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Pubmed Particulars

Cutting Edge PubMed:
            What's New and What's Up Ahead

Some of you may already have checked out the NLM Technical Bulletin and know what's on the horizon for PubMed. If so, congratulations! You're on the cutting edge! If not, read on and be prepared to be pleased!

Entrez is the search and retrieval system that powers PubMed. Some changes have recently been made to the Entrez programming and this NLM Technical Bulletin article details those changes and the implications for searching. Some of the changes are:

• A colon between numbers will be interpreted as a ranging operator (e.g., 2002:2004 [dp]); otherwise the colon will be ignored.
• Hyphens indicate a phrase search. This means healthy-full-term = "healthy full term".
• If there is a syntax error indicated for a search, the Details screen will now indicate what that error is with red highlighting. For example, if the parentheses are unbalanced, look for a red parenthesis and use this as your cue to check that section of your search.

Please read the article for a more detailed discussion of these changes and examples.

First of all, if you haven't used your Cubby account in ages, you may find that it doesn't exist! In preparation for some exciting changes coming to the Cubby, NCBI will delete inactive Cubby accounts. What can we expect from the Cubby in the near future? Look for Cubby to be able to automatically execute specified searches on a pre-determined timetable and email you the results! More information will be forthcoming.

PubMed users have been asking for a way to delete individual searches from History and that capability will be coming soon. Also, there will be new Links menus to allow searchers, in History, to add a concept to their search using set numbers more easily. See the article for more detailed information. (And, no, you still will not be able to use set numbers in a Cubby stored search.)

NLM has made new animated tutorials available for two aspects of using PubMed:
(1) Cubby
(2) MeSH database

These tutorials use Viewlet technology (trademark of Qarbon.com Inc.), are SWF files, and play via a browser using a Flash 5 (or later) plugin. There is audio along with the animation. Each file covers one specific aspect of using Cubby or the MeSH database and takes only minutes to watch -- literally. Take a look at them. They are quite interesting. As of this writing, these Viewlet tutorials are not available via a link from the PubMed home page, but are available at the NLM URL listed above.

The URL for PubMed on a PDA has been changed: it's new, it's shorter, and it's easier to remember -- provided you remember that a PDA is a Hand Held (hh) device. The link above will take you to the NLM Technical Bulletin article on the subject. The new URL for PubMed on a hand held (hh) device is: http://pubmedhh.nlm.nih.gov. Just a reminder: at this time, PubMed for hand held (hh) devices works best on a hand held (hh) device that has wireless capability.

Donna Berryman, Outreach Coordinator