he NLM Technical Bulletin has received a make-over! The new design allows us to take advantage of more Web features that provide you with added functionality. The look may be different but you'll find the same useful information.

Navigation
Navigation within the NLM Technical Bulletin site has been improved. The redesigned screens provide a cleaner look that requires less scrolling. Navigation bars have been added at the top and bottom of each page providing consistent navigation links across pages (e.g., Home, Back Issues). The navigation bars also identify the issue date and number where appropriate.

New Feature
The new "About Articles" feature provides one convenient place to find information on PubMed and Internet Grateful Med. This section includes all relevant articles and Technical Notes published in the NLM Technical Bulletin on each system as well as links to other useful resources (online help, FAQs, training manuals and information). Look for the addition of more NLM systems to the "About Articles" feature in the future.

Issue Cover Page
An Issue Cover page has been created to provide each issue's table of contents in one compact, easy to read location. In addition to listing each article's title, a short description of the article is also included with links to each article. Finally, the complete table of contents for the Technical Notes section has been added to the issue cover page with direct links to each individual note.

Articles
NLM Technical Bulletin articles will continue to provide new and useful information for searching NLM's systems; however, a few changes to the presentation have been made. The "posted" date of each article is now located above the article title, indicating the date the article was published. If the article is later corrected, the "corrected" date will appear just below the posted date. Also, for your convenience, a bibliographic citation has been added to the end of each article.

Figures and graphics now appear as a thumbnail image in the margin of an article. To see the full-sized image, simply click on the thumbnail and a new browser window will open displaying the full-sized image.

Technical Notes
As mentioned above, the Technical Notes section now has a table of contents on the issue cover page with links to the individual notes. This table of contents is reproduced, complete with the links, on the Technical Notes page. Providing the table of contents in both locations will make it easier to see if a new note has been added or simply to find a particular note of interest. "Posted" and "corrected" dates are located directly under each Technical Note title.

Index
Efforts to expand the cumulative index for the NLM Technical Bulletin continue. The Index now covers 1979 - 1994 and 1996 - present. 1995 will be added in the near future. In addition, each index entry is now a link. The destination of each link depends on the year the article was published:

• 1997 - present --- These issues are available in HTML. Index entries link directly to the specific article.
  
  
• May-June 1993 - November-December 1996 --- These issues are available in pdf format. Index entries link directly to the pdf file for that issue. You will need to scroll to the specific article. pdf or Portable Document Format files can be read using Adobe's Acrobat(TM) Reader. This program, which you must install once on your computer, allows you to view, navigate and print the NLM Technical Bulletin with the same appearance in which it was published. Please contact Adobe for information on installing and using Adobe's Acrobat(TM) Reader.
  
  
• 1979 - May-June 1993 --- These issues are only available in hard copy. Index entries link to instructions for obtaining a copy of an issue by mail.

Thanks go to Mary Herron, MEDLARS Management Section, NLM, for her tireless efforts on this cumulative index project.

Notification of Issue Closure
Many of you have asked to be notified when we close each issue of the NLM Technical Bulletin. This notification will be an entry on the "New Files List," an e-mail service that provides weekly announcements of new and updated files on the NLM Web site. Details on how to subscribe to this listing are available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/nlmfiles-email.html.

Future Enhancements
Another popular request is for the ability to print an entire issue of the NLM Technical Bulletin in one step. We are working to add this capability in the near future.

NLM staff will continue to enhance the NLM Technical Bulletin with new features as we take advantage of Web technology.

We welcome your questions and comments. Please send them to: custserv@nlm.nih.gov.

Special thanks go to Troy Hill, graphic designer at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, NLM, for his considerable talents designing the new graphics for the NLM Technical Bulletin.

By Mary Herron and Vivian A. Auld
MEDLARS Management Section

Herron M, Auld VA. The NLM Technical Bulletin's New Look. NLM Tech Bull. 2000 Jan-Feb;(312):e2.