In This Issue:
"ClinicalTrials.gov"
Launched
49
High-Tech Projects
 New
Version of PubMed
Marcetich
Named Head of Index Section
New
Policy on Clinical Alerts
NLM
Long Range Plan in Place
New
Regents Named
"Racism,
Sexism and Poverty are Hazardous to Our Health"
Lakota
Officials and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Leaders Visit Library
MEDLINEplus
Adds Medical Encyclopedia
"PubMed
Central" Debuts
NLM
"Adopts" D.C.'s Woodrow Wilson Senior High School
Hospital
and Health Administration Index
Images
from the History of Medicine Rescanned
NLM's
"Breath of Life" Exhibit Extended Through March 2001
In Every Issue:
Names
in the News
Products
and Publications
NLM
In Print
|
New Version of PubMed Unveiled
Searching MEDLINE Was Never Easier or More Tailored to the
Individual User's Needs
Since its creation in 1997, the National Library of Medicine's
"PubMed" database has provided free access to the Library's popular
MEDLINE database. With over 11 million bibliographic citations and
abstracts in the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary
medicine, health care systems, and preclinical sciences, MEDLINE is
the world's largest medical database, and PubMed permits easy
searching of its vast contents by subject, author, journal, title
and other criteria.
PubMed also contains links to the full- text versions of articles
at participating publishers' web sites.
And, through PubMed, the Library's "Entrez" search and retrieval
system provides access and links to the integrated molecular biology
databases maintained by NLM's National Center for Biotechnology
Information (NCBI).
Now, still a few months shy of its third birthday, PubMed has
undergone a major transformation. What follows is a description of
some of the highlights of the new PubMed.
Improved Access to All Search Features
The screens in the new version of PubMed provide easy access to
the tools that facilitate searching of MEDLINE, along with other
NCBI resources. All options are displayed and available from every
screen. The MeSH Browser, Citation Matcher, Journal Browser and
other "sidebar" features appear on every screen.
New PubMed Home Page
It's more attractive and it's been redesigned to be easier to
navigate, with less need to keep clicking back to a particular
screen to select a particular feature. Also, the new PubMed home
page (see illustration) more clearly offers access to the other
Entrez databases of NLM's National Center for Biotechnology
Information. These databases are shown in a toolbar across the top
as well as in the database selection box.
New Features Bar
The new features bar, located directly under the "Search" box,
gives users new choices. These are:
- Limits Feature, which gives you the option of searching by
specific fields, and provides pull-down menus that let you focus
your search according to Publication Type, Language, Ages, Human
or Animal Studies, Gender of Research Subjects, and Publication
Date, among others.
- Index Feature, which allows you to view an alphabetical list
of terms within a search field (e.g. Author Names, MeSH Terms) and
to select terms to build a search strategy using the Boolean
operators "AND," "OR," and "NOT."
- History Feature, which displays all the searches you've
conducted at a particular session of PubMed searching. The History
feature will remind you of that Limits you selected and show how
many items each search netted.
- Clipboard Feature, which allows you to collect and view
selected citations from one search or several searches that you
may want to print, save to a file, or order from the Library's
interlibrary loan network.
New Help Features
A new context-specific "Help" feature retrieves information that
is related to the screen you are currently working from. For
example, if you click on "Help" (in the sidebar) when you are on a
Clipboard screen, you will see information related to the Clipboard.
The "Help" feature has been completely rewritten for the new PubMed
and provides detailed documentation on all features of this version.
There are also "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) available from
the sidebar. The information provided in the FAQs will answer many
of your basic questions and help physicians and others make the
transition to the new version of PubMed.
Links to MEDLINEplus
In an effort to connect NLM's many resources, PubMed now provides
links from citations to the consumer health pages in MEDLINEplus.
The links appear on the LinkOut page.
Have questions? Want to contact the NLM about the new
PubMed?
NLM encourages MEDLINE searchers to try the new PubMed. Your
comments, as well as your questions, can be directed to pubmednew@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov,
or you can click on "Write to the Help Desk," a link shown at the
bottom of each PubMed screen.
And how can you access the new version of PubMed?
You can access the new version of PubMed via the NLM home page
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/),
clicking on the MEDLINE link in the top right corner and selecting
"PubMed" from the resulting screen. |
