HIV and Infection Meeting Abstracts Added to NLM Gateway

On October 1, 2003, 745 new records were added to the Meeting Abstracts collection from the National HIV Prevention Conference held in July 2003.

On October 9, 2003, 937 records were added to the Meeting Abstracts collection from the 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

To search for abstracts from a particular professional meeting, enter the title abbreviation of the professional meeting followed by the field qualifier. To further limit your retrieval, you may choose to limit to a specific year or range of years.

For example, to retrieve the 937 abstracts from the 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, enter: conf retroviruses opportunistic infect [ta] and then use the Limits feature to narrow your search to the year 2003.

For general information on how to search the NLM Gateway, please see Gateway Help and the Gateway FAQ.

To reach the NLM Gateway FAQ that addresses searching for meeting abstracts, please see http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/gw/Cmd?FAQ.x#Meeting.

New Features Added to MedlinePlus® and MedlinePlus® en Español

MedlinePlus has added several new features.

• "Easy-to-read" pages, available in both English and Spanish, bring together the popular Interactive Health Tutorials and other easy-to-read materials by topic. Look for the "Easy-to-Read" graphic on the Health Topics page. The pages include links to printer-friendly versions and the ability to e-mail the link or the entire contents of the page.
• The Organizations page, available from the "Other Resources" tab, now includes all organizations with pages linked in MedlinePlus. The alphabetical pages include printer-friendly and e-mail links.
• You can sign up for weekly lists of news and links on selected topics including Women's Health, Children's Health, Seniors' Health, Mental Health, and Diabetes. Access sign-up instructions at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/medlineplus/listserv.pl?lang=EN.

On MedlinePlus en español:

• Information on hundreds of prescription and over-the-counter medications is coming to MedlinePlus en español. The first 200 records from MedMaster, from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, are now available and all of MedMaster will be available by the end of 2004.
• Spanish-speaking users can now subscribe to a daily news feed of health and wellness articles. Each weekday several new consumer health articles from the news and information company Healthday will be featured on the MedlinePlus en español home pages, appropriate topic pages and can be emailed to a friend. Subscription information is available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/listserv.html.

Linking up with the Bookshelf

Just over two years ago, the Bookshelf at NCBI was launched. There are now over 30 books on the Bookshelf and many more in the pipeline. Seminal books such as Albert's Molecular Biology of the Cell and Stryer's Biochemistry are available for free to all users. In addition, books such as the NCBI Handbook, which gives a guide to the resources available at NCBI, are being continually updated.

Alongside the rapid expansion of content, there have also been many technical developments. One such development is the links between the Bookshelf and PubMed and PubMed Central (PMC). This enables the reader to effortlessly jump between books, abstracts and full-text journal articles.

Citations in books that have a PubMed or PMC record are linked up either as a hyperlink in the reference list or as a direct link from the citation in the text.

You can read more about the links between Bookshelf and PubMed at the Bookshelf overview.

2004 Index Medicus® Prices Announced

The 2004 subscription prices for Index Medicus will be:

domestic $701.00

non-U.S. $981.40

The single copy prices for the monthly will be:

domestic $100.00

non-U.S. $140.00

The single copy prices for the 2004 Medical Subject Headings, Supplement to Index Medicus (black and white MeSH) will be:

domestic $85.00

non-U.S. 119.00

The single copy prices for the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus will be:

domestic $55.00

non-U.S. $77.00

Publications can be ordered from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office. Ordering information is available at: [Link no longer available as of June 4, 2018.]

More Organisms Added to LocusLink

Xenopus laevis (African clawed frog) and Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (sea urchin) have been added to the list of LocusLink organisms, bringing the total to ten.

Initially there were five organisms in LocusLink - human, mouse, rat, fruit fly, and zebrafish. HIV-1 was added on May 30, 2002. Cow (Bos taurus) was added on December 2, 2002 and Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode, was added on December 31, 2002.

For more information on Gene Indexing see Ward J. Gene Indexing. NLM Tech Bull. 2002 Sep-Oct;(328):e6.

"Upload Holdings" Feature Added to LinkOut

A new LinkOut feature allows any library, even those that are not NLM SERHOLD participants, to display its print holdings information in LinkOut. Libraries that currently link to their print holdings by registering their SERHOLD information with LinkOut do not need to make any change.

With Upload Holdings, libraries can connect PubMed users with their print holdings information, including call number, location, and dynamic catalog link. To participate, libraries need to:

• Register for LinkOut
• Prepare a text file of their holdings
• Upload the text file via the LinkOut Library Submission Utility

Libraries interested in this new Upload Holdings feature can find registration information and file specifications in LinkOut and Library Holdings at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/linkout/doc/liblinkout.html#UploadHoldings, or from the LinkOut home page at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/linkout/
(click Library Submission on the left sidebar, then select LinkOut and Library Holdings). Setting Up LinkOut for Libraries, a step-by-step tutorial, is also available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=helplinkout&part=lib.

NLM SERHOLD libraries can continue to use the LinkOut-SERHOLD interface (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/linkout/doc/liblinkout.html#LinkOutSERHOLD) to display their SERHOLD holdings in LinkOut.

For more information, contact the LinkOut team at:
linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Case Report[mh] Replaced by Case Reports[pt]

Beginning with 2004 data, MEDLINE citations indexed to the MeSH Heading "Case Report" are now indexed to the Publication Type "Case Reports." Over one million existing PubMed records will be changed. Entry terms will remain the same. Unqualified PubMed queries for case report or case reports will continue to retrieve the same records. To read more about publication type mapping, see: Ruiz NI. PubMed^®: Publication Type Mapping. NLM Tech Bull. 2003 Mar-Apr;(331):e1.

Please note: stored searches (e.g., in the Cubby) that include case report[mh] should be updated to case reports[pt] to reflect the change.

To read more about 2004 changes to MeSH, see the following articles:

• Savage A. 2004 MeSH Changes to the Category B Organisms Tree and the Check Tag Animal. NLM Tech Bull. 2003 Sep-Oct;(334):e5.
• Schulman, J. What's New for 2004 MeSH^®. NLM Tech Bull. 2003 Nov-Dec;(335):e3.

Status Tags on PubMed® Citations

Here are the possible status tags found on PubMed citations along with how to search for the respective subset beginning with the availability of 2004 data.

Status Tag	How to search
[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]	publisher [sb]
[PubMed - in process]	in process [sb]
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]	medline [sb]
[PubMed]	pubmednotmedline [sb]
[PubMed - OLDMEDLINE for Pre1966]	oldmedline [sb]

For an explanation of the Status Tags, see Citation Status Subsets under Subsets in PubMed's Help.

To see the current count for all PubMed citations, search using: all [sb]

Truncation in PubMed® Increases to 600 Variations

PubMed can now retrieve truncated words (e.g., mimic*) using up to 600 variations of a root word. Previously, this was limited to 150 variations.

Please note that truncation turns off PubMed's automatic term mapping feature. For more information about using truncation, please see PubMed's Help at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/help/pmhelp.html#Truncation.

Hazardous Substances Data Bank Chemicals Available via LinkOut

PubMed users now have access to information for over 3,000 Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB^®) chemical substances. Links to these substances were added to LinkOut in September 2003. HSDB is a factual data file that focuses on the toxicology of potentially hazardous chemicals. In addition to toxicity data, HSDB provides information in the areas of emergency handling procedures, industrial hygiene, environmental fate, human exposure, detection methods, and regulatory requirements.

How to use LinkOut to retrieve HSDB information:

• Click on the word "Links" to the right of each citation.
• Then choose LinkOut from the menu that appears.
• Look for the heading, MOLECULAR BIOLOGY DATABASES.
• HSDB links, if present, will appear under the TOXNET heading.

An example of a PubMed record that includes the HSDB link is PMID 14560391, which links to the chemical substance information for benzene.

To read more about the Hazardous Substances Data Bank, see the HSDB Fact Sheet at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/hsdbfs.html.

UMLS® 2003AC Quarterly Update

The Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus was updated and released on November 7, 2003 and is available for download from the Knowledge Source Server. CD-ROMs of the data will be sent to UMLS licensees who have requested them. Other licensees may request CD-ROMs by sending e-mail to custserv@nlm.nih.gov. The PDF version of the UMLS documentation will soon be available on the UMLS Web site at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls. Knowledge Source Server searching of this release will be available as of December 5, 2003.

NLM anticipates releasing SNOMED CT^® in the 2004AA UMLS Metathesaurus during the first quarter of 2004. SNOMED CT will be released in the "Rich Data Format" (MR+). This new format will support source transparency—the capability to represent the complete information in new and updated vocabularies. The classic Metathesaurus Relational (MR) format, in which the UMLS was issued for many years, will continue to be available.

UMLS® Basics Classes

The UMLS Basics course will be offered next at NLM on February 23, 2004. There are no prerequisites for the course, but students should be familiar with MeSH and controlled vocabularies (especially thesaurus conventions and hierarchical arrangements). Attendees of this class will be awarded 7.5 Medical Library Association continuing education credits. You can register with the National Training Center and Clearinghouse.

A lecture-only version of UMLS Basics will also be taught as an MLA CE course at the Medical Library Association annual meeting in Washington, DC, in May 2004. You can register for this class at the MLA '04 Web site, starting in January.

Full Archives of BMLA/JMLA Available via PubMed Central™

On Wednesday November 5, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) released the full archives of the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association (BMLA) on the PubMed Central Web site. The BMLA archives go from v.1 n.1, 1911 through v.89 n.4, 2001. Then the title is available as Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) from v.90 n.1 2002 -.

The archives can be viewed directly at:
BMLA (v.1 1911 - v.89 n.4 2001);
JMLA (v.90 n.1 2002 - ).

NLM is in the process of scanning the backfiles of all of the titles in PubMed Central. With the exception of the BMLA, the plan is to release the archives in increments by decade from most current to earliest. To read more about the scanning project, see:
//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc//about/scanning.html.

Two New Books Added to NCBI Bookshelf

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has recently added two books to the Bookshelf:

1. Genomes. 2nd ed.
   Brown, T. A.
   Oxford, UK: BIOS Scientific Publishers, Ltd; 2002.
   
   
2. Human Molecular Genetics 2. 2nd ed.
   Strachan, Tom and Read, Andrew P.
   Oxford, UK: BIOS Scientific Publishers Ltd; 1999.

The books in Bookshelf may be searched directly from the Bookshelf site, via links from the Links pull-down menu from relevant PubMed^® citations, or through the new Entrez Global query feature.

American Customer Satisfaction Index Evaluation of NLM® Web Sites

Starting October 1, 2003, NLM began surveying five of its Web sites using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

The sites being surveyed are the main Web site, MedlinePlus, MedlinePlus en español, TOXNET and the AIDSinfo Web site.

The ACSI was created in 1994 and is produced through a partnership of the University of Michigan Business School, the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the international consulting firm, CFI Group. The NLM survey will be active for 12 months from October 1, 2003 to September 30, 2004. The sampling rate is low to minimize the number of times users are asked to take the survey, and the survey does not collect information identifying any specific user.

Results from MedlinePlus, MedlinePlus en español, and the NLM main Web site are already being tabulated. From October 12–November 24, 2003, MedlinePlus received an ACSI score of 86, while MedlinePlus en español received a score of 83, and the NLM main Web site scored 73. By comparison, the aggregate ACSI score for federal government sites was 71. The ACSI scores for AOL, Alta Vista, and Google for 2003 are 65, 63, and 82, respectively. The statistics on federal government and commercial Web sites are available at the ACSI Overview Web page.

If prompted, please take a moment to respond to our survey. Your opinion will help us make our Web sites better.

Newly maintained MEDLINE® now available in PubMed®

As of December 3, PubMed's MEDLINE citations, translation tables, and the MeSH^® database have been updated to reflect 2004 MeSH. Now that end-of-year activities are complete, MEDLINE via PubMed may be searched using 2004 MeSH vocabulary. See MEDLINE Data Changes - 2004. NLM Tech Bull. 2003 Nov-Dec;(335):e6. for details on data changes. This article includes links to other relevant MEDLINE and MeSH-related articles. Also on December 3, NLM resumed the daily (Tuesday-Saturday) updates to PubMed of MeSH-indexed citations (including the backlog of citations indexed since November 13 with 2004 MeSH but not yet added to PubMed).

System Availability - Sunday, December 14

Some NLM systems and database will not be available on December 14 from 8 AM through 3:00 PM ET. The Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) that supports the NLM computer room requires an upgrade to increase its capacity which necessitates an electrical power shutdown. It is expected that PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, and MedlinePlus will be available. The NLM Gateway and LocatorPlus will be unavailable.

DOCLINE® 2.0 Released

The latest version of DOCLINE, released on December 8, 2003, introduces a fresh new appearance that provides improved usability and increased user efficiency. The highlights of the more than 50 enhancements in DOCLINE 2.0 include:

• an overhaul to the interface for maintaining a library's institution record
• improved searching of institution records
• the ability to request color copies
• an alert message when users request articles that are free at the producer's web site

Please see the DOCLINE 2.0 Release Notes for more details about the new features and selected screen shots and also see DOCLINE^® Version 2.0 Directs Users to Full Text Articles Available Free at Producer Sites. NLM Tech Bull. 2003 Nov-Dec;(335):e10. for further information on DOCLINE Version 2.0.

About Open Access Publishing in PubMed Central™

PubMed Central (PMC) recently added information about Open Access Publishing at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/openftlist.html. This page includes the Definition of Open Access Publication from the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing. This page also includes other relevant open access publishing links including information on the PMC agreement for acceptance of individual open access articles from journals that do not participate in PMC on a routine basis.

About Open Access Publishing in PubMed Central™

PubMed Central (PMC) recently added information about Open Access Publishing at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/openftlist.html. This page includes the Definition of Open Access Publication from the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing. This page also includes other relevant open access publishing links including information on the PMC agreement for acceptance of individual open access articles from journals that do not participate in PMC on a routine basis.

2004 MeSH® Information Added to MeSH Home Page

The MeSH Home page has been updated with the 2004 Introduction to MeSH including:

• New 2004 Medical Subject Headings, Alphabetic List
• Changed Descriptors - 2004
• Deleted Descriptors - 2004
• New 2004 MeSH Headings, by Tree Subcategory

Ordering information for the "Black & White" MeSH is also available. This publication includes an alphabetic list of MeSH headings and the tree structures and is included as part of the January issue of a subscription to Index Medicus, but may also be ordered individually.

New Version of NLM Gateway Released - December 22, 2003

On December 22, 2003, a new version of the NLM Gateway was released. For more information see Enhanced Functionality Plus Access to More Data in the NLM Gateway's Latest Release. NLM Tech Bull. 2003 Nov-Dec;(335):e8.

Please see What's New on the NLM Gateway sidebar for additional details.