MEDLINEplus News

News Feature Added

On January 24, MEDLINEplus, the National Library of Medicine's consumer health Web site, added a current news section featuring stories on health-related issues. News items from sources such as the Associated Press, New York Times Syndicate and United Press International are included.

News items will be selected daily and indexed to the over 430 in-depth health topic pages. For example, someone interested in diabetes will find a section called Latest News at the top of the Diabetes page. In addition to highlighting important news items on the MEDLINEplus home page, a complete list of news items from the last 30 days is also available - a feature that may prove especially useful to librarians.

The news feature enhances MEDLINEplus's one-stop shopping for all kinds of information: news, overviews of diagnosis and treatment, and links to ongoing clinical research studies and recent journal articles.

How Do You Spell That?

MEDLINEplus now features a spell checker in its search engine. The checker suggests alternative words if it does not find the term you typed. For example, if you type the word "hepatitus" into the search box on the main screen, the spell checker offers to replace it with "hepatitis". From the Advanced Search page, you may choose to search with spell checking or without spell checking. It is hoped this new feature will help users of MEDLINEplus who are unfamiliar with medical terminology. NLM welcomes your comments.

Topic Total

MEDLINEplus now has a total of 431 health topics (as of 12/29/00). It debuted on October 22, 1998 with 22 health topics.

Library Links

A new NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region consumer health library link has been added to the MEDLINEplus "Libraries" page. It is:

The Consumer Health Information Program and Services (CHIPS)
(County of Los Angeles Public Library/Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Library)
Carson, CA
http://www.colapublib.org/services/chips.html

Twelve Pacific Southwest Region consumer health libraries are now linked from the "Libraries" page, accessible through the "Other Resources" link on the MEDLINEplus home page. Consumer health libraries must have a Web site in order to be listed on this page; 44 consumer health libraries are currently listed. Please contact Heidi Sandstrom (heidits@library.ucla.edu) if you would like your library included.

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