MEDLINE is 30 Years Old!

For those of us who remember the birth of MEDLINE, it is a bit daunting to think that it is now older than some of our colleagues! Here are some interesting facts about MEDLINE and its predecessors:

Index Medicus was the first computer-generated index printed for a large audience. And, with an electronic version of a book in hand, the concept of a searchable database was not far away.
An early MEDLARS search would take three to four weeks to complete; that included the generation of the ancient input device — punched cards, sending the cards to NLM, and waiting for the search results to return.
MEDLINE's first incarnation, AIM-TWX, was the first generally-available database which was mounted on a central computer and accessible by individuals throughout the country.
In 1971 NLM believed that physicians would search the database themselves, but it wasn't until the personal computer replaced the dumb terminal that this would happen on a wide scale.

More about early MEDLINE searching is available in Michel C. Atlas's article "The rise and fall of the medical mediated searcher" from the January 2000 issue of the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association; this is now available full-text from Pubmed Central.

What a delight it now is to have MEDLINE accessible anytime, anyplace, by anyone — and at no charge — and increasingly with full-text links! JKK

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November/December 2001 volume 10, issue 6

MEDLINE is 30 Years Old!

November/December 2001
volume 10, issue 6