Pubmed Particulars

Communicate with NLM

Do you wish PubMed had a feature it doesn't currently have? Are you unhappy with the way something works in PubMed? That's the time to use the "Write to the Help Desk" link at the bottom of any PubMed page. Use the custserv@nlm.nih.gov email address and let them know what you're thinking. Lots of people seem to think that we in the NER have some sort of specialized access to the powers that be at NLM and, while we do sometimes get asked for our opinions, please don't underestimate the power of sending your own voice directly to NLM. They want to hear from you and users like you. So, go ahead and tell 'em what you think. The change you want may not be implemented immediately, but it may never happen if you don't tell NLM what you want.

Share My NCBI account settings

It is now possible for libraries to set up shared filters in a My NCBI account.

Have you set up Link Out for Libraries, linking your electronic and print holdings to PubMed?

Have you done a lot of work educating your users to access PubMed via a special URL so that they can take greater advantage of your library's holdings?

Then you should think about setting up a shared My NCBI account. It's easy to do.

• Register for a new account (saving the user name and password in an accessible but available place).
• Go into Filters.
• Check the box adjacent to "Institutions - share filter selections."
• Set the Link Out for Libraries filter to show your library's holdings. Choose any other filters you think the majority of your users would like.
• Now, modify the URL used for accessing PubMed. Currently, that URL looks something like this:

Add this to the end of that URL:

&myncbishare=

Just for an example:

Suppose the Lamar Soutter Library at U Mass Med decides to set up a shared My NCBI account that will automatically display a filter tab showing their Link Out for Libraries holdings. For the sake of this example, suppose they choose NERLibrary as the user name on that shared account. The appropriate URL would look like this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=umasslib&myncbishare=NERLibrary

Anyone using PubMed via this link would not only see the icon for the Lamar Soutter Library's holdings, but they will automatically see the filter tab for umasslib in any results set. And, of course, they'll see any other filters active in that shared account.

Users didn't have to be taught how to set up a My NCBI account in order to have this benefit. All they had to do is what you've already taught them to do - access PubMed via a special link on your web page.

Know what's even better? If a user does access PubMed via this special URL and then they decide they want to set up their own My NCBI account, the filters active in the shared account will automatically be copied into their new, personal My NCBI account.

While I think that libraries who have set up Link Out for Libraries will find this feature to be extremely useful, any library may do this. Think about what filters the majority of your users may find helpful. Set the filters up for them. Make their life easier. Yours, too.

Read about this feature in the NLM Technical Bulletin at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ja05/ja05_share_my_ncbi.html

Changes to Automatic Term Mapping: Avoiding conflicts between journal titles and MeSH terms

Some changes have been implemented to PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping. As you no doubt recall, Automatic Term Mapping means that searchers can enter a term into the search box and, behind the scenes, PubMed will try to match that term to:

1. MeSH term
2. Journal Title
3. Author Name

So, if a user types EAR INFECTION into the search box, PubMed will match that term to OTITIS (the MeSH term match) and use that to search the database.

Automatic Term Mapping provides even novice searchers with good results.

However, sometimes, Automatic Term Mapping causes results that searchers are not expecting. Six weeks ago, had you typed GENETIC TESTING into the search box, the results would have been all the citations in the database from the journal, Genetic Testing. Why? Because the term GENETIC TESTING does not map to a MeSH term. It does, however, map to the journal title. (In case you're interested, the MeSH term is GENETIC SCREENING.)

Now, however, work has been done to resolve some of these conflicts between journal titles and MeSH terms. Now, Automatic Term Mapping will check an exception table prior to processing the search. This means that terms such as heart failure, pediatric surgery, treatment review, and, yes, genetic testing will no longer automatically map to journal titles.

Read more about this in the NLM Technical Bulletin at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/so05/so05_pm_exceptions.html

OMIA: Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals database

The Entrez suite of databases has recently been enriched. The newest addition is OMIA - which does for animals what OMIM does for humans. Check it out. You can find it easily via the Entrez Cross-Database Search Page or go directly to this URL:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=omia

Donna Berryman, Outreach Coordinator