Reminder: NLM Gateway Changing

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From NLM Technical Bulletin, November 23, 2011 [posted]

Reminder: NLM Gateway Changing

On December 1, 2011, the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC) will complete the transition of the NLM® Gateway to the new LHNCBC pilot project. The new site will retain the Web address of the former NLM Gateway. It will have two databases: Meeting Abstracts and Health Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj). HSRProj also remains available via a separate search engine through the portal HSR Information Central.

The Meeting Abstracts database contains abstracts from HIV/AIDS, Health Services Research, and Space Life Sciences meetings and conferences. The final update to the Meeting Abstracts database is the addition of the abstracts from the 2010 18th International AIDS Conference which will be completed in December 2011. After this addition, no new meeting abstract data will be loaded.

For additional information on the transition to the pilot project, see the article NLM Gateway Transitioning to New Pilot Project Site.

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May 27, 2011 [posted]

NLM Gateway Transitioning to New Pilot Project Site

On December 1, 2011, the NLM® Gateway will transition to a new pilot project from the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC). The current version of the NLM Gateway provides search access across multiple databases; however, all but one of these databases is available from other NLM sources, and most users of those databases search them directly and do not use the NLM Gateway. Only one database, Meeting Abstracts, is uniquely located on the Gateway system. Although NLM has invested in and supported the NLM Gateway for eleven years, based on current budget limitations and the results of evaluations of the use of NLM Gateway, the Library has recently decided to discontinue this service, as currently configured, and transition to a new pilot project site.

The new site will focus on two databases: Meeting Abstracts and Health Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj). A forthcoming NLM Technical Bulletin will provide more information on this new service from the LHNCBC. Once the new pilot system is available in December, the current Gateway URL will redirect any visitors to the new Web site. The Meeting Abstracts database will still be unique to this site, while HSRProj will continue to be accessible from its home site.

The Meeting Abstracts database contains selected abstracts from meetings and conferences in the subject areas of AIDS, Health Services Research, and Space Life Sciences. The last update to the Meeting Abstracts Database is anticipated to be the addition of the 2010 18th International AIDS Conference, which is expected to be loaded in the fall of 2011. After this addition, the Meeting Abstracts database will still be accessible, but no new data will be loaded.

All of the other resources currently accessed through the NLM Gateway will be available through their individual sites (see Table 1). The home sites for these systems are listed on the NLM Databases & Electronic Resources page. This directory of resources is easily located by clicking on the “All NLM Databases” link in the Databases column on theNLM homepage.

Table 1: The NLM Resources, and homepage URLs, that will no longer be available through the NLM Gateway.

NLM Resources Formerly on the NLM Gateway	URL
Bookshelf	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books
Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System (CCRIS)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?CCRIS
ClinicalTrials.gov	http://clinicaltrials.gov/
Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology Database (DART)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?DARTETIC
Directory of Health Organizations (DIRLINE®)	http://dirline.nlm.nih.gov/
Genetic Toxicology Data Bank (GENE-TOX)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?GENETOX
Genetics Home Reference	http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB
Household Products Database	http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/
Images from the History of Medicine	http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/ihm/index.html
Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?IRIS
International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?iter
MEDLINE®/PubMed®	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
MedlinePlus®	http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
NLM Catalog	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog
Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM)	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim
Profiles in Science®	http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/
TOXLINE® Subset	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?TOXLINE

If you are accustomed to the NLM Gateway cross file searching function you may want to try using the cross database features provided by TOXNET® and by the NCBI Entrez system.

The search box on the TOXNET homepage offers a cross database search function for the databases in the Toxicology Data Network (see Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1: TOXNET homepage with “Search All Databases” feature.

Figure 2: TOXNET Search All Databases Results Page.

The NCBI global query feature on the NCBI homepage provides a cross database search feature for all of the Entrez databases (see Figures 3 and 4). Selecting “All Databases” in the search box will return a summary search page identifying possible results across all of the NCBI Entrez databases, including PubMed, PubMed Central, BookShelf, NLM Catalog, and the genetic and protein databases such as Gene, OMIM, BLAST, dbGaP, and others.

You can simply bookmark the Web page http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gquery to access the global query search feature. However, going to the NCBI homepage may be the easier way to access this function; the NCBI logo on the top left corner of any Entrez-based system links to the NCBI homepage.

Figure 3: NCBI homepage and “All Databases” option in the search box.

Figure 4: Entrez global query search results page.

By David Gillikin
Bibliographic Services Division

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Tips on Locating Conference Proceedings

Scientific and medically related meeting items are not easily found.  Meeting papers and abstracts at many conferences and congresses are not always readily available on the Internet. Below are a few tips for locating conference proceedings.

Please do not hesitate to contact a reference librarian at a local academic or hospital institution for assistance. Levels of assistance vary among libraries, so please call ahead!
You may also email me at jmflahiff@yahoo.com. I will reply within 48 hours in most cases.

Index and database suggestions

Very often published meeting items (as abstracts and papers)are included in  a scientific or medical journal. While a journal itself may be online, much of its content may not be free. However, many journals are freely available at an academic or medical library through institutional subscriptions. Call ahead and ask for a reference librarian.
Here are a few good places to start searching:

• PubMed (premier source of biomedical information)
• Library catalogs, including university library catalogs ; shared library catalogs as OhioLINK and WorldCat
• CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health) Available at many academic libraries
• Subscription based indexes and databases available at many academic libraries, as PapersFirst (OCLC), Proceedings First (OCLC), Web of Science Conference Proceedings Citation Index (ISI), BIOSIS Previews/Biological Abstracts, CSA/Proquest (Conference Proceedings Index) and Academic Search Premier

Tips on locating the full text of any freely available  items on the Internet

• Search using more than one search engine. Google does not search the entire World Wide Web (WWW). Other options include bing.com, yippy.com, and Scirus.com [science search engine]. Check the search engine’s Search Tips or Help area for tips on effective searches.

• Search for the sponsoring conference or association. At times the conference itself will have a Web site. Some organizations provide the full text of some or all meeting items.

For example, the XVIII International AIDS Conference provides abstracts and Webcasts.

• Search using the author’s name. Include his or her affiliation (as a university) to help narrow the search.

Consider contacting the author or the association which sponsored the meeting
Associations and organizations may charge for their services. Many authors are happy to share their publications.

Sources

• Conference Proceedings: A How-To-Guide