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Technical Notes
Data Entry Update - April 8, 1997The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has eliminated both the MEDLINE data entry backlog and the concomitant indexing backlog. Both of these backlogs resulted from the suspension of NLM's editing and data entry contract from late February 1996 to late April 1996 by the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals, the Board which ruled on the protest against that contract award. The MEDLINE database mounted on MEDLARS at NLM is now current. 1997 NLM Invitation and MLA Meeting ReminderThe theme of the 97th Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA) is "Committed to Change. Ready for the Challenge." This year's meeting is being held at the Washington Convention Center in Seattle. Attendees are invited to come to Island I in the exhibit hall to visit with NLM staff and see demonstrations of various NLM products and services, including PubMed, Internet Grateful Med, and Grateful Med for Windows. The NLM Online Users' "Lunch and Learn" session will be held on Sunday, May 25, 12:30-1:15 p.m. in Rooms 602-604. This meeting will provide an overview of developments in NLM's online services, including OLDMEDLINE, PubMed, DOCLINE and others. All attendees will receive a colorful memento from the Library. The NLM Update will be held on Monday, May 26, 11:00 a.m.-noon, in Rooms 6A-6B. Dr. Lindberg, Director of NLM, will discuss promising new developments at the Library, including the Visible Human Project, the Human Gene Map and a new program to evaluate telemedicine products. Lois Ann Colaianni, NLM Associate Director of Library Operations, will discuss advances in this area of the Library including Relais, a streamlined system for interlibrary loan. Dr. David Lipman, Director of the Library's National Center for Biotechnology Information, will talk about PubMed. The NN/LM (National Network of Libraries of Medicine) Outreach session will be held Monday, May 26, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Please check the program for the room number. This evaluation session will examine a Regional Medical Library enhancement project in Region 6 (the Pacific Northwest) involving Native Americans and Alaska Natives. NLM will be presenting "Improving the NLM Home Page: From Logs to Links" at the MLA poster session, Monday, May 26, 4-6 p.m. and Tuesday, May 27, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Check your program for the location of the poster session. HISTLINE UpdateA restructured HISTLINE was available online in 1994, replacing an earlier version created in 1978. When the new MeSH-based HISTLINE was created (see pages 1,9-14 of the July-August 1994 Technical Bulletin), approximately 30,000 citations could not be transferred from the old database because they lacked MeSH Headings. NLM committed to a three-phase project that would add MeSH Headings to these citations and then reintroduce them to the HISTLINE database. Phase I of this retrospective conversion was completed in two updates. In June 1996, 14,974 citations to journals in the NLM collection but not covered in any other NLM database, were added to HISTLINE at that time (see page 2 of the July-August 1996 Technical Bulletin). In December 1996, an additional 1,848 records were added. In Phase II, 9,210 citations, to journal articles from non-NLM sources, were converted. These citations were added to HISTLINE in January 1997. These records can be searched in HISTLINE as follows:
Both MeSH Headings (MH) and Keywords (KW) may be used for subject searching. Abstracts are not available online for these citations. In Phase III, NLM will convert old HISTLINE citations to other non-NLM sources, including book chapters, and papers from conferences and meetings. These citations are expected to be added to HISTLINE later in 1997. Cloning of Mammals or Hello, DollyCloning is currently a non-print entry term to the MeSH heading CLONING, MOLECULAR. That is, the term CLONING does not exist in Index Medicus or MEDLINE but if a searcher types in 'cloning' online, articles indexed with CLONING, MOLECULAR will be retrieved. This is in the process of being changed. Since the advent of Dolly, it is expected that users will want to search with the term 'cloning' to retrieve articles about non-molecular cloning. Therefore, for the remainder of the 1997 indexing year, the entry term 'cloning' coordinated with *GENETIC ENGINEERING will be used to allow online retrieval on the subject of mammalian cloning; the MeSH Section will create an appropriate term for this literature for 1998. The strategy that follows may be used to retrieve the original article in Nature on the transplantation procedure used to create Dolly in Scotland. SS 1 /C? USER: cloning and *genetic engineering and *sheep and nature (ta) PROG: SS (1) PSTG (1) SS 2 /C? USER: prt include mh PROG: 1 UI - 97192092 AU - Wilmut I AU - Schnieke AE AU - McWhir J AU - Kind AJ AU - Campbell KH TI - Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells [see comments] CM - Comment in: Nature 1997 Feb 27;385(6619 ):753 MH - Animal MH - Animal Husbandry MH - Cell Differentiation/*GENETICS MH - Cell Fusion MH - Cell Nucleus/GENETICS/*TRANSPLANTATION MH - Cells, Cultured MH - Clone Cells MH - Cloning, Molecular * Cloning still maps to CLONING, MOLECULAR. MH - Electric Stimulation MH - Embryo/CYTOLOGY MH - Embryo Transfer/VETERINARY MH - Female MH - Fetal Development/*GENETICS MH - Fetus/CYTOLOGY MH - Fibroblasts/CYTOLOGY MH - *Genetic Engineering MH - G0 Phase MH - Mammae/CYTOLOGY MH - Oocytes/CYTOLOGY MH - Pregnancy MH - Reproduction, Asexual MH - Sheep/EMBRYOLOGY/*GENETICS MH - Support, Non-U.S. Gov't SO - Nature 1997 Feb 27;385(6619):810-3 New Online Services Reference Manual (OSRM) Chapters AvailableThe following OSRM chapters have been recently made available:
Available Free ElectronicallyIf you have Internet/ftp capabilities and prefer to download the chapters, you may do so by connecting to the NLM Home Page (http://www.nlm.nih.gov), selecting More Publications under Our Publications, Publications About Using NLM Programs and Services, [This link was removed because it is no longer valid] Online Services Reference Manual [corrected 1/3/1998]. The chapters are available electronically in three formats: Adobe Acrobat pdf; WordPerfect 5.1; and PostScript. Available for Purchase in Printed FormatPaper copies of the chapters can be ordered at a cost of $10 per chapter, please send request(s) with a check or credit card number to:
Please include your complete address and phone number. If using a credit card, the order may be faxed to 212-534-7042. Checks must be payable to the New York Academy of Medicine and directed to Mr. Charles Rapisarda's attention. Sorry, no phone orders, purchase orders or invoices. Please direct questions about this service to: notc@nyam.org. Meet the MEDLARS Customer Support StaffBelow are some of the faces that match the voices you hear (or the names you see) when you contact the MEDLARS Management Section for assistance on the phone (888-346-3656; see the box on this page for the details about this new number) or via e-mail (mms@nlm.nih.gov or gmhelp@nlm.nih.gov or access@nlm.nih.gov). Clockwise starting with the seated person in the foreground wearing the headset, they are: Sara, Toby, Jane, Claire, Carolyn, Paula, Jan, Rhonda, Mary, Annette, Scott, Marcia, Kathi (seated), and Janet (seated). Not pictured, but equally important to the functioning of the Section, are: Susan, Anne, Iris, Tamara, Vivian, Barbara, Frances, Jeff, Pat, and Rose. New Phone SystemNLM is improving customer service! Beginning in early May, you may start using a new toll-free number, 1-888-FINDNLM (1-888-346-3656). This number will allow you to get to a variety of Library service areas, that previously were reachable only by using separate phone numbers. Our new number, 1-888-FINDNLM, has several short, easy-to-use menu choices. For example, pressing "1" will connect you to the MEDLARS Service Desk options including information on access options and applications, billing, the latest Grateful Med version information, and assistance. Similarly, if you want the NLM Reference Section, or the DOCLINE Service Desk, you simply press the number of your choice. If you are unsure, you can press a number or stay on the line and you will be connected to an information specialist, who will either answer your call or transfer you. Watch for continued improvements in our customer service. You'll be pleased with our simplification and commitment to improved customer service and support. Tips for MEDLARS Service Desk callers:Essentially nothing but the number has changed. When you dial the new number, press 1 followed by 4 to be transferred directly to a specialist for assistance during Service Desk hours (Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. -11:00 p.m. ET, Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET) The old MEDLARS Service Desk number (as well as the NLM-wide and DOCLINE Service Desk numbers) will continue for some time; they'll just be mapped to the new number and menu choices. |
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