2009 version of PubMed to launch mid-December

The National Library of Medicine has released information about the new PubMed system that will be launched in mid-December:

The 2009 PubMed system will be brought up in mid-December. In addition to the new field, Create Date (see Create Date — New Field to Indicate When Records Added to PubMed), here are some additional notes of interest.

• The auto-complete feature will be added to First Author, Last Author, and Full Author Name on the search-by-field section of Advanced Search.
• The old “tab” version of Limits will not be updated. Future changes will be made only to the limit feature on the Advanced Search screen.
• A new field, PubMed Central Release, will be added to the MEDLINE® format with the field tag PMCR. This is the embargo date associated with the availability of the published article in PMC. This date, if present, already displays on the AbstractPlus format (see: PubMed Central® IDs Display in PubMed® AbstractPlus Format). It will display in the XML format in the PubMedPubDate element with the PubStatus attribute, “pmc-release.”
• The Publishing Model field will be removed from the MEDLINE format (field tag: PUBM) as it is no longer needed there.
• The new MeSH® heading, Young Adult, will not be added to the limits Age Group options. In the future, we will consider including it. Items indexed with Young Adult will be retrieved if either Adult: 19-44 years or All Adult: 19+ years are selected as limits. The term can be searched directly as young adult [mh].
• Changes to the Grant Number, as explained in MEDLINE® Data Changes — 2009, may be delayed on the Citation format. The MEDLINE format will be updated when the new system is available.
• The Recent Activity feature is being added to the AbstractPlus display.
• When the addition of MEDLINE records to PubMed resumes, the next automatic e-mail updates will likely be larger than usual (see Annual MEDLINE®/PubMed® Year-End Processing (YEP): Impact on Searching During Fall 2008).

National Library of Medicine Finding Aid Database released

The NLM History of Medicine division has recently unveiled a new database that searches archival finding aids that have been encoded with EAD (encoded archival description). This tool is a practical way of finding information on historical papers from various people in the medical field.

From the Archives and Modern Manuscripts program:

The NLM Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program oversees the collection and administration of archives and modern manuscripts that relate to the history of medicine. The collections include approximately 10,000 linear feet of material dating from the 17th century to the present. The collections are made up of organizational records and personal papers, oral histories, diaries, lecture notes, pharmacopoeias, herbals, treatises, and dissertations. Topics include the history of military medicine, biomedical science, and public health and disease. Also included are the internal records of NLM and other organizations relating to medical librarianship and medical informatics.

Check out the NLM archival database if you’re interested. If you need access to the primary information within the collection, contact the NLM Archives and Modern Manuscripts division.