NLM News 1996 May-August; Vol. 51, No. 5-8

The NLM News is published 6 times a year by the National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services). Beginning with Vol. 49, No. 1, the NLM News is available via the Internet. Go to the NLM Home Page (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nlmhome.html) and select NLM Publications.

In addition to electronic access, the printed NLM News is mailed without charge to institutions and individuals interested in health sciences communications. For further information, contact NLM's Office of Public Information (8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894); e- mail address: mailto:publicinfo@.nlm.nih.gov

NLM Director, Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D.
Chief, Office of Public Information, Robert B. Mehnert
Editor, Roger L. Gilkeson; e-mail address: Gilkeson@nih.gov

Note to Readers

Because of printing problems beyond our control, we've had to combine issues No. 3 and 4. Our apologies for the delay.

Contents:

• NLM Completes Survey of Online Customers
• "Extraordinary Objects--Extraordinary Stories" [New NLM Lobby Exhibit]
• International MEDLARS Policy Group Meets to Learn and Plan
• Dr. DeBakey Receives Numerous Honors
• Dr. Nelson Named Head of MeSH Section
• NLM Offers NIH Clinical Elective in Medical Informatics
• Photo: Cassedy Symposium: Public Health, Demography, and American Medicine
• Photo: 1996 Michael DeBakey Library Services Outreach Award
• Awards & Honors
• Increased Charges for Filled ILLs at NLM Announced
• Frances Humphrey Howard Addresses Humphrey Fellows
• NLM in Print
• Publications
• Monograph & Serial Gaps

NLM Completes Survey of Online Customers

NLM recently completed a survey of online database users as part of its ongoing systems reinvention efforts. The survey was intended: to guide NLM's transition to Internet-based service delivery and specifically Internet Grateful Med; to identify user groups that may require support of older versions of Grateful Med for a period of time; and to help plan special outreach initiatives that may be needed to assure a more rapid and equitable transition from the old to the new forms of service delivery.

The survey was mailed to a sample of 2,500 online users randomly selected from domestic billed users who searched NLM databases during the second quarter of 1995. The sampled population excluded users who could not be individually identified, such as users of fixed-fee programs and of NLM's reading room. The final response rate was 83 percent of eligible respondents.

Most NLM customers already have access to the Internet, according to the survey results. Three quarters have access to the Internet, although only about one-quarter of these currently use Internet to access NLM databases. And about 85 percent of NLM users have computer platforms that can support Internet applications. The results provide a strong basis for the transition to Internet-based delivery of NLM online database services, including Internet Grateful Med and the NLM family of World Wide Web sites.

However, Internet access is uneven, especially in rural areas and at hospitals. About 36 percent of rural users and almost half of users at hospitals do not have Internet access. Likewise, about half of users at rural libraries do not have Internet access. These results reinforce the need for continuing special outreach efforts directed at improving access for rural and hospital-based users and rural libraries.

Survey Highlights

• Of the 75 percent of online users with Internet access, about three-quarters use Internet to access the World Wide Web. But only one-quarter use Internet to access NLM databases, suggesting a significant untapped potential for providing NLM databases via the Internet.

• Of the 25 percent of users without Internet access, almost three-fifths intend to upgrade to Internet within 12 months, which would reduce the total without Internet to about 11 percent of users.

• Most NLM online users already have computer platforms that can support Internet applications. Of the 80 percent of customers who use IBM-compatible computers, three-quarters have a 486 or Pentium machine. For the 20 percent who use Macintosh computers, about 90 percent are using system 7 software.

• A small but significant number of customers, however, may still have serious equipment limitations. Even with planned customer upgrades, about 15 percent of users are projected to still have 1.2 or 2.4 Kilobits per second modems, unacceptably slow for today's Internet applications. And 12 percent of IBM-compatible users are projected to still have a 286 or 386 machine, again too limited for today's Internet.

• The survey results indicate a high level of Windows use. About 90 percent of the IBM-compatible customers use Windows, projected to increase to 94 percent within 12 months if planned upgrades are implemented.

• Internet access is positively correlated with higher-end computer platforms. The faster the processor and modem and the larger the memory, the greater the likelihood that users have Internet access.

• Over four-fifths of NLM customers are health professionals, librarians, and scientists: practicing health professionals account for 46 percent of users; librarians 20 percent; and scientists 19 percent. Educators totaled about 4 percent of users, and patients, consumers, students, and others about 11 percent collectively.

• Librarians are the most intensive users of NLM databases, with about 60 percent searching ten or more times a month.

• Overall, NLM customers indicated a high level of satisfaction with NLM online services. Sixty percent were very satisfied, and 34 percent moderately satisfied. Only 3 percent were moderately dissatisfied, and one percent very dissatisfied.

The complete survey results will be available later this year in a report titled National Library of Medicine Survey of Online Customers: Usage Patterns and Internet Readiness. Requests for printed copies may be directed to NLM's Office of Public Information (Attn: Survey Report), 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894. The report will cover: the level of user access to telecommunications and especially the Internet; the computer hardware and software platforms available to NLM users; the database searching behaviors of NLM users; and levels of user satisfaction with NLM services. With regard to computer equipment and Internet access, users were asked to indicate both current capabilities and upgrades they planned to make within 12 months.

"Extraordinary Objects--Extraordinary Stories"

A new exhibit, celebrating the rich and diverse historical collections acquired and preserved by the NLM, has opened in the Library's main lobby, where it will remain on display through October. "Extraordinary Objects-Extraordinary Stories: Celebrating the NLM Collections" includes a sampling of the Library's most valued acquisitions--treasures from the last five hundred years of Western medical history. These primary sources represent both the extraordinary moments of discovery, as well as the common and everyday practices of healing and health care.

The exhibit is organized into nine subject areas: anatomy, children's health, genetics, hospitals, midwifery, military medicine, pharmacy, public health, and surgery. Among the many items on display are

• a letter from George Washington to the Honorable Joseph Jones, Esq., written at Army headquarters in Bergen County New Jersey, September 9, 1780

• ephemera such as a beautifully produced 18th century broadside which pleads for financial support for a new Hamburg Plague Hospital

• the manuscript of an 18th century doctor from Padua documenting the medicinal plants of the region with beautiful hand-colored drawings

• Florence Nightingale's important work on hospital administration, based on her observations and experiences during the Crimean War

• Marshall Nirenberg's notes on the genetic code, ca. 1964- 1966

Visitors to the lobby exhibit may also want to explore the nearby History of Medicine Division, whose pre-eminent collections include manuscripts from the 11th century to the present, printed materals beginning in the 15th century, oral history transcripts and tapes, photographs, posters, prints, and other historical materials. For further information, contact the Chief of the Division, Dr. Elizabeth Fee, 301/496-5405.

[Photo] Title page from Jan Cerny's Knieha Lekarska Kteraz Slowe Herbarz (Nurnberg, 1517)

International MEDLARS Policy Group Meets to Learn and Plan

The International MEDLARS Center Policy Advisory Group (IMPAG) met at NLM on March 25-26, 1996. Generally held every two years, these meetings afford policy and technical representatives of NLM's foreign MEDLARS Centers the opportunity to share latest developments in the U.S. and abroad with NLM staff.

In attendance were 28 representatives from 17 countries. A major highlight was the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding formally establishing NLM's 20th International Center at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (News, March-April 1996). Dr. Joseph Lee, representing Hong Kong, and NLM director Dr. Donald A. B. Lindberg signed the agreement at a ceremony at the NIH Stone House during a reception and dinner sponsored by the Friends of the NLM and hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Lindberg.

The meeting proceeded on two tracks: a series of informational technical presentations such as NLM System Reinvention, NCBI, Internet Grateful Med, and the Visible Human, and issue panels to discuss areas of mutual interest and possible collaboration such as regional bibliographies and document delivery.

Foremost among the discussions of major policy issues were the presentation and discussion led by Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson, chair of the newly established NLM Long Range Planning Panel on International Programs. Dr. Frederickson emphasized the importance the U. S. health community places upon NLM to identify relevant information from the world's biomedical literature, and the benefit the world health community derives from NLM's shared resources to meet its own needs. This session provided an excellent opportunity for IMPAG members to advise on the long range planning process for International Programs.

Another significant event was a panel session on outreach to health professionals, led by NLM's associate director on health iInformation programs development, Dr. Elliot Siegel and three participants from the Middle East: Dr. Meir Handelsman of Israel, Mr. Ahmad Bassit of Egypt, and special guest Dr. Riyad Amin, Birzeit University (located in the West Bank town of Ramallah, under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority), who proposed during the meeting to actively pursue collaborative information access projects in the Middle East.

Other concrete actions to emerge from the meeting were:

• An agreement to link NLM's World Wide Web site to each of the MEDLARS Centers that maintains a home page on the Web (see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/intlmedlars.html); and

• Plans to further study Internet performance and availability at each of the Centers. The intent here is to identify the existence and sources of local, regional, and/or transcontinental bottlenecks that can impede Internet traffic to and from NLM. This information is especially important to NLM as it develops with the Centers concrete plans to offer widescale access to Internet Grateful Med by users in foreign locations.

Dr. Lindberg closed the meeting with congratulations and thanks to all IMPAG members for what he said was the best meeting ever. The meeting was organized by Dr. Siegel, Ms. Susan Buyer, and Ms. Dorene Reddin of NLM's Office of Health Information Programs Development, and its Office of International Programs.

[Photo] The National Library of Medicine's International Programs held its biennial meeting of the International MEDLARS Policy Advisory Group (IMPAG) on March 26-27, 1996. Seventeen countries were represented. Back row (l. to r.): Hidenori Murakami, Japan; Dr. Donald Fredrickson, NLM; Dr. Yung Earm, Korea; David Russon, United Kingdom; Dr. H. Fleish, Switzerland; Dr. Donald Lindberg, NLM; Dr. Annie Advocat, France; Kerry Webb, Australia; Louis Rechaussat, France; Susan Buyer, NLM; Dr. Tor Ahlenius, Sweden; Tiejun Hu, China. Middle Row: Lois Ann Colaianni, NLM; Seung-Kwan Min, Korea; Dr. Ahmad Bassit, Egypt; Bruce Madge, United Kingdom; Dr. Koos Louw, South Africa; Dr. Elliot Siegel, NLM; Meir Handelsman, Israel; Dr. Goran Falkenburg, Sweden; Dorene Reddin, NLM; Dr. Joseph Lee, Hong Kong, Leo Grigaitis, Canada; Kent Smith, NLM; Margot Montgomery, Canada. Front Row: Pamela Lee, Hong Kong, Dr. Fay Sheu, Taiwan, Toshihiko Watanabe, Japan; Celia Zaher, PAHO/BIREME; Dr. Gladys Faba, Mexico; Dr. Rukuan Wang, China; Hans Kurzwelly, Germany; Dr. Fred Wood, NLM; Dr. Harald Schweim, Germany; Dr. Albert Escher, Switzerland; Dr. Larry Kingsland, NLM.

[Photo] At Stone House, guests enjoyed a reception and dinner sponsored by The Friends of the National Library of Medicine and hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Donald A.B. Lindberg. (L. to r.): Margot Montgomery, Canada; Dr. Annie Advocat, France: Leo Grigaitis, Canada; Eve-Marie Lacroix, NLM; Sheldon Kotzin, NLM; Celia Zaher, PAHO/BIREME.

[Photo] (L. to r.): Dr. Joseph Lee, Hong Kong, Dr. Donald Lindberg, NLM, Dr. Fay Sheu, Taiwan, Dr. Rukuan Wang, China, Dr. Constance Pittman, NLM LSTRC.

[Photo] Dr. Donald Fredrickson (l.), NLM Scholar in Residence, and Dr. Joseph Lee, Hong Kong, share a light moment.

[Photo] A handshake and promise of future collaboration in the Middle East. (L. to r.): Dr. Riyad Amin, Birzeit UniversityWest Bank under Palestine Authority; Dr. Ahmad Bassit, Egypt; Dr. Meir Handelsman, Israel; Dr. Elliot Siegel, NLM.

Dr. Debakey Receives Numerous Honors

Michael J. DeBakey, M.D., a current member of NLM's Board of Regents and a major figure in the Library's history for over five decades, has received a number of honorary degrees and other awards in May.

The internationally famous surgeon has received an honorary doctorate from the Uniformed University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in Medicine from Baylor University in Houston, Texas, as well as the award of "Profesor Honorario" from the University of Buenos Aires. In addition, Dr. DeBakey has received an award citing him as "a distinguished scientist of the twentieth century" from the president of the Republic of Argentina and its secretary of Science and Technology. The Republic of Argentina also conferred on Dr. Debakey a certificate honoring him for his work in international cooperation in science and technology.

Dr. DeBakey played an important part in the development and passage of the legislation that created the National Library of Medicine in 1956, and earlier he had been actively involved in the affairs of the Army Medical Library. He was a member of the Library's Board of Regents from 1956-1960, serving as its Chairman from 1959-1960.

Dr. DeBakey was chairman of the President's Commission whose 1964 report led to the creation of the Regional Medical Program--a Congressional program which was designed to transfer the results of medical research more quickly into practice through cooperative regional efforts. He was also chairman of the 1965 President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke. One of the commission's recommendations was that the National Library of Medicine be authorized and adequately funded to strengthen the medical library system in the nation. The Medical Library Assistance Act resulted from these recommendations.

Dr. DeBakey, an articulate spokesman for improved medical information services, headed an NLM Board of Regents Planning Panel on Outreach in 1989. The panel's efforts led Congress to recommend that NLM establish an Outreach Program. Today, serving his second term as an NLM Regent, Dr. DeBakey continues to help guide the Library in its pursuit of improved biomedical communications throughout the world.

Dr. Nelson Named Head of MeSH Section

Lois Ann Colaianni, associate director of Library Operations, has announced the appointment of Stuart J. Nelson, M.D., to be the head of the Medical Subject Headings Section. He reported to the Library for duty on June 27.

Dr. Nelson comes to NLM from the Medical College of Georgia, where he was associate professor of medicine. He is a Fellow of theAmerican College of Physicinas and a member of its Medical Informatics Subcommittee.

Dr. Nelson's long association with medical informatics research began in the early 1980s with work on the RECONSIDER system, developed by Dr. Marsden S. Blois at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Nelson has been an active participant in the Unified Medical Language System project as a consultant to Lexical Technology Inc., and, during the past year, under a part-time IPA arrangement with NLM's Lister Hill Center. His UMLS work has given him a thorough understanding of the Medical Subject Headings vocabulary, and he has made significant contributions to the structure and content of the UMLS Metathesaurus and the Semantic Network. Dr. Nelson is a member of the American Medican Informatics Association and the Medical Library Association

Mrs. Colaianni also acknowledged with great appreciation the work of Philip Passarelli, a member of the MeSH staff who served as acting head of MeSH since the retirement of Peri Schuyler in 1995. [Photo] Dr. Nelson

NLM Offers NIH Clinical Elective in Medical Informatics

The National Library of Medicine is again offering an elective in medical informatics to students who are participating in the NIH Clinical Electives Program--an annual program that provides medical and dental students an opportunity to participate in research in one of 19 subspecialties including medical informatics. The NLM elective provides an overview and a vision of the state- ofthe-art of medical informatics in a lecture series by research staff from the Library and other institutes at NIH, as well as by guest speakers from other research centers. It offers an opportunity for independent study and research project work under the preceptorship of NLM/NIH research staff.

The elective runs for eight weeks in March and April each spring. It is intended for students who are computer literate and have some programming experience; previous education in computer science and engineering may be helpful but is not required.

Lectures cover topics such asthe World Wide Web and medical informatics applications on the web; telemedicine; the Unified Medical Language System; the Visible Human project; medical expert systems; information management for biotechnology research; image analysis, manipulation and retrieval; machine learning in the biomedical domain; and medical language processing.

The NLM offers students an outstanding hardware and software environment for system development. Participants choose independent research projects and work closely with NIH research staff.

Examples of informatics applications available on the NIH campus include: hospital, clinical and laboratory information systems; the archiving and online dissemination of citations for biomedical literature; development of a Unified Medical Language System to facilitate the retrieval and integration of information from diverse machine-readable information sources; informatics support for the Human Genome Project; CT, PET and MR imaging; development of expert systems to assist physicians in diagnosis and in therapy recommendations; development of natural language systems and expert front end programs for improved retrieval from databanks; factual database systems in medicine and toxicology; advanced systems for the automated analysis, storage, and retrieval of medical text; statistical analysis of clinical and epidemiological data; analysis of diagnostic and evaluative measurements in cardiology, pulmonary physiology, and nuclear medicine; computer-assisted therapy planning for therapeutic radiology; and analysis of factors responsible for shortterm response to specific surgical or medical therapies.

Inquiries may be directed to Dr. Lawrence C. Kingsland III or Ms. May Cheh; National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike; Bethesda, MD 20894

[PHOTO: Cassedy Symposium] Medical historians, colleagues, and friends of James H. Cassedy, Ph.D., gathered at the NLM on May 22 for a symposium in his honor (News, Jan-Feb 1996). Public Health, Demography, and American Medicine was held to recognize Dr. Cassedy's contributions to the history of medicine. Pictured here are the speakers (from l): Philip D. Curtin (Johns Hopkins University), Alan M. Kraut (American University), Caroline Hannaway (NIH historical consultant), Cassedy, Victoria A. Harden (NIH), John L. Parascandola (NLM), and Philip M. Teigen (NLM), Moderator.

[PHOTO: 1996 Michael DeBakey Library Services Outreach Award] Dr. Michael DeBakey (left), a member of the NLM Board of Regents, joins Senator J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA) and NLM Director Dr. Donald A. B. Lindberg, in presenting Cheryl Smith, head librarian of the University Medical Center in LaFayette, with the 1996 Michael DeBakey Library Services Outreach Award for her exceptional efforts to provide underserved health professionals with access to medical information services. The award was presented on May 16th. The award was established by the Friends of NLM in 1992, and was named for the man who chaired the panel that recommended to Congress that NLM establish the Outreach Program.

AWARDS & HONORS

NLM Director's Award

At the recent NLM Board of Regents meeting in May, NLM Director Donald A. B. Lindberg, M.D., presented Director's Awards to Joseph P. Fitzgerald of the Lister Hill Center's Audiovisual Programs Development Branch for "exceptional contributions to the mission of the National Library of Medicine through creative applications of his artistic talent," and to David J. Lipman, M.D., for "contributions of inestimable value to the research mission of the National Library of Medicine and for leading the National Center for Biotechnology Information to international prominence."

[Photos] Mr. Fitzgerald Dr. Lipman]

Internet Grateful Med Receives Federal Webmasters Workshop '96 Award

Lawrence C. Kingsland III, Ph.D., NLM assistant director for applied informatics, accepted an award from the Federal Webmasters Workshop '96 for the new Internet Grateful Med service (News, March-April 1996). Dr. Kingsland led the team that developed IGM. Vice President Al Gore, in a letter to the workshop, praised the awardees for "improving tools for searching the expanding universe of government information." The workshop, held at the National Institutes of Health, August 7-9, brought together 900 representatives of Federal agency World Wide Web sites.

NACo Award Recognizes AIDS/Toxicology Information Project

The National Association of Counties (NACo) has presented one of its 1996 NACo Achievement Awards to Montgomery County, Maryland, in recognition of a project sponsored jointly by the County and the National Library of Medicine (News, September-October 1995). The program "AIDS/Toxicology Information: A Collaborative Project" was designed to improve public access to AIDS and environmental health topics through a local public library. It was unveiled at ceremonies last October at the Wheaton Regional Library's Health Information Center. The project, which provides access to NLM databases and to other resources on the Internet was funded through a contract between NLM and the Montgomery County Department of Public Libraries.

Colaianni Receives 1995 EAHIL Award

Lois Ann Colaianni, NLM associate director for Library Operations, has been named the winner of the 1995 Award of Honour of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL). It is the first time this award has been presented to a non-European and is a notable recognition by the EAHIL Executive Board of a long and distinguished career in medical librarianship. Mrs. Colaianni has shown a special interest throughout her career in international cooperation between medical libraries. In addition to serving as an officer of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (Medical and Biological Libraries Section), and as the prime mover of the 1995 International Congress, she has worked behind the scenes in supporting national and international medical library cooperation projects, notably in Asia and in Latin America. The award will be presented at the biennial EAHIL General Assembly, which takes place during the September 1996 EAHIL conference in Coimbra, Portugal.

Greenberg Wins Murray Gottlieb Prize at MLA

At the recent meeting of the Medical Library Association in St. Louis, Stephen J. Greenberg, Ph.D., was awarded the Gottlieb prize for the best unpublished essay by a health sciences librarian on the history of medicine and allied health sciences. Dr. Greenberg, collection access librarian in NLM's History of Medicine Division, received the prize for his paper, "The Dreadful Visitation: Public Health and public Awareness in 17th Century London."

[PHOTO] Margaret M. Byrnes, head of NLM's Preservation Section, and NLM Director Donald A. B. Lindberg, M.D., display the Louise Darling Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Collection Development in the Health Sciences, which was presented to the Library at the Medical Library Association's annual Awards Luncheon and Ceremony on June 3 in Kansas City. The Darling Medal, established by Ballen Booksellers International with the continued support of Blackwell North America, specifically honored NLM's National Preservation Program for Biomedical Literature. This program has made many contributions to collection development in medical libraries, including establishing and implementing one of the largest format- conversion programs of its type for older literature published on embrittled paper; borrowing from and engaging other libraries in the effort; and publishing and promulgating clear guidelines for preservation priorities for the biomedical literature.

Increased Charges for Filled ILLs at NLM Announced

The director of the National Library of Medicine has approved an increase in the charge for interlibrary loan requests filled by the NLM. The increase of $1 brings the new cost to $9 for domestic and $11 for international interlibrary loans. This increase will become effective October 1, 1996.

The Library has not increased the charge for filled interlibrary loans since April 1992. The decision to increase interlibrary loan charges was reached based on the results of a study completed at the end of the 1995 fiscal year to determine if the charge for ILLs was keeping pace with the coast of filling these requests.

The study included a complete review of costs for bibliographic searching, retrieval, photocopying, inspection and mailing requests, as well as needed supplies. It also took into account the rising costs of the contracts that perform most of the ILL retrieval and all of the photocopying and reshelving. The data showed that it actually cost NLM approximately $9 to fill a domestic interlibrary loan request. The surcharge for telefacsimile requests will remain $3 for each request filled.

Questions about this increase may be directed to your Regional Medical Library or to the Collection Access Section, NLM.

Frances Humphrey Howard Addresses Humphrey Fellows

Frances Humphrey Howard, assistant to the NLM associate director for Extramural Programs, recently greeted an audience that included participants in the 1995-96 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program. Her talk was given at a certificate ceremony on May 13, 1996, at The Johns Hopkins Univerity School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Mrs. Howard, sister of the late former Vice President, addressed the Fellows, all of whom had been studying for a year at Johns Hopkins in its Department of Mental Hygiene, specializing in substance abuse prevention, treatment, and policy-making.

Mrs. Howard used the occasion to emphasize the commitment of the National Library of Medicine to opening new information pathways internationally, and presented the Fellows with special packets of information to help them gain access to the LibraryÂ’s information resources. She encouraged them to take advantage of these resources as they return to their countries to contribute to national drug abuse strategies, policy formulation, and the operation of prevention and treatment programs at national, state, and local levels.

The 1995-6 Humphrey Fellows were from Palestine, Egypt, Thailand, Myanmar, Syria, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, The Slovak Republic, Ghana, Mauritius, and Turkey. The Humphrey Fellowship Program was established in 1978 in honor of Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a life-long advocate of international cooperation and understanding. It is funded by the U.S. Information Agency and administred nationally by the Institute of International Education. Mrs. Howard, who has worked at NLM for over 25 years, is frequently invited to speak about the LibraryÂ’s programs and services. [Photo]

NLM IN PRINT

The following references cite works that discuss the products and services of the National Library of Medicine. If you know of other appropriate citations for this column, please send reprints or references to the editor, NLM News, National Library of Medicine, Bethesdsa, MD 20894. (Note: Some of the articles below may be from journals that are out of scope for the NLM collection and are therefore not available from the Library on interlibrary loan.)

• Ahluwalia KP, Lang WP. Accessing MEDLINE from the dental office. JADA 1996 Apr; 127:510-6.

• Arnold GN, Fishel MR. Interlibrary loan and document delivery. In: Lipscomb CE, ed: Information access and delivery in health sciences libraries (Current practice in health sciences librarianship; vol. 3). Lanham, Md.: Medical Library Association & Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1996;101-43.

• Carrington C. Editor's letter: Healthcare technology demands unflinching appraisal. Health Measures 1996 Apr;1(1):5.

• Carrington C. Technology under scrutiny. Health Measures 1996 Apr;1(1):18-19, 22, 24, 27.

• Hafner K. The doctor is on. Newsweek 1996 May 27;:77-8.

• Holmes A. Telemedicine: NLM launches effort to link hospitals, clinics. Fed Comput Week 1996 Apr 15;10(8):1, 44.

• Kastin AJ, Zadina JE, Olson RD, Banks WA. The history of neuropeptide research: version 5.a. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1996 Mar 22;780:1-18.

• Kulkarni H. Structured abstracts: still more [letter] Ann Intern Med 1996 Apr 1;124(7):695-6.

• Laskas JM. Body of knowledge [Visible Human]. W Post Mag 1996 Jun 7;:5.

• Lipscomb CE, ed. Information access and delivery in health sciences libraries (Current practice in health sciences librarianship; vol. 3, Bunting A, ed.). Lanham, Md.: Medical Library Association & Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1996;257pp.

• Lindberg AB, Humphreys BL. Medical informatics. JAMA 1996 Jun 19;275(23):18212-2.

• Marson AG, Chadwick DW. How easy are randomized controlled trials in epilepsy to find on MEDLINE? The sensitivity and precision of two MEDLINE searches. Epilepsia 1996 Apr;37(4):377-80.

• Mehnert R. National Library of Medicine. Bowker Annual 1996;41:103-9.

• Naylor CD, Guyatt GH. Users guides to the medical literature. X. How to use an article reporting variations in the outcomes of health services. The Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. JAMA 1996 Feb 21;275(7):554-8. Pennisi E. Seeking life's bare (genetic) necessities. Science 1996 May 24;272:2098-9.

• Pratt GF. Online: History of Medicine: Online Images from he History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine. JAMA 1996 Mar 13;275(10):810-11.

• Skolnick AA, Shelton W. Experts explore emerging information technologies' effects on medicine [news]. JAMA 1996 Mar 6;275(9):669-70.

• Whyte B, Persson B, Jornvall H. Primary structure and homology [letter]. FEBS Lett 1996 Feb 19;380(3):301.

• Woods M. Our pals, the cybercadavers: science's favorite couple provides digital database of human anatomy. Blade (Toledo, OH) 1996 22 Apr;:H-24-H-25.

• Zelingher J. Internet news: preventive medicine recommendations on the Internet. MD Comput 1996 Feb;13(3):204-6.

PUBLICATIONS

New Current Bibliographies in Medicine

NLM's Reference Section produces a series of bibliographies covering distinct subject areas of current interest to the biomedical community. They are available from the Government Printing Office individually and on subscription (see below). Note: an asterisk (*) indicates that the bibliography was prepared in support of an NIH Consensus Development Conference.

Current Bibliographies in Medicine (CBM95) series subscriptions are available for $47 ($58.75 foreign) or individually for $4.75 ($5.94 foreign). The 1996 subscription is the same price as that for 1995, but the individual copies are $5.50 ($6.88 foreign). A list of available titles appears in each monthly issue of Abridged Index Medicus and Index Medicus. Mail orders to: New Orders, Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. GPO Phone Orders: 202/783-3238. Recent CBMs are also accessible through FTP.

• CBM 96-4 Public health informatics. January 1980 through December 1995. 471 citations. [S/N 817-012-00004-3]

• CBM 96-3* The role of dietary supplements for physically active people. January 1966 to April 1996. 762 citations. [S/N 817-012-00003-5]

• CBM 96-2* Management of temporamandibular disorders. January 1990 through December 1995. 917 citations. [S/N 817012-00002-7]

• CBM 96-1* Cervical cancer. January 1993 through March 1996. 926 citations. [S/N 817-012-00001-9]

• CBM 95-10 Confidentiality of electronic health data. January 1990 through March 1996. 448 citations. [S/N 817011-00010-1]

• CBM 95-9 Viral hemorrhagic fever. January 1990 through June 1996. 1726 citations. [S/N 817-011-00009-8]

• CBM 95-8 Critical pathways. January 1988 through December 1995. 753 citations. [S/N 817-011-00008-0]

Jablonski: Rx Shorthand

The former head of NLM's Index Section, Stanley Jablonski, has compiled a Latin-English and English-Latin list of abbreviations used by physicians through the ages in writing prescriptions. Many of these abbreviations are still used today, while others will be important primarily to those interested in the history of pharmacy. "By using the Rx shorthand, physicians passed on to pharmacists coded instructions on how they wanted prescribed medications compounded, which active substances were to be used and in what amounts . . . some even adding an occasional admonition, such as reminding the pharmacist that the compounding should be done 'according to the rules of art' (sal which is an abbreviation for Latin secundum artis leges), or 'let it be made skillfully' (fsa which is an abbreviation for Latin fiat secundum artem)."

Rx Shorthand [ISBN 1-56053-167-3, $9.95] is available from Hanley & Belfus, Inc., 210 South 13th St., Philadelphia, PA 19107 [ phone: 215/546-7293]. Hanley & Belfus also published Mr. Jablonski's previous compilation, Dictionary of Medical Acronyms & Abbreviations [$19.95].

MONOGRAPH & SERIAL GAPS

NLM regularly seeks the help of the medical library community in filling gaps in its monograph and serial collections. If you can provide any of these items we would be most grateful.

Monographs

If you are able to provide a copy of any of the monographs listed below, please send to:

National Library of Medicine
TSD-MONOGRAPHS Attn: L. Turnage
Bethesda, MD 20894

• Applications of biomedical and health research to the developing world : conference abstracts / 13th Annual International Health Conference, June 10-14, 1986. Washington, D.C. : National Council for International Health, 1986.

• Densford, Katharine J. Ethics for modern nurses. New York : Garland, 1984. (The History of American Nursing). Reprint. Originally published: Philadelphia : Saunders, 1946.

• Protein metabolism and nutrition / edited by D. J. A. Cole. London ; Boston : Butterworth, 1976.

Serials

Please address serial issues to:

National Library of Medicine
TSD-GAPS Attn: C. Fields
Bethesda, MD 20894

• American Heart 14:4, 1964; 15:4, 1965; 16:1, 1966; 17:1, 1967; 18:4, 1968; 19:4, 1969; 20:4, 1970; 21:2-3,1971

• American Journal of Cardiology 55:14-15, 1985; 58:14-15, 1986; 70:19-20, 1992

• American Journal of Geriatric Cardiology 1:1, 1992

• Annual Report; American Heart Association 1931-1949, 1990

• Annual Report / American Heart Association, New York City

• Affiliate 1985-86, 1986-87

• Annual Report - Chest and Heart Association 1965-1966, 1968, 1971-1972, 1974

• Annual Report - Chest, Heart and Stroke Association 1977/78, 1980/81

• Annual Report of the National Heart and Lung Advisory Council N.2, 1974

• Annual Report; New York Heart Association 1954-1955,1958, 1966, 1978

• Applied Cardiology 13:5-6, 1985

• Archivio Di Chirurgia Toracica E Cardiovascolare 23:3/4, 1966; 30:3/4, 1973

• Blood Services Operations Report 1979/80

• British Journal of Cardiology 1:8 Jul, 1994

• Bulletin / Chicago Heart Association 1:1-9, 11-12, 1923; 2:1-4, 1924; 3:8-12, 1925; 13:7-12, 1935; 21:1-6, 1943; 34:2-3, 1956; 35:3, 1957; 36:1,3, 1958; 37:3, 1959; 38:1,3, 1960

• Canadian Bulletin of Cardiovascular Nursing 8, 1983; 9, 198, 10, 198-, 11, 198-, 12:1-2, 1988

• Cardiologia Practica 19:2, 1968

• Current Concepts of Cerebrovascular Disease. Stroke 17:5, 1982; 21:3-4, 1986; 21:6, 1986

• Current Literature of Blood 5:3, 1972; 6:13,15, 1973; 8:8, 1975

• Directory of Community Blood Banks 1982

• Heart Center Bulletin of St. Francis Hospital, Roslyn, New York 17:2-4, 1961; 18:2-4, 1962; 19:1, 1963; 20:2, 1965

• Heart Failure 5-6, 1985-1986

• Heart Research Newsletter 4:4, 1959; 5:4, 1960; 11:1, 1966; 14:3-4, 1969; 16:2, 1971; 16:3, 1972; 17:1, 1972

• Heartbeat 1:1-2,4, 1990

• Homoeopathic Heartbeat 1:2, 1978; 2:6, 1979

• Index of Federally Supported Programs in Heart, Blood Vessel, Lung, and Blood Disorders 1978, 1979, 1980

• Journal of Bloodless Medicine and Surgery 1:4, 1983; 2:2- 4, 1984

• Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism 4 Sup, 1984