he National Library of Medicine (NLM) is pleased to announce the award of the National Training Center and Clearinghouse (NTCC) contract to the New York Academy of Medicine. This contract is announced in conjunction with the awards of the eight Regional Medical Library (RML) contracts and is effective May 1, 2001 - April 30, 2006.

The training arm of the NTCC will remain the same. Its name has been changed from National Online Training Center to reflect the addition of a new clearinghouse function. The RMLs and many member network libraries produce training materials on searching NLM systems. The NTCC will develop a Web resource for network libraries to make their training materials available for others to use. Stay tuned for future developments on this new Web-based clearinghouse.

Course Offerings
The NTCC will continue to offer the following classes:

Keeping Up with NLM's PubMed, the NLM Gateway and ClinicalTrials.gov
This 1-day class is designed for the searcher who has been using PubMed but would like a refresher or an update on the newest enhancements; or for the searcher who has been searching MEDLINE from another interface and wants to transition to PubMed. Overviews and demonstrations of the NLM Gateway and ClinicalTrials.gov are also included.

Students attending this class should be familiar with MEDLINE, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) vocabulary and Boolean logic as these core topics are not covered. If you have never searched MEDLINE or used MeSH before, the 2-day Introduction class (described below) is appropriate.

There is no charge for this class. This course earns 7.5 continuing education contact hours for Medical Library Association (MLA) members.

Instruction on the MeSH vocabulary and Boolean logic is included. Students learn to use PubMed and receive an overview of the NLM Gateway and ClinicalTrials.gov.

There is no charge for this class. This course earns 11.5 continuing education contact hours for MLA members.

There is no charge for this class. This course earns 7 continuing education contact hours for MLA members.

Each person makes a difference
Our classes are in demand and usually fill rapidly, often creating a waiting list. In order to help us provide training opportunities to as many people as possible, please notify the NTCC office if you have registered for a class and your plans change. The more advance notice you give us, the more likely it is that someone else can take the available space. It is very disappointing to begin a class with empty chairs that could have otherwise been occupied. We are asking for your cooperation to help allow as many people as possible to benefit from this free training program.

Training Workbooks and PubMed Tutorial Available
The training workbooks for the Introduction and Keeping Up classes are available for downloading from the NLM's Web site. The workbooks are available in two formats: Portable Document Format (PDF) and WordPerfect®. These workbooks are not copyrighted. Feel free to use any part of the workbooks - you may customize the workbook for training programs, demonstrations, or workshops you conduct. The workbooks are found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/web_based.html.

Additionally, the interactive PubMed Tutorial is available from the PubMed sidebar or directly at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_tutorial/m1001.html. The March-April 2001 NLM Technical Bulletin article, "At Your Desktop: the PubMed Interactive Tutorial" provides further details about the tutorial.

Training materials used for the TOXNET class are available for downloading in PDF, PowerPoint® and HTML formats. The guides are broken down into sections so you can choose the areas of interest to you. You may find these TOXNET training resources at http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/getthemostfromsis.html.

National Training Center and Clearinghouse (NTCC)
notc@nyam.org
800-338-7657 (press 2) or
212-822-7396

or

By Janet R. Zipser
MEDLARS Management Section

Zipser JR. NLM Announces the National Training Center and Clearinghouse Contract and the May-December 2001 Class Schedule. NLM Tech Bull. 2001 May-Jun;(320):e3.