In This Issue:
New
NLM Web Site
MEDLINE
Logs Ten Millionth Citation
Betsy
Humphreys Heads Library Operations
ELHILL
and TOXNET Change
Regents
Chart New Course
Honoring
Elsie Werth
Native
American Youth Visit
Dr.
Spann Retires
Public
Health Center Named for Dr. Mel Spann
NLM
Rolls Out New Booth
Dr.
Harold Schoolman Retires
Dead
Sea Scrolls
Emerging
Health Information Infrastructure
Worthy
of Note: BLAST
Partners
In Information Access Awards
Bosma
and McCutcheon Appointed Section Heads
NLM
Director Visits University of Colorado
Training
NLM Associate Fellows
"Breath
of Life" Exhibit
Dr.
Allen Dies
In Every Issue:
Names
in the News
Products
and Publications
NLM
in Print
|
ELHILL and TOXNET Command Language Systems Bow Out After
Decades of Service
PubMed, IGM and TOXNET on the Web are the Exciting new Search
Tools
With the incredible success of PubMed and Internet Grateful Med
(IGM), NLM's web- based products to access MEDLINE, the time has
come to announce the cessation of command language access. All
direct public access to the ELHILL mainframe command language
computer system and the TOXNET command/menu system ceased on
September 30, 1999. All DOS, Windows and Macintosh versions of
Grateful Med, the software disk-based system for searching MEDLINE
and other NLM databases, ceased functioning as of September 30,
1999, because they access ELHILL. Most searchers of NLM information
resources have already made the switch to NLM web- based
services.
Web-based Access
ELHILL, NLM's legacy computer retrieval system, has provided
command language access for a fee for almost 30 years. (The ELHILL
retrieval system is named for U.S. Senator Lister Hill, who along
with then-Senator John F. Kennedy sponsored the bill that created
the National Library of Medicine from the Armed Forces Medical
Library in 1956.) Now that the system will be closed to the public
permanently, all users will need to access one of NLM's web-based
search engines, PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed)
or Internet Grateful Med (http://igm.nlm.nih.gov) for their database
searching. Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) data may be found on the
MeSH browser at /mesh/99MBrowser.html.
Data previously available in AVLINE, CATLINE, and SERLINE are now
available on NLM's new Integrated Library System, NLM LOCATORplus,
at http://locatorplus.gov/.
TOXNET databases are now available on the web at http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/sis1/
Automatic SDIs and Offline Prints Discontinued
Once ELHILL access is discontinued, billed User ID codes will no
longer function and users will no longer be able to request offline
prints or Automatic SDIs (Selective Dissemination of Information
current awareness searches) from NLM. However, users can now
generate their own SDIs free of charge by using the SDILINE database
in Internet Grateful Med. IGM has developed a stored search
capability that can be used to generate SDIs. NLM also expects to
have a stored search feature available as part of PubMed's cubby
service that will allow searchers to permanently store search
strategies.
Training in the Use of PubMed, IGM, TOXNET on the Web, and
LOCATORplus NLM appreciates the loyalty many of its database
searchers feel to ELHILL. However, the time has come to let go of
this groundbreaking and incredibly durable search system and embrace
the web-based search engines that will take us into the future.
Information on classes for using PubMed, IGM and TOXNET on the web
is available at http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/mar/online/schedule.html
and self-instructional training manuals may be downloaded from /pubs/web_based.html.
A tutorial on using the new LOCATORplus online catalogue is
available at http://locatorplus.gov/tutorials/quickstart/sld001.htm.
Thanks to Toby Port of the MEDLARS Management Section for
contributing this article, and to Carolyn Tilley, head of MMS, for
invaluable assistance. |