MEDLINE

Presented by,

Vishnumaya, R. S.

MLISc- S4

DLIS, University of Kerala

INTRODUCTION

• International information systems are organized to serve the needs of developed as well as developing countries on co-operative basis.

• These are established to store recorded information and retrieve it expeditiously.

• They provide free exchange of information among scientists in various countries.

• The major International information systems & services are INIS, AGRIS, INSPEC, BIOSIS, MEDLARS, etc.

• MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis & Retrieval System) is an online computer searching system & a bibliographic service started by NLM, Maryland (USA).

National Library of Medicine (NLM): An Overview

• The NLM, on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland (USA), founded in 1836.

• In 1956, NLM came under the Act of Congress of USA & was declared an apex library in the field of Medical Sciences.

NLM…• The world’s largest biomedical library, NLM

maintains & makes available a vast print collection & produces electronic information sources on a wide range of topics.

• It also supports & conducts research development, & training in biomedical informatics & health information technology.

Publications of NLM

• Index Medicus (1879)- Monthly

• Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)-1983

• Cumulated Index Medicus (1992)

• Abridged Index Medicus (1993)

MEDLARS

• The work on MEDLARS began in 1960 & the system has several major revisions.

• Came into operation in 1964.

MEDLARS System

• MEDLARS is a computerized storage & retrieval system to furnish bibliographic access to NLM’s large biomedical collection.

• It became operational with the 1st computer- produced issue of ‘Index Medicus’, a comprehensive subject- author index, to the articles from the world’s biomedical journals.

Activities of MEDLARS

• Preparing of citations for the publication of Index medicus.

• Maintenance of several computer- readable databases including MEDLINE.

• Operation of online network.

• Provides SDILINE.

Scope/ Subject matter

• Medicine

• Dentistry

• Nursing

• Pharmacology

• Toxicology

• Cancer

• Veterinary medicine

• Allied health professions, etc.

Computer- based products & services

• AVLINE (Audio-Visual Online)

• CANCERLIT (Cancer Literature)

• CATLINE (Catalogue Online)

• CHEMLINE (Chemical Dictionary Online)

• TOXLINE (Toxicology information Online)

• SDILINE (Selective Dissemination of Information Online)

• SERLINE (Serials Online)

• POPLINE (Population Information Online)

• RTECS (Registry of Toxic effects of Chemical Substances Online )

• HISTLINE (History of Medicine Online)

• MEDLINE (MEDLARS Online)

MEDLINE• MEDLINE is a literature database of life sciences

and biomedical information introduced in 1971.

• It includes medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine & health care.

• It can be searchable via PubMed & NLM’s National Center for Biotechnology Information’s Entrez system.

Indexing

• MEDLINE uses Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for information retrieval.

• Engines designed to search MEDLINE (such as PubMed & Entrez) generally use a Boolean expression combining MeSH terms, words in abstract and title of the article, author names, date of publication, etc.

Inclusion of journals

• More than 6,000 of the world's leading biomedical journals are indexed in MEDLINE.

• Selection is based on the recommendations

of a panel, the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee (LSTRC), based on scientific policy and scientific quality.

• PubMed is a free database comprises more than 22 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, & other online books.

• Citations may include links to full- text content from PubMed Central & publisher websites.

• Available via the NCBI Entrez retrieval system.

• MedlinePlus is a free web service produced & maintained by NLM.

• Provides consumer health information for patients, families, & health care providers.

• Brings together information from the US. NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other US.govt.agencies & health related organizations.

CONCLUSION

• MEDLARS is a computerized biomedical bibliographic storage & retrieval system operated by the NLM.

• It was 1st introduced in 1964 & evolved into an online system in 1971 called MEDLINE.

• The publication, Index Medicus was ceased in December 2004.

REFERENCES• Khanna, J.K. (1996). Handbook of Library

Information Systems & Services (Pp. 173-188). New Delhi: BEACON Books.

• www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed retrieved on 25.06.2013.

• www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus retrieved on 25.06.2013.

• www.medlineindia.com retrieved on 28.06.2013.