Highlights of the July - August 2003 Issue of the NLM Technical Bulletin

Consult the NLM Technical Bulletin for more details on the following:

What's new in PubMed and MEDLINE?

There is lots of news!

If you have a wireless PDA, you can now search a new version of MEDLINE designed for small screens. NLM has designed a new application to help healthcare professionals search PubMed, read journal abstracts, and access ClinicalTrials.gov. Search functions are designed for high relevance with tight recall to meet information needs in clinical settings. NLM would like people to test this new system and provide feedback for its continuing development. To go for a test drive, point your handheld's browser to http://certif.nlm.nih.gov:8080/nlm. Use the site's Feedback link to send comments to the developers.
You can now store an email address in your Cubby in PubMed. Log in to your Cubby, and then click on User Preferences in the blue left sidebar. This will be the default e-mail address for the Send to E-mail feature when you are logged into your Cubby.
The Journals Database will have a new feature. When searching the Journals Database, you will be able to use the "Send To" feature to send journal titles to the Search Box. This feature will make it easier to OR together a list of journal titles.
Do you search pharmacology topics in PubMed? NLM is adding a new search tag [PA] to search for substances with a particular pharmacological action. One of the great benefits is that you will now be able to retrieve a particular drug with a particular action. To see what substances are includes in a PA list, use the NLM MeSH Browser; enter the action term and check the Pharmacological Action [PA] box. If you use drug, substance, or pharmacologic action terms in searches, you should review your strategies, for example, in Cubby stored searches and make revisions as necessary. Check the Details screen to see how PubMed translates your searches. For a detailed explanation of this change, read the Tech Bulletin article.
A new PubMed training manual was published in July 2003 and is now available for downloading on the NLM web site at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/web_based.html. New versions of the NLM Gateway and ClinicalTrials.gov manuals are also available.
The MEDLINE^® Unique Identifier (UI) is being discontinued. In September 2003, the positions of the PubMed Identifier (PMID) and the MEDLINE Unique Identifier (UI) will be switched in PubMed's MEDLINE display. When MEDLINE is updated with the 2004 MeSH vocabulary in December 2003, the MEDLINE UI will be eliminated altogether. This change does not affect the two most commonly used PubMed formats, Summary and Abstract. However, if you have any programs or routines that use the old MEDLINE UI, you should be alert to this change.

What's new in NLM consumer databases?

ToxTown, NLM's interactive guide to common toxic substances, has a new City scene that expands on the original Town scene. The City scene includes environmental health concerns in airplanes, construction sites, hospitals, etc. Test drive ToxTown at http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/. ToxTown City requires Macromedia Flash Player 6, which can be downloaded when you visit the site.
The Household Products Database, launched in June by NLM, includes more than 2,000 ingredients contained in 4,000 household products. Test drive HPD at http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/.

NLM support for authors finding keywords

NLM has developed a web page to assist authors in finding keywords to describe articles they are submitting for publication. The new web page is available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/authors.html. NLM encourages authors: 1) to use the MeSH Browser, or 2) to search PubMed for articles on the topic and look at the article's MeSH terms that are displayed in the Citation or MEDLINE formats.

Cosmo, NLM's virtual customer service representative

NLM has adopted a new technology to help users find answers to their questions. Cosmo is the new wise old owl on the NLM customer service site. Type a question in the box and see if Cosmo knows the answer! Cosmo already knows more than 200 frequently asked questions - the recurring, straightforward questions that come in every day - questions about library hours, location, directions, databases, etc. Cosmo also refers users to health information on MEDLINEplus, both on health topics and drug information. NLM reference staff add to Cosmo's knowledge as new questions are received. To see Cosmo in action, go directly to http://wwwns.nlm.nih.gov or the Contact NLM Customer Service site at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/contacts/contact.html. Cosmo uses software produced by NativeMinds of San Francisco.

Historical Anatomies on the Web

Have you ever wanted to find historic images on the web? In NLM's new historical anatomies web site large JPEG files are offered for downloading, allowing users to employ them in any number of projects, including close examination and comparisons, publications, presentations, and artwork. All of the scanned works are in the public domain. NLM asks that published images include the credit line "Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine." Visit the site at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/home.html.

DOCLINE 1.6

DOCLINE 1.6 was released in July 2003. This was not a major release, but it includes some very useful functions:

DOCLINE 1.6 now notifies library staff when a requested article is available full-text in PubMed Central. Please look for this notification. If you send a request to NLM for a free PMC article, NLM will fill the request and charge the usual fee.
It is now easier to identify free full-text material in LOCATORplus. NLM will now include "free in PubMed Central in the call number. You can do a call number search in LOCATORplus to retrieve the following:
- PubMed Central - use the phrase 'electronic link: free in pubmed central'
- Free titles not in PubMed Central - use the phrase 'electronic link: free at producer site'
- Free titles that require registration - use the phrase 'electronic link: free at producer site (registration required)'
More than 1.5 million citations from OLDMEDLINE can now be ordered within DOCLINE. Use the Unique Key option in Borrow and enter the Unique Identifier (UI). You can find the UI in the NLM Gateway.
The SERHOLD to OCLC batch update is now operational. See the related article in this issue of Latitudes.

MLA Meeting Resources

A lot of important news is given out at the MLA annual meeting at the NLM Online Users meeting, sometimes too much to absorb. The good news is that you can find the following in this issue of the NLM Technical Bulletin:

Sheldon Kotzin's remarks at the NLM Online Users Meeting
The questions and answers session from the NLM Online Users Meeting
Joyce Backus' PowerPoint presentation on MEDLINEplus
Maria Collins' PowerPoint presentation on DOCLINE

Words and Numbers

Now for updates on UMLS, MeSH, and the NLM Classification:

SNOMED will be added to the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) thesaurus. SNOMED is produced by the College of American Pathologists (CAP). With more than 344,000 terms, it is the most comprehensive clinical terminology system in existence. It is used throughout the United States and is currently being implemented throughout the UK National Health Service. The agreement between CAP and NLM lays the terminology foundation for a health care information infrastructure that will help to improve the quality of care and ensure patient safety for years to come.
Three classic MeSH tools, the Annotated Alphabetic MeSH, the MeSH Tree Structures, and the Permuted MeSH, will no longer be printed in paper format. The "Black and White" MeSH will be augmented to include the detailed information on indexing and cataloging practices that traditionally was included in these publications. The "Black and White MeSH" will continue to be included with the print Index Medicus and will be available for separate order as well.
The NLM Classification was issued in a newly revised edition on the web in July 2003.

[Editor's note: Wherever possible in this article, we have used text directly from the NLM Technical Bulletin for clarity and correctness.]

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