LM is ready to begin the phase-out of Internet Grateful Med (IGM). The Library is making significant strides in its efforts to convert bibliographic data from the legacy ELHILL retrieval system to other Web-based retrieval systems. Internet Grateful Med is primarily the Library's search interface to the mainframe ELHILL databases, so it is time to retire portions of IGM as the ELHILL databases are made available with other search systems.

Direct ELHILL public access was discontinued on September 30, 1999. The last updates to the ELHILL citation databases (to support IGM access) contained the December 2000 entry month data. All ELHILL citation databases being searched by IGM are now static. The data will not be upgraded with the 2001 MeSH vocabulary, nor will new citations be added. Also, the Find MeSH/Meta Terms feature on IGM will not be upgraded with 2001 MeSH.

Database accessibility via IGM will change over the coming months as follows:

1. The SDILINE search screen will be deactivated in early February 2001. This screen has provided access to the December 2000 MEDLINE Entry Month since October 21, 2000. No 2001 Entry Month data will be accessible via IGM. SDILINE searchers should use PubMed's Cubby feature for current awareness searching.
   
   Please be advised that regular updating of PubMed with in-process citations is ongoing, but NLM is in the normal end-of-year hiatus for updating PubMed with completed, MeSH-indexed, new MEDLINE citations. This hiatus is expected to end in late January once the entire MEDLINE database is reloaded in PubMed with the 2001 MeSH changes. The end-of-year cycle has been somewhat extended this year because of the effort involved with the implementation of the new MEDLINE Data Creation and Maintenance System (DCMS), and the associated data format export changes, as well as restructuring in the PubMed database design. For more information on the hiatus, please read the NLM Technical Bulletin article "MEDLINE Indexed Citations and Corrections Temporarily on Hold". [Editors Note: Additional hiatus information is available in the PubMed Status Technical Note in this issue of the NLM Technical Bulletin.]
   
   
2. Search screens will be deactivated and users linked to other search systems for the following databases, effective April 2, 2001:
   
   

   MEDLINE	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
   AIDSDRUGS	http://aidsinfo.nih.gov
   AIDSLINE	http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov    [date changed March 27, 2001, see below]
   AIDSTRIALS	http://aidsinfo.nih.gov
   ChemID	http://chem.sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemidplus/
   DIRLINE	http://dirline.nlm.nih.gov
   HealthSTAR *	http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov
   OLDMEDLINE	http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov
   TOXLINE **	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/

   
   Notes:
   ^* For HealthSTAR, the unique monographic data are already in LocatorPlus and the unique journal citation data are already in PubMed. The unique meeting abstract data are expected to be added to the NLM Gateway in January 2001. HealthSTAR is the first of the specialized ELHILL databases to be completely dismantled so that its citations reside in three separate retrieval systems. The new NLM Gateway automatically searches all three systems at once.
   
   ^** For TOXLINE, the TOXNET version of TOXLINE closely resembles the ELHILL database available through IGM, and includes some updates of components never available on ELHILL. Please note that current journal literature in the field of toxicology and environmental health can be accessed through the Toxicology Subset on PubMed. See the forthcoming NLM Technical Bulletin article, "Next Generation TOXLINE", for a more detailed description of the TOXNET version.
     
3. IGM search screens will be retained for the remaining static ELHILL databases until the unique data they contain are available elsewhere. NLM expects this data conversion to be completed during the April-September 2001 [date revised March 27, 2001] timeframe for the following databases:
   
   

   AIDSLINE    [added March 27, 2001]

   BIOETHICSLINE

   HISTLINE

   POPLINE

   SPACELINE

   
   All the unique monographic data from the above databases are also already in LocatorPlus. Once the unique journal citation data are added to PubMed from the four databases and the unique meeting abstract data from POPLINE and SPACELINE are added to the NLM Gateway, these screens will be discontinued and IGM users will be linked directly to the NLM Gateway.
   
   
4. The IGM search screen for HSRProj which has project summaries will be retained through September 2001 [date revised March 27, 2001] as NLM develops a replacement data creation and maintenance system. These data are also available through the NLM Gateway.

Based on this timeline, NLM expects that IGM will be officially and completely retired by the end of September 2001 [date revised March 27, 2001].

Since April 1996, IGM has provided a user-friendly, Web-based interface to many of NLM's information resources. In September 1998, IGM switched its MEDLINE access from the ELHILL mainframe version to the PubMed version. Now the industrious NLM staff from the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications who brought you IGM are the moving force behind the new NLM Gateway interface that searches multiple, Web-based NLM information systems.

We want to thank the many loyal and devoted users of IGM over the years. Please help us "ring out the old" (IGM) and "ring in the new" (NLM Gateway) as we start the new year. We welcome your questions, comments, and suggestions. You may contact us at custserv@nlm.nih.gov or (888) FIND-NLM.

By Lou Knecht
Bibliographic Services Division
and
Sonya Shooshan
Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications

Knecht L., Shooshan S. Internet Grateful Med to Be Retired; Reminder of NLM Gateway Availability. NLM Tech Bull. 2001 Jan-Feb;(318):e3.