Lister Hill Letter
Newsletter of the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences at UAB

July/August 2001

National Library of Medicine's PubMed to Replace Ovid MEDLINE at Lister Hill Library in 2002

Lister Hill Library has decided to offer PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) premier bibliographic resource, as the replacement for the Ovid Medline subscription beginning in 2002.  The reasons for this move, as well as an overview of some of the features offered by PubMed, are detailed in the following paragraphs.  (See also the previous article on the Impact of Proration at Lister Hill Library or on the web at http://www.uab.edu/lister/proration.htm)

PubMed, available on the Web at http://www.pubmed.gov, offers many advantages over Ovid Medline.  These include:
 

• Faster response time.  Since PubMed is an Internet 2-based resource, search response time is significantly faster than Ovid.
• More extensive database coverage.  Medline, NLM's bibliographic database of over 4000 biomedical journal titles and 11 million citations (to date), is augmented in PubMed by the inclusion of many additional citations from the publishers on topics such as chemistry, and general science areas. In addition, other databases are integrated into the PubMed resources, including:
• PreMedline - Contains basic citation information and abstracts before the citations are completely indexed with           NLM's MeSH Terms.  These "In process" records are added daily and provide a level of currency not enjoyed by Ovid Medline.
• National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) molecular biology databases (e.g., GenBank and BLAST) - These databases contain DNA and protein sequences, 3-D protein structure data, population study data sets, and assemblies of complete genomes in an integrated system.
• Other databases covered separately by Ovid have been integrated into the PubMed database, including AIDSLINE and HEALTHSTAR.  (CancerLit is available from the National Cancer Institute at http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov/cancerlit.html.)
• PubMed provides web links to over 2000 journal websites.  While most of these web sites require a subscription or fee in order to view the full-text of an article, individuals searching from the UAB network can frequently take advantage of those web links to gain quick access to those titles to which the library has an electronic subscription.
• PubMed is available free without subscription while Ovid Medline is not.  Thus, UAB Ovid Medline users who have left the institution have often been required to learn new Medline access methods, usually PubMed.  (The cost of the Ovid Medline license in light of the current financial restrictions was naturally a factor in the decision to cancel the database in favor of PubMed.)
• PubMed access eliminates the need for loading and processing the data by a third party.  This should reduce, if not eliminate, the problems suffered in the past because of vendor delays.

Search features shared with Ovid:

Simple keyword searching, as well as more advanced, combination searches through the use of Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) and the "History" feature;

Limits (e.g., date, language, age groups, study subjects, or publication type);

MeSH Browser assistance in locating focused subject terms from the NLM MeSH thesaurus, allowing for more accurate and efficient search results;

Field searching (e.g., title, author, etc.) via the Preview/Index feature;

The ability to save search strategies via the Cubby feature or by saving the URL at the Details screen;

Selecting and viewing marked citations via the Clipboard;

The ability to "LinkOut" to fulltext articles online;

Saving and/or printing selected citations in various formats (including that available for importing into bibliographic software programs, such as EndNote);

Under development - a version of the "Local Holdings" limit allowing users to retrieve only those journal titles available at Lister Hill Library.

Features unique to PubMed:

Direct searching of PubMed with Z39.50 search engines such as Endnote and Reference Manager;

Related Articles links on references to allow immediate retrieval of pre-calculated sets of closely related citations;

A Clinical Queries feature providing evidence-based medicine search filters for clinicians;

A Single Citation Matcher for filling out incomplete citations;

A Journal Browser for determining accepted journal abbreviations or for finding the full titles of an abbreviated title and;

Ample on-screen help via the online tutorial and help screens.

The option to order copies of selected articles automatically;

More detailed information about PubMed features available from:
 

• Forthcoming issues of this newsletter;
• PubMed classes offered as part of our regularly scheduled bibliographic instruction program - see http://www.uab.edu/lister/class.htm for class schedules and registration information;
• Full-day PubMed workshop at Lister Hill Library conducted by trainers from the National Training Center and Clearinghouse on April 18, 2002;
• A locally prepared PubMed FAQ sheet available at:  http://www.uab.edu/lister/pubmed.htm

Please contact the Lister Hill Library Information Desk staff at 934-2231 or via e-mail with questions or concerns about the switch from Ovid to PubMed.