NLM Reduction in ILL Charges to International Libraries

Technical Notes NLM Reduction in ILL Charges to International Libraries Strategy for AIDS Subset Revised New Look for MeSH Web Site PubMed Central Link Now on the PubMed Sidebar NLM Announces a New Version of the PubMed Tutorial Personal Name as Subject Suffix Data in PubMed What's New on the NLM Web Site? Specialized Information Services Web Site Redesigned New Clinical Alerts Issued NCBI Offers New Books Database

July 09, 2001 [posted]

Beginning with the July-September 2001 billing period the charge for international document requests filled by an electronic delivery method (Ariel, email) will be reduced by $2.00.

Starting Sunday July 1, 2001, document requests filled by NLM for international requesters (including Canada and Mexico) will be billed as follows:

• Mail delivery - $11.00
• Fax delivery - $14.00
• Ariel delivery - $9.00
• Email delivery - $9.00

Domestic ILL charges for document delivery from NLM have not changed. The charge is $9.00 for all delivery methods, with a $3.00 surcharge for fax.

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Strategy for AIDS Subset Revised

The strategies used to create the subject subsets for PubMed are periodically reviewed and revised as needed. The AIDS subset has recently undergone a significant revision to update it. Changes include the addition of journal names, new terms, and improved retrieval from publisher-supplied and in process citations. You may notice increased retrieval when using this subset, or if you utilize this subset with PubMed's Cubby stored searches. The subset strategy can be viewed at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_subsets/aids_strategy.html.

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New Look for MeSH Web Site

The MeSH Web site has been redesigned to make it easier to use and find information. The new page keeps everything in a compact arrangement so scrolling is eliminated.

New graphics give at-a-glance landmarks, even for first-time visitors. For example, the link to the printed MeSH aids, including the Annotated Alphabetic MeSH (MeSH), is an actual image for immediate recognition and meaning.

You can quickly find how to obtain copies of the MeSH, whether electronic or print; use the MeSH Browser; read the MeSH Fact Sheet; or see the members of the MeSH staff. As more information about MeSH and related efforts are available through the Web site, you will see the news announced on the MeSH site under What's New.

Comments about the pages and suggestions for more user-friendly changes are welcome! Send your comments to meshsugg@nlm.nih.gov.

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PubMed Central Link Now on the PubMed Sidebar

There is now a link to PubMed Central (PMC) on PubMed's blue sidebar. PMC is NIH's digital archive of life sciences journal literature. Access to this literature is free and unrestrictive. Additional journals have been added to PMC and it now has its own search system. [Editor's Note: See the article, New Version of PubMed Central Released, in this issue of the NLM Technical Bulletin describing this and other new features of PubMed Central.]

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NLM Announces a New Version of the PubMed Tutorial

The National Library of Medicine is pleased to release a new version of the PubMed Tutorial, formerly titled "PubMed Online Training." As always, the tutorial is available from the PubMed sidebar.

Notable additions include the Cubby module and, by user request, an Index. Both of these items can be accessed through the tutorial sidebar.

The tutorial also welcomes a fresh look with several new graphics and all new screenshots in the Flash animations. The animations were also optimized to decrease download times as well as to decrease the need for scrolling as requested by users.

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Personal Name as Subject Suffix Data in PubMed Update

NLM previously announced that Author and Personal Name as Subject name suffixes (Jr, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) were missing from many MEDLINE records. NLM has since recovered all the lost data. In March, over 200,000 records with corrected author names were replaced in PubMed and distributed to MEDLINE licensees (Technical Notes. NLM Tech Bull. 2001 Mar-Apr;(319):e1.) and on June 1, 2001 over 700 records with corrected Personal Names as Subject were replaced in PubMed and distributed to licensees.

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What's New on the NLM Web Site?

The National Library of Medicine's Web site (http://www.nlm.nih.gov) contains a wealth of medical and consumer health information ranging from medical history to biotechnology. NLM hosts an electronic mailing list, NLM-Announces, which distributes weekly messages announcing new and updated pages on the NLM Web site. Subscribe today to receive your weekly notification of changes to the NLM Web site including NLM exhibits, MeSH, MedlinePlus, PubMed, the NLM Classification, the NLM Technical Bulletin, visitor information, and more.

To subscribe to NLM-Announces, send an e-mail to: listserv@list.nih.gov.
The body of the message should be the following text (not case sensitive, however, your name should be in upper and lower case, i.e., Mary Smith):
SUBSCRIBE NLM-ANNOUNCES Your Name

For other NLM hosted mailing lists, see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/listserv/emaillists.html.

Note: NLM does not give, share, sell or transfer any personal information to a third party.

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Specialized Information Services Web Site Redesigned

NLM is pleased to announce the release of the Specialized Information Services Division's redesigned Web site at http://sis.nlm.nih.gov. The new format makes it easier to locate information resources and services in toxicology, environmental health, chemistry, HIV/AIDS, and specialized topics in minority health.

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New Clinical Alerts Issued

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) have issued two new Clinical Alerts:

• Diet and Exercise Dramatically Delay Type 2 Diabetes; Diabetes Medication Metformin Also Effective
• NHLBI-Funded Emphysema Study Finds Certain Patients at High Risk for Death Following Lung Surgery

Diet and Exercise Dramatically Delay Type 2 Diabetes; Diabetes Medication Metformin Also Effective
This alert showed that, according to the findings of a major clinical trial, those at high risk for type 2 diabetes can lower their chances of getting the disease with diet and exercise. Findings also showed that treatment with the oral diabetes drug metformin (Glucophage^®) reduces diabetes risk, though less dramatically than modest lifestyle and diet changes. The clinical trial was stopped one year early due to these findings.

NHLBI-Funded Emphysema Study Finds Certain Patients at High Risk for Death Following Lung Surgery
This alert showed that emphysema patients who have severe lung obstruction with either limited ability to exchange gas when breathing or damage that is evenly distributed throughout their lungs receive little benefit from lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) and are at high risk of death from the procedure, according to early results from the National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT). NETT is a five-year, multicenter, randomized study to evaluate the role of LVRS in the treatment of severe emphysema.

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NCBI Offers New Books Database

In collaboration with book publishers, NLM and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) are expanding the Books feature by adapting more books for the Web. As in the past, the books are linked to PubMed citations, but can now also be searched directly. To search Books, click on the "Books" link on the black bar, or choose Books from the "Search" pull-down menu on any PubMed screen. Searching and other new features will be explained in a forthcoming article.

In addition to the original text, Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd ed. (New York: Garland Publishing;1994) by Bruce Alberts, Dennis Bray, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, and James D. Watson, the Books database now includes:

• C. elegans II. Riddle, Donald L.; Blumenthal, Thomas; Meyer, Barbara J.; Priess, James R., editors. Plainview (NY): Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; c1997.
• Retroviruses. Coffin, John M.; Hughes, Stephen H.; Varmus, Harold E., editors. Plainview (NY): Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; c1997.

For more information, please visit Books or write to books@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

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