This year, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) had a contest that challenged people to create apps that could use NLM’s vast collection of biomedical data.  The winners have been announced!  Thank you to all of the Entrants that participated in NLM’s first software challengeHere are the winners and honorable mentions.

No, you are not imagining it. NLM has indeed made changes to the search box in PubMed and the two related databases, MeSH and NLM Catalog. An X replaces the Clear button. Links are moved from above to below the search box. Advanced Search is now just Advanced. Also, the Advanced Search Box now allows one to scroll through all of the entries instead of only seeing the first few terms.

For more details, see the NLM Technical Bulletin article: PubMed, MeSH and NLM Catalog Search Boxes Modified. Happy searching everyone!

The next UMLS Webcast will be held on July 27, 2011 at 2:00 pm US Eastern Time.  The topic is “MedlinePlus® Connect: Linking Patient Portals and EHRs to Consumer Health Information”. MedlinePlus Connect (http://medlineplus.gov/connect) allows patient portals, electronic health records (EHR), and other health IT systems to link to relevant, authoritative consumer health information from MedlinePlus.gov. MedlinePlus Connect accepts requests based on problem codes, medication codes, and lab test codes. It also supports the HL7 Context-Aware Knowledge Retrieval (Infobutton) standard. Stephanie Dennis, MedlinePlus Connect project manager, will give an overview of MedlinePlus Connect, explain how to implement it, and explain the National Library of Medicine’s behind-the-scenes work to support it.

Webcast Information:
. Date/Time:  July 27, 2011 – 2pm US Eastern Time
. URL:  https://webmeeting.nih.gov/medlineplusconnect_essentials
. Requirements:
Adobe FlashT enabled web browser
Speakers or headphones (audio will be broadcast over the internet)
.  Captioning will be provided for this Webcast

It will also be recorded and included in this link: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/user_education/webcasts.html.

The National Library of Medicine announces the release of “Medicine in the Americas.”   A digital resource encompassing over 300 early American printed books, Medicine in the Americas makes freely available original works demonstrating the evolution of American medicine from colonial frontier outposts of the 17th century to research hospitals of the 20th century.

Drawing on the collections of NLM’s History of Medicine Division and including works from the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada, this initial release of Medicine in the Americas encompasses monographs dating from 1610 to 1865. Additional titles, dating up to 1920 and drawing further upon NLM’s comprehensive collection of early American printed books, will be available on an ongoing basis in the future.

For more information about the collection “Medicine in the Americas” see the full  news announcement at:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/medicine_in_americas.html

http://collections.nlm.nih.gov/muradora/

Have you wondered what happened to the Journals Database and how to create a Table of Contents (TOC) in the updated NLM Catalog? Check out the new article: Creating PubMed TOC Searches OR Where did the Journals Database Go?
available at: http://tinyurl.com/4ka95k8

This is the first in a series of NLM E-Minute articles published in the Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago’s new online newsletter, the E-ppendix: Online Newsletter of the UIC Library of the Health Sciences.

The article covers all the tips and tricks necessary to complete these three steps in developing and saving TOC search:
1) Identify and select the desired journals in the NLM Catalog and send them to PubMed
2) Create a single PubMed search of the journals using PubMed’s Advanced Search “Search History”
3) Save the search either in My NCBI or as an RSS feed

National Training Center and Clearinghouse (NTCC) classes are coming to Chicago April 13-15, 2011. Attend these FREE hands-on classes on PubMed® (April 13), TOXNET® (April 14) and Gateway (April 15) offered through the National Library of Medicine. The University of Illinois at Chicago Library of the Health Sciences will host these sessions taught by the staff of the NTCC. They will be held in Room 303 of the Library of the Health Sciences at 1750 W. Polk St., Chicago, IL. Register here or read on for details. (more…)

The Environmental Health Student Portal : Connecting Middle School Students to Environmental Health Information

The National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Specialized Information Services Division announces the launch of the Environmental Health Student Portal (www.kidsenvirohealth.nlm.nih.gov). This Web site introduces middle school students to environmental health science within the context of current middle school science curriculum standards. This newest edition to the family of NLM resources for students is a FREE non-subscription- based Web site that contains links to government and other reviewed and selected sites and provides a safe and reliable environment for teachers and students to study the following topics and their impact on health:
• water pollution
• climate change
• chemicals
• air pollution (coming soon) (more…)

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is pleased to announce that it will be hosting NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) Discovery Workshops focusing on biomedical and genomic databases this December. This free two-day series of workshops on NCBI tools will be held at UIC on December 15-16, 2010.  Register at: http://tinyurl.com/NCBIWorkshops

Program Overview
The Discovery Workshops consist of four 2.5-hour hands-on sessions emphasizing a different set of NCBI resources. Each session uses specific examples to highlight important features of the resources and tools under study and to demonstrate how to accomplish common tasks.

The four sessions of the Discovery Workshop will focus on the following areas:
1. Sequences, Genomes and Maps
2. Proteins, Domains and Structures
3. NCBI BLAST Services
4. Human Variation and Disease Genes

(more…)

AIDSinfo Launches Mobile Site!

AIDSinfo is a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services project, managed by the National Library of Medicine, that offers the latest federally approved HIV/AIDS medical practice guidelines, HIV treatment and prevention clinical trials, and other research information for health care providers, researchers, people affected by HIV/AIDS, and the general public. Along with housing the latest HIV medical practice guidelines, the Web site provides access to many other resources related to HIV treatment and research. Health information specialists are also available by phone, e-mail, and an online chat to assist the public with accessing this information.

AIDSinfo now offers a mobile site that allows users to access its resources and information on-the-go. The new site optimizes many of the main site’s features for phones and other mobile devices. When viewing AIDSinfo on your mobile device, you will be automatically redirected to the mobile site. JavaScript must be enabled on your device for the mobile site to function properly.  The AIDSinfo mobile site is available at http://m.aidsinfo.nih.gov. (more…)

If you are exhibiting or just sharing information about NLM resources, the GMR offers a variety of options.

• Visit the GMR Handouts page at http://nnlm.gov/gmr/training/handouts.html
  • Download brochures on a variety of topics including
    • PubMed®
    • MedlinePlus® and consumer health materials
    • Exhibition Program K-12 Resources on the Web
  • This one-stop page also links to a number of other Web pages including:
    • Emergency Preparedness and Response
    • SIS Outreach Activities & Resources with brochures for ToxTown and HIV/AIDS (for example)
    • Non-English Guides to PubMed
    • Planning and Evaluation
    • even NLM Traveling Exhibitions with their related brochures and handouts
• Go online to order NLM items for drawings and special events from the NLM Promo Shop
• Members may use the Promotional Materials Order Form to order up to 250 items for a single event

If you have questions, your State Contact will be glad to point you in the correct direction. Thank you for spreading the word about the wonderful and FREE databases and Web-available materials from the NLM!