Since last spring's report (Latitudes, March/April 1995, p.9) about the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Home Page (http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/), continuous review and improvements have mad e this valuable resource even more useful. The goal of the staff in all eight RMLs who contribute to the Home Page is to provide you with a starting point for the Internet. With either the national or regional home page as the first item in your WWW bro wser's bookmark list, a vast amount of information is readily accessible. On a regional level, for example, the Directory of Health Science Libraries: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Basin is electronically searchab le via the Web. Online training schedules, PSRML class information, and an electronic version of our newsletter, Latitudes, are also available. Information is provided about the Resource Libraries in our region complete with li nks to their home pages when available.
From the national home page, links to an even wider range of valuable resources used by health sciences librarians and health professionals are provided. Most recently another feature, "NN/LM Web Search," was added as a searchable index of document s included on the server. The links in the "Resources Elsewhere" section are frequently revised to bring you the latest Internet resources. This section is divided into four areas:
Where will these links take you? The pointers include general access to resources through programs like "Yahoo," a guide to the World Wide Web, and to specific resources like "Martindale's Health Science Guide," a health science multimedia educatio n and specialized information resource center for physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, veterinarians, public health officials, nutritionists, and anyone interested in the health sciences. Other linked sites include the National Library of Medicine' s "HyperDOC," and commercial providers of products and services (e.g. CARL, OCLC, Silverplatter). The popular Adam Engst books (including Internet Starter Kit) are now available in online editions and were recently added as links. All of the sour ces mentioned are only a few of the more than one hundred links from "Resources Elsewhere."
If you need assistance getting to the home page, call us at PSRML (800-338-7657 or 310-825-1200). There are several World Wide Web browsers including Netscape and Mosaic available and appearance of documents can vary from browser to browser. One b rowser, Lynx, is limited to displaying text only.
A sample copy of a new newsletter, Medicine on the Net recently arrived at the PSRML office. While this is not a review or endorsement of the publication, its appearance served as a reminder of the ever-consuming task of l ooking at new Internet sites and keeping track of what's available. The goal of the publisher, COR Healthcare Resources, is "to scour the net to bring you the information you need to understand and make the best use of this valuable resource." One of our network members - Lucy Thomas, director of the Reeves Medical Library at Cottage Hospital, Santa Barbara, CA - is listed as a member of the editorial board. (For subscription information contact: COR Healthcare Resources, PO Box 40959, Santa Barbara, CA 93140-9898. Charter annual subscription rate: $47)
The "New on the Net" column, a feature of this newsletter, listed several resources you might wish to explore:
| The Heart Surgery Forum | http://www.hsforum.com/ |
| Telemedicine and the Law | http://www.arentfox.com/ |
| M.D. Anderson Cancer Center | http://utmdacc.mda.uth.tmc.edu/ |
| The Family Practice Handbook | http://indy.radiology.uiowa.edu/ |
| Health Tracking/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation | gopher.rwjf.org |
| Quality in Healthcare Issues (QP-HEALTH) | "subscribe qp-health" to majordomo@quality.org |