Category: NLM

PMC Has a New Look

PubMed Central has gotten a new look, according to the July 15th NLM Technical Bulletin, the “interface-lift” will “not only enhance its overall look and feel but also provide users with easier access to PMC resource and information.” 

Improvements include:

  • New homepage, offering better navigation and direct access to resources such as the Users’ Guide and NIH Public Access Information.
  • Redesigned Advanced Search and Limits pages
  • An updated search results format
  • Direct access to images in PMC articles
  • A new organization structure and appearance for PMC’s informational pages, including drop-down menus for navigation links

For more information about these changes and pictures go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ja11/ja11_pmc.html

My NCBI Enhancements

The June 24, 2011 NLM Technical Bulletin reported on some enhancement to My NCBI’s My Bibliography.  My Bibliography will soon display links to free full text, related citations, and articles cited in PMC.  It will also have a “portlet” for related PubMed citations.  The citations in the portlet will be based on topics of the citations that are stored in My Bibliography. 

For more information including a picture of how it will look go to the NLM Technical Bulletin.

Show Off Your Apps

The National Library of Medicine is holding a Show Off Your Apps: Innavative Uses of NLM Information Challenge.  The challenge is open to individuals, teams, and organizations.  “The purpose of this contest is to develop innovative software applications to further NLM’s mission of aiding the dissemination and exchange of scientific and other information pertinent to medicine and public health.”

In order to be eligible, apps must use the NLM’s colelction of biomedical data, including downloadable data sets, APIs, and/or software tools.  Basically it looks like you have to have an app that uses NLM stuff, not just some cool medical app that doesn’t have any content from NLM. 

Apps will be judged via the following criteria:

  • Quality and Accuracy (data are presented accurately)
  • Impact on Potential Users (data presented clearly to target audience)
  • Usability (operation of program requires minimal training and has the potential for repeated, regular use)
  • Innovative Design (creativity and originality of concept)
  • Platform Neutrality (operates on major web browsers, systems, and mobile devices)
  • Extensibility (potential for further development)
  • Alignment with Section 508 Accessibility Guidelines (see standards at: http://www.section508.gov/)

Submission deadline is August 31, 2011.

Winners will be honored at NLM awards presentation in Behtesda, MD on November 2, 2011.

For more information go to:

http://challenge.gov/NIH/132-nlm-show-off-your-apps-innovative-uses-of-nlm-information

On a personal note, I really hope they will list all of the submissions and have links to them so that we can test them and play with them.

Don’t Know Much About eScience?

So what were you doing on January 20, 2011?  If you were attending the GMR’s webinar on eScience then you are ahead of the game.  If you are like me and can’t remember what you had for breakfast but are pretty certain you didn’t attend the webinar then you will be happy to know that the program recording and resources are available on GMR’s Online Education page. 

About the course:

e-Science is an emerging research methodology with an emphasis upon data and networks. As researchers in biomedicine and other health-related disciplines increasingly utilize today’s technology in their work, they produce immense amounts of data that can, ideally, be shared and repurposed to speed up scientific discovery. Similarly, they use networking tools to find, develop and work in a collaborative environment no longer constrained by geographical limitations. Can health sciences librarians with their skills in information management and organization, as well as success in building partnerships across areas, find a role in this new area? The answer is “YES!” Presenter: Sally Gore.

Unfortunately there was a audio problem during recording BUT it was captioned.

New NLM Site Not Designed for Older Browsers?

Yesterday I reported that NLM redesigned their website and I mentioned that I kind of liked the design.  Today people on MEDLIB-L are reporting problems viewing the site.  The biggest complaint (and a valid one) is that they see blue links on a blue background.  What they should see is this image as displayed on the Technical Bulletin, instead they see this which is clearly difficult to read.

Is this a browser issue?  I would think it is.  The people who are reporting this problem seem to have IE 7 or lower.  I have IE 8 and all of my computers are IE 8 so I really can’t confirm whether it is browser incompatibility issue.  I have Firefox and the site does well on Firefox.  However as one person pointed out on MEDLIB-Lthis could also be a style sheet loading problem, they recommend going into Tools and changing the check box for formatting documents using my style sheet. 

As I said I don’t have IE 7 on any of my computers, so I cannot verify if this is a fix or not. 

What perplexes me slightly is why NLM would design a site that is not very compatible with IE 7?

UPDATE: I logged into my email on 1/13/11 and there was a post on MEDLIB-L from a person at NLM.  According to the email, they are actively investigating the problem.  Prior to the launch they did test the site on IE 6,7,8, and 9 beta as well as Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.  They did not see any issues prior to the release.  However, there are some IE 7 users who are seeing this problem.

They want your help identifying the cause.  If your home page looks very different from the image at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/nlmhomepage_2011.png contact them at customer service email or their contact page http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/mainweb/siebel/nlm/index.cfm. 

Please give a detailed description of your IE version and operating system. 

50 Years of MeSH

Several librarians at my institution were interested in seeing/listening to the MeSH at 50 – 50th Anniversary of Medical Subject Headings by Robert Braude at NLM a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately at the time, we couldn’t get it to work correctly for some reason. 

Good news, the program is now available under Past Events on the NIH’s videocast site.  One of the librarians here has already viewed it and said that much of the talk is about “what was (and wasn’t) available/used BEFORE MeSH, and about the initial development of MeSH itself.”  The program lasts about an hour and according the one viewer, there aren’t a lot of “visuals” so it is easy to listen to while multi-tasking at your desk.

NLM Cataloging News

NLM announced last Friday the Journals Database will retired and its information will be added to the NLM catalog.  The catalog will contain the “detailed Medline indexing information about the journals in PubMed and other NCBI database.”  For more information and screen shots go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd10/nd10_nlm_catalog.html

NLM announced on Monday other changes to the catalog such as the addition and changes of some publication types.  For more information those changes go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd10/nd10_cataloging_news_2011.html

Congratulations 2010-2011 NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows

The NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program  is “focused on preparing emerging leaders for the position of library director in academic health sciences libraries. Fellows will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in a variety of learning settings, including exposure to leadership in another environment.”  Fellows are paired with academic health sciences library directors who will mentor them during the fellowship.

Congratuations Tania P. Bardyn, Keith Cogdill, Kelly R. Gonzalez, Deborah Sibley, Susan Nash Simpson.  Read more about the new fellows and their mentors and more information about the scholarship on the AAHSL web site.