your
comments on LISTSERVs.
</p>
<p>
Finally, it is with great nostalgia that I announce that the Grateful Med disk
program is out. It became impossible for NLM to keep the DOS, MAC and
Windows products current with changing vocabularies and features. Also,
in recent months, fewer than 5 new disks per month were sold of each
version. In April, after 12 years and countless updates, NLM told NTIS to
stop their distribution. I recall the excitement in 1986 when the GM DOS
version was announced. The introduction of those original 5 1/4" disks marked
a real sea change in broadening NLM's user base, a dramatic increase in
searching, and led us into the age of the Internet.
</p>
<p>
Let me close by urging you to take advantage of NLM's e-mail service that
messages you when new or updated files are available on the NLM Web
site. The weekly messages contain automatically generated lists of new
and updated pages with their titles and URLs. They are a great way to keep
up-to-date. If you would like to subscribe to this service instructions may be found at: <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/nlmfiles-email.html">http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/nlmfiles-email.html</a>.
</p>
<dl>
<dd><em>--prepared by Sheldon Kotzin</em></dd>
<dd><em>Chief, Bibliographic Services Division</em></dd>
</dl>
<center><a href = "/pubs/techbull/mj98/mj98_mla.html">top of page</a></center>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td valign=top bgcolor ="#cb9966" width=140>
<a href = "/pubs/techbull/mj98/mj98_bioethics.html">Next article</a>
<p>
<a href = "/pubs/techbull/mj98/mj98_mla.html">Table of contents</a>
</p>
<p>
<a href = "/pubs/techbull/tb.html">Home</a>
</p>
<p>
<a href = "/pubs/techbull/new_index.html">Index</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br />
<hr />
<!-- BEGIN NLM FOOTER -->
<center>
<font size="2" face="helvetica, arial"><a href="/nlmhome.html">U.S. National Library of Medicine</a>, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894<br /><a href="http://www.nih.gov/">National Institutes of Health</a>, <a href="//www.hhs.gov/">Department of Health &amp; Human Services</a><br /><a href="/copyright.html">Copyright</a>, <a href="/privacy.html">Privacy</a>, <a href="/accessibility.html">Accessibility</a>, <a href="http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/foia/index.htm">Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)</a><br/><a href="https://www.hhs.gov/vulnerability-disclosure-policy/index.html">HHS Vulnerability Disclosure</a>
<br />
<!-- ******************MODIFY "LAST UPDATED" ******************* -->
Last updated: 13 April 2012
</font>
</center>
<!-- END NLM FOOTER -->
<!-- ******************MODIFY EXPDATE AND EMAIL BELOW****************** -->
<!-- EXPDATE="2015-03-20" -->
<!-- EMAIL="nlmtechbull@mail.nlm.nih.gov" -->
<script src="//assets.nlm.nih.gov/jquery/jquery-latest.min.js"></script><script src="/core/nlm-notifyExternal/1.0/nlm-notifyExternal.min.js"></script></body>
</html>
Reference in a new issue View git blame Copy permalink