MeSH URIs Added to NLM Catalog Records in July 2017: Update

[Editor's note: The contents of the NLM Catalog were updated on July 20, 2017.]

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) successfully added Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to the MeSH subject fields in its catalog records. LocatorPlus is available now, while the contents of the NLM Catalog will continue to be static until sometime during the week of July 17, 2017.

For more background information about this project see the April 26, 2017 article, Adding MeSH URIs to NLM Catalog Records and the June 21, 2017 article, MeSH URIs Added to NLM Catalog Records in July 2017.

Subscribers to the weekly Catfile data can obtain the updated records from the NLM FTP site as of July 6, 2017. Subscribers who don't want or need these URIs and who prefer not to download such a large set of records can obtain the July 13, 2017 distribution that will contain all the records that were updated or created between June 28, 2017 and July 12, 2017 for reasons other than the URI update.

Subscribers to the monthly CatfilePlus and Serfile data will receive the updated records on August 1, 2017. The only option is to receive the entire set. All records distributed going forward in Catfile, CatfilePlus and Serfile will contain URIs associated with the MeSH headings.

Patrons who view these records in LocatorPlus or subscribers may notice that there are records lacking URIs on some or all of the MeSH. While records are created and updated daily by NLM staff, the program to add MeSH URIs runs weekly, so records that are still on order or in process when the program runs at 1:00 AM on Wednesday mornings will not have MeSH added until the following week or until they are completed. For CatfilePlus only, there may be records with a MARC 65X field with a second indicator other than "2" (which is used to identify MeSH descriptors) or MeSH headings that are not permitted for Cataloger use. These fields will not have URIs.