In addition to the many librarians on the National Library of Medicine staff, NLM relies heavily on the work of medical librarians associated with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, made up of more than 5,800 member organizations. In recognition of National Medical Librarians Month, October 2006, NLM’s web site is currently featuring links to some great representative projects recently carried out by network members around the country. (more…)

ToxMystery (http://toxmystery.nlm.nih.gov) is the National Library of Medicine’s new, interactive learning site for 7-10 year old kids. It provides a fun, game-like experience while introducing potential environmental health hazards sometimes found in the home.

“Toxie” the cat helps find the hazards hidden in each room, and offers hints when needed. The objective is to find all the hazards. Ever seen a cat …dance? Players will be treated to fun animations when they complete each area. When all the hazards in the house have been discovered, Toxie delivers an animated celebration, and players can print a personalized certificate.

ToxMystery’s Parent Resources page provides more detailed information about everyday environmental hazards that can be harmful to one’s health. A For Teachers page contains more than ten downloadable activity pages that can be used in elementary school classrooms.

ToxMystery has been enthusiastically tested by real kids, who enjoyed “answering the questions and playing the game,” hearing Toxie talk “about all the hazards,” watching items in the rooms “hover around and made sounds,” and seeing “Toxie do funny things when you finish a room.”

The NLM has provided an important set of environmental health databases for toxicologists and other scientists for many years. ToxMystery joins a number of other new NLM resources geared towards the general public (http://tox.nlm.nih.gov).

Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest library of the health sciences, is a component of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.

Yes, you have free access to the full text of more than 50 publications, using the familiar interface common to PubMed and other Entrez resources! When the Bookshelf first became available from NCBI, the textbooks in its collection were almost exclusively from the fields of molecular and cell biology. However, this is no longer the case. (more…)

Alliance for Taxpayer Access, Washington, DC – May 31, 2006 – In an online survey of public attitudes conducted recently and released today by Harris Interactive®, 8 out of 10 (82%) adults polled said they believe that “if tax dollars pay for scientific research, people should have free access to the results of the research on the Internet.” (more…)

(Washington, D.C – May 8, 2006) — Stating that consumers can now have access to “information that comes directly from the world’s leading medical and health research organization,” the Honorable Paul Rogers, former member of Congress and Chairman of The Friends of the National Library of Medicine, today announced the launch of NIH MedlinePlus Magazine. This quarterly publication will be distributed free of charge to patients and their families in the waiting rooms of selected practicing physicians across the nation. (more…)

From iHealthbeat, 4/25/06:

The Community Hospital of Anaconda in Montana will provide state residents with free Web-based personal health records (PHRs) in what it calls the country’s first rural online health record-keeping initiative, the Montana Standard reports (Haffey, Montana Standard, 4/21). (more…)