NLM News 1996 September-December; Vol. 52, Nos. 5-6
The NLM News is published 6 times a year by the National Library of
Medicine (National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human
Services).
In addition to electronic access, the printed NLM News is mailed
without charge to institutions and individuals interested in health
sciences communications. For further information, contact the NLM News
Editor, Melanie Modlin; e-mail address: melanie_modlin@nlm.nih.gov
- NLM Director, Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D.
- Chief, Office of Public Information, Robert B. Mehnert
- Editor, Melanie Modlin, Office of Public Information
Contents:
NLM Conference Showcases Amazing Uses of Body of Information
When they willed their bodies to science a few years back, a convicted
murderer from Texas and a Maryland housewife could never have imagined the
legacy they'd leave.
Now, thanks to the NLM's "Visible Human Project," which produced
computerized images of the pair's cadavers:
- doctors can practice their surgical approach to prostate operations
and other procedures repeatedly and with unprecedented precision;
- non-invasive cancer screening techniques such as "virtual
colonoscopy" have been developed, which may eliminate the need for
costly, uncomfortable invasive procedures; and
- the science fiction of the film "Fantastic Voyage" has almost become
fact as, using computers, medical students now "fly through" the body,
and can view all organs and systems in 3-D, from any angle. Using one
CD-ROM product, they can even carry out dissection via computer, but
with the advantage over a human subject of being able to do it over and
over again.
These and other applications of the Visible Human data were the topic
of the NLM-sponsored "Visible Human Project Conference," held on the NIH
campus Oct. 7-8, 1996. At the event, more than 250 scientists, medical
researchers, computer experts, illustrators and others gathered to share
information on how the Visible Humans are revolutionizing the way medicine
is taught and practiced in the U.S. and around the world. 
Caption:
Scientists at University Hospital Hamburg,
Germany, used theVisible
Human datasets to improve existing images in
VOXEL-MAN 3-D
interactive atlases.
The processing of the two human cadavers -- electronically scanned,
frozen rock-solid, encased in gelatin, milled into thousands of slices and
digitally photographed -- was done for a relatively modest investment of
$1.4 million.
But since the release of the Visible Man and Visible Woman datasets, in
1994 and 1995 respectively, the National Library of Medicine has awarded
over 700 licenses for their use in 27 countries.
A press event, held October 7th, in conjunction with the conference,
presented some of the most exciting examples of innovation. Besides the
above-mentioned colon cancer screening method, developed at the State
University of New York, Stony Brook, and the "Dissectable Human," from
Mosby Publishers, St. Louis, and Engineering Animation, Inc., Ames, IA,
these included:
- a University of Colorado "anesthesia simulator" which, using a scale
model of a human back, allows residents and post-graduate fellows to
simulate celiac plexus block placement with a needle simulator. The
device allows them to feel different textures -- bone and muscle, for
example -- as they use the instruments, and even to sense the heartbeat
when they are probing near the aorta.
- a project out of NASA's Ames Research Center in San Diego, which
lets doctors visualize in advance the results of plastic or
reconstructive surgery, by permitting simulation of the procedure;
- a neurosurgery simulator, developed by HT Medical, Rockville, MD,
that allows neurosurgeons to practice many delicate procedures; and
- the use of Visible Human images by two University of Maryland at
Baltimore dentists, to confirm their discovery of a facial muscle that
had never been identified before.
"Everyone connected with the Visible Human Project has been amazed at
the range of applications these data have induced," Dr. Donald A. B.
Lindberg, Director of the National Library of Medicine, observed.
"Extending the work systematically by emphasizing segmentation then
attribute inheritance will likely produce more good and important uses."
Caption:
An image from SUNY Stony Brook's automated
fly-through inside the
colon of the Visible Human Male.
Dr. Michael Ackerman, NLM Assistant Director for High Performance
Computing and Communications and Head of the Virtual Human Project, is
focused on future developments. "Our next step will be to begin the
segmentation and labeling process so that the Visible Human dataset
becomes a Visible Human Database."
For More Information
Although the Visible Human data is available to the public on the
Internet, downloading it all would take days to weeks of uninterrupted
communications. The NLM makes the complete database available on magnetic
tape to anyone who applies for and receives a license to use it.
To download sample full-scale images of the Visible Humans via the
Internet, visit the Library's FTP site (nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov). On the World Wide Web,
sample JPEG images can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov, on the Research
Projects page, under the Visible Human Project.
New Database Expected to Speed
Progress in Genetics Research
On Thursday, October 24th, with a few keystrokes on a computer, Drs.
Greg Schuler and Mark Boguski unleashed on the Internet a whole new world
of genetic information.
The two scientists from NLM's National Center for Biotechnology
Information were at the helm of "The Human Gene Map" project, which united
104 genemappers from three continents in a common goal of charting the
location in the genome of tens of thousands of human genes.
The fruit of their efforts is a database and web site of 16,354 human
genes -- roughly one-fifth of all genes packaged in the 23 pairs of
chromosomes of every human cell. The gene map was introduced to the
scientific community in a paper by Schuler, Boguski and their 102
colleagues, titled simply, "A Gene Map of the Human Genome." It appeared
in the October 25th issue of the journal Science.
The massive computerized gene map database, available online to any
interested party, is a pivotal development in the 15-year, $3 billion
international human genome project.
"This map is notable both for the science it represents and for the
ingenious application of technology that makes the knowledge visually
accessible on the World Wide Web in all its detail," noted NLM Director
Dr. Donald A. B. Lindberg. "This information, in pictures, text and
graphics, can be looked at by anyone with access to the Internet -- the
general public and, of course, scientists. We believe the use of this gene
map could take two or three years off the process of finding a disease
gene." 
Caption:
"The Human Transcript Map," a poster and web
site with highlights
from the Human Gene Map project, was launched
with the
October 25, 1996 edition of Science.
"The gene map will simplify the process of finding genes for human
disorders in the same way that a schematic diagram of your car helps you
to diagnose automotive problems," explained NCBI's Dr. Greg Schuler. "If
you know that the problem is associated with an odd noise emanating from a
certain region of the car, looking at the schematics will give you a list
of potentially faulty parts in that area. Similarly," he continued, "if
scientists know that a specific region of a chromosome is associated with
a particular disease, they can consult the gene map to get a list of genes
mapping to that position. Even with only one-fifth of the genes present on
this schematic of the genome, we expect the search for faulty genes to be
greatly accelerated."
You don't have to be an expert in genetics to appreciate what the gene
map has to offer.
"Even a high school student could come in here and understand the big
picture of the genome," observed Dr. Mark Boguski of NCBI. "We've combined
the information in a very user-friendly package, so for the first time
someone who's not an expert in the field can look at it and appreciate the
immensity of the task, and how much progress we've already made."
The gene map site has been very popular, according to Dr. David Lipman,
Director of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. "We're
getting over 6,000 visitors daily, and it is a diverse audience, from high
school students to commercial and academic researchers," he said.
As the paper in Science concluded, "With continued efforts in the years
ahead, disease-gene hunts should be transformed into the systematic
interrogation of suspects, with revolutionary consequences for our
approach to understanding genetic susceptibilities to disease."
The World Wide Web address that opens access to the Internet web site
for the gene map is: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SCIENCE96
This National Center for Biotechnology Information, a research arm
of the NLM and an important component of the Human Genome Project, creates
and maintains systems for storing, analyzing and retrieving information on
molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics.
In September of 1996, the National Library of Medicine awarded 19
projects with a total budget of $42 million to evaluate the health care
impact of access to electronic information in telemedicine applications.
Fifteen are new competitive awards; four are extensions to High
Performance Computer and Communications Program (HPCC) projects funded by
NLM in FY 1994. One project is co-funded by the Agency for Health Care
Policy and Research, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A
complete list of the projects, funded institutions and principal
investigators is available on NLM's web site (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/).
Announced by HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala, in combination with a
Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) demonstration project that
enables Medicare to pay for health care services delivered via
telemedicine in selected states, the NLM-funded projects will evaluate the
use of telemedicine and computer-based patient records in the care of a
wide range of populations -- from newborns to the chronically ill and
elderly -- in frontier, rural, suburban and inner city areas and in
settings including ambulances, small clinics, tertiary care facilities,
college dormitories and patients' homes. A number of projects involve
direct patient access to their medical records and to treatment and
prevention information. Some involve a more efficient interface between
the health care and public health systems.
Located in 13 states and the District of Columbia, the multiyear
projects will serve as models for evaluating the impact of telemedicine
and computer-based projects on cost, quality and access to care; assessing
various approaches to ensuring the confidentiality of health data
transmitted electronically; and testing emerging health data standards.
Each project will review and apply recommendations from two National
Academy of Sciences studies commissioned and funded by NLM. Telemedicine:
A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications in Health Care, also supported by
HCFA, was issued by the Institute of Medicine in October. (A summary of
the report is available from the IOM. Call 202-334-2360 or fax a request
to 202-334-3862.)
The second study on best practices for ensuring the confidentiality of
electronic health data was conducted by the Computer and
Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council, with additional
support from the NIH Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center and the
Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. It is scheduled for release in
February of 1997. Both studies gathered information from visits to
operational sites.
The evaluation planned will address issues such as health outcomes,
shifts in patterns of care, costs, burden on patients and their families,
and rural provider burnout, as well as technical acceptability and patient
and provider acceptance. Many different evaluation methods will be
employed, including the critical incident technique and controlled
clinical trials. Some projects will develop and test innovative techniques
to protect health data systems from external threat, e.g., to reduce the
vulnerability of client workstations, and to detect inappropriate use of
authorized users, e.g., automated analysis of system traffic logs to
identify unusual access patterns.
The results of these studies should provide a clearer picture of the
benefits and appropriate uses of telemedicine and computer-based patient
record systems, and identify promising methods for protecting the
confidentiality of electronic health data, while allowing the rapid access
needed for effective health care and public health intervention.
On November 13, 1996, the National Library of Medicine's Public
Services Division held an open house to inform patrons about equipment and
software acquisitions, and accessibility to services at the Library, to
support the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The
Reference Section staff developed a display of various ways access for
disabled patrons has been improved, and conducted demonstrations of screen
magnification software, the "JAWS" speech synthesizer (which assists
sight-impaired visitors), a computer print enlarger and other equipment.
Fact sheets and brochures on accessibility at NLM were made available and
the display remained in the rotunda through 1996.
A Look at New Technical Developments at the NLM
Grateful Med for
Windows Released
NLM has just released Version 1.0 of Grateful Med for Windows. This
program currently provides access to MEDLINE (back through 1966), the
Library's large bibliographic database, only.
People who have tested the software have been overwhelmingly positive
in their response to its new features, particularly the variety of options
for tailoring the search and retrieval process to individual needs. You
can search for articles by subject, author or title, and limit a search by
age group, journal or several other categories. In building a search, you
have easy access to NLM's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and a list of
all journals indexed in MEDLINE.
The program lets you manage the way in which it retrieves the results
of a search, and choose the information you want to download for each
article citation that it finds. It also lets you send a request to a local
medical library for a copy of an article you have found in a search.
Version 1.0 will run on Windows 95, Windows 3.x and Windows NT.
If you are a registered user of the DOS version of Grateful Med and
returned the "Grateful Med for Windows" request card that you received
earlier this year, you will be sent a copy of Version 1.0 in January 1997.
You may also download at no charge the Grateful Med for Windows program
and User's Guide from NLM's World Wide Web site at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/gmwin.html,
or purchase the software and User's Guide for $29.95 from the National
Technical Information Service (1-800-423-9255).
NTIS OrderNow
Site: http://www.ntis.gov/ordering.htm
OLDMEDLINE: Something Old, Something New
On December 16, 1996, a new database, OLDMEDLINE, joined the family of
MEDLINE databases at the National Library of Medicine. Although it may be
expanded later, OLDMEDLINE or "OLDMED" at this point will contain over
307,000 citations published in the 1964 and 1965 Cumulated Index Medicus.
This database will be accessible to command language searchers from any
USER: prompt with the command "FILE OLDMED" or "FILE OLDMEDLINE". The file
will not have an input form screen in any of the Grateful Med programs;
however, Grateful Med users who know how to search directly with the
command language may choose direct searching and then give the FILE
command. This file will not be immediately available in Internet Grateful
Med.
NLM Exhibition Sheds Light on Mind-Body Connection
Can you die from loneliness? Is laughter the best medicine? Can you
literally become sick with fear?
Many of us have a layperson's intuition that there is something to
ideas like these, but what do science and medicine have to say about them?
Can the experiences of grief, anxiety, hope and joy that seem to happen in
our minds also leave traces on our bodies? Can they make us sick or well?
"Emotions and Disease," a new exhibition at the National Library of
Medicine, explores how western science and medicine have over time pursued
a range of answers to these questions. This fascinating collection of
books, artworks, photographs, videos and medical artifacts can be viewed
in the Library's main lobby and rotunda through February 28th. It is a
production of the NLM's History of Medicine Division.
"This exhibition shows the ways in which scientific theories, medical
practice and cultural beliefs have all been involved in the struggle to
understand the relationship of body and psyche," said Elizabeth Fee,
Ph.D., Chief of the History of Medicine Division. "Most people have some
direct experience of the relationship of emotional states to health and
sickness and this relationship has been recognized by clinicians for
centuries. Contemporary scientific research allows us to explore these
issues in new ways, but the fundamental importance of the emotions was
recognized even in ancient medical theories."
Dr. Fee is co-director of the exhibition with Esther Sternberg, M.D.,
Chief of Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior at the National Institute
of Mental Health. Anne Harrington, Harvard University, and Theodore M.
Brown, University of Rochester, are Visiting Curators of the exhibit, Lou
Storey is Exhibition Designer, Anne Whitaker is Collections Manager and
Patricia Tuohy is Exhibition Manager.
"Emotions and Disease" was made possible with the generous support of
the Charles A. Dana Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, the Fetzer Institute and the National Institute of Mental
Health.
The wheelchair-accessible display is open 8:30 to 5 Monday through
Friday and till 9 Thursdays, and 8:30 to 12:30 Saturdays.
Photo Not Available
Caption:
Aerial view of the
reception for the opening of the "Emotions and Disease" exhibit, Nov.
13th.
Photo Not Available
Caption:
The "Stress and
Deprivation" segment features not only an anxiety-inducing photo of
traffic but "Noise Pollution," a work by Chris Todd consisting of three
phones that blare traffic sounds.
Photo Not Available
Caption:
NIMH's Dr. Esther
Sternberg, co-director of the exhibition, joins NLM Director Dr. Donald A.
B. Lindberg at the opening night reception.
1996 NLM Honor Awards
Saluting Excellence,
Innovation and Longevity
On November 14, 1996, before a capacity crowd in Lister Hill
Auditorium, the Library took time to honor its own with the 1996 Honor
Awards.
Over 150 employees received individual and group awards for sustained
superior performance or special acts of service. Thirty-five NLM staffers
were presented length-of-service awards. Other staff members who had
received awards from prestigious associations outside the Library were
also acknowledged for their accomplishments.
NLM Director Dr. Donald A. B. Lindberg offered greetings to the
audience and words of admiration and appreciation to the honorees. He also
thanked the many NLM employees who volunteered their time to take on data
entry tasks. "Your work helped us ensure that MEDLINE remained as current
as possible during our difficult time last Spring. I am proud that so many
employees joined in this remarkable show of dedication in support of NLM's
mission," he noted in written remarks in the awards program. (The Library
relied on staff help during resolution of a dispute over its data entry
contract.)
"To me, the annual awards ceremony is one of the most important events
of the year for the NLM," Donald C. Poppke, Director of the Office of
Administration, which organizes the event, told the NLM News. "It's a time
we pause to publicly acknowledge the outstanding accomplishments of NLM's
most valuable resource, its staff."
"This year, for the first time, we included a reception following the
ceremony," Poppke continued. "It gave the staff an opportunity to spend
some informal time together and to extend a personal word of
congratulations and support to those who did such an outstanding job."
One of the most moving moments of the ceremony was the posthumous
presentation of an NIH Merit Award to Richard T. West. West served as
Chief of the Office of Program Planning and Evaluation, Extramural
Programs, and had been with the Library for 25 years. His award was
accepted by his wife, Maryann, who was accompanied by their son, Royce,
and her late husband's aunt, Doris McDiffett. (Daughter Sarah was unable
to attend.) The recognition of Dick West brought enthusiastic applause and
a standing ovation.
The following employees received awards in 1996:
National Institutes of Health Merit Awards
Fernando Burbano, Office of Computer and Communications Systems,
"for sustaining the NLM computer operations at peak efficiency during
furloughs, blizzards, and other exigencies."
Pandoria L. King, Office of Personnel Management, "for
exceptional dedication and excellence in providing personnel support
services to the National Library of Medicine."
Pamela A. Meredith, Public Services Division, "for exceptional
leadership and achievement in providing effective reference services for
NLM's Reading Room patrons and customers worldwide."
Patricia S. Page, Office of Acquisitions Management, "for
exceptional management and effective administration of the contracting
function at the National Library of Medicine."
Edmund J. Syed, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical
Communications, "for creative excellence while serving as software
architect, principal system designer, and lead programmer for the system
known as Internet Grateful Med."
Cheryl E. White, Specialized Information Services, "for
exceptional achievement in producing documentation for SIS databases and
effectively using the new medium of the Internet to distribute this
information."
Richard T. West, Extramural Programs, "for dedicated nurturing
of NLM's Integrated Advanced Information Management System grant program
to national renown as a facilitator of unified information systems at
medical centers."
Acknowledgment was made of the following previously announced
awards:
Phillip C. Coleman Award
To Brenda R. Swanson,
Technical Services Division, "for outstanding efforts in mentoring,
guiding and supporting library employees toward achieving career
advancement and professional goals.
EEO Special Achievement Award
To Mary Kate Dugan,
Public Services Division, "for substantial contributions toward advancing
understanding of issues related to staff with disabilities."
NIH Director's Award
To Michael J. Ackerman, Ph.D.,
National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and
Communications, "for leadership of the Visible Human project, culminating
in the release to the scientific community of two immense datasets
representing a 3-dimensional male and female"; and to Lawrence C.
Kingsland, III, Ph.D., Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical
Communications, "for leadership in creating, testing, and implementing the
Internet Grateful Med software that is revolutionizing how MEDLINE is
searched by health professionals around the world."
NLM Director's Award
To Joseph P. Fitzgerald, Lister
Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, "for exceptional
contributions to the mission of the National Library of Medicine through
the creative application of his artistic talent"; and to David J. Lipman,
M.D., National Center for Biotechnology Information, "for contributions of
inestimable value to the research mission of the National Library of
Medicine and for leading the National Center for Biotechnology Information
to international prominence."
Board of Regents Award
To Mark S. Boguski, M.D.,
Ph.D., National Center for Biotechnology Information, "for technical
achievement in producing the human transcript map, a compilation and
synthesis of the current state of knowledge in human gene mapping"; to
Wen-Min Kao, M.L.S., Technical Services Division, "for outstanding
intellectual and editorial contributions to the fifth edition of the
National Library of Medicine Classification"; and to Gregory D.
Schuler, Ph.D., National Center for Biotechnology Information, "for
technical achievement in producing the human transcript map, a compilation
and synthesis of the current state of knowledge in human gene mapping."
Frank B. Rogers Award
To Joseph W. Hutchins, Office of
Computer and Communications Systems, "for exceptional contribution which
significantly improved indexing, database access, and document delivery of
NLM."
NLM Honor Awards photos:
Caption:
Library staff enjoys food and fellowship
in
the Lister Hill lobby following the ceremony. 
Caption:
NLM Director Dr. Donald Lindberg, left, and
Associate Director, Division of Extramural Programs, Dr. MiltonCorn,
right, are pictured with relatives of the late Dick West: his wife,
Maryann, second from left; the couple's son, Royce, second from right; and
Dick West's aunt, Doris McDiffett, center. 
Caption:
Dr. Steven Phillips, Chairman of the NLM Board of
Regents, presented the 1996 Regents Award for Scholarship or Technical
Achievement to Wen-Min Kao of the Technical Services Division for her work
on the fifth edition of the National Library of Medicine Classification.
The award was presented at the September Board of Regents meeting.
Photo Not Available
Caption:
National Center for
Biotechnology Information scientists Dr. Mark Boguski (left) and Dr. Greg
Schuler (right) were awarded the 1996 Regents Award for their work in
developing the Human Gene Map.
In September, Library staff welcomed four outstanding library school
graduates who have joined the staff as NLM Associates. This one-year
postgraduate training program exposes participants to the concepts and
skills needed to run a modern biomedical library, preparing them for
future leadership roles in librarianship and information science. 
Caption:
1996-7 NLM Associates, left to right, Maren
Haaland, Holly Grossetta Nardini, Carol Wu and Steve Haynie.
The 1996-1997 NLM Associates are:
Maren Haaland received a BA in mathematics, with distinction in
all subjects, from Cornell University in 1992 and an MLIS degree from the
University of Texas at Austin in August 1996. While at Cornell, she worked
in the technical services department at Mann Library and participated in
the entomology library's automation project. Before graduate school, Maren
was employed at MeritCare Hospital (Fargo, ND) in the library and the
patient education department. She also worked at the Lake Agassiz Regional
Library (Moorhead, MN) and the North Dakota State University Library
(Fargo, ND), primarily in interlibrary loan and document delivery
services. In 1995-1996, Maren was the recipient of the ALA's Marshall
Cavendish Scholarship, a University Fellowship from UT-Austin, and the
Douglass Endowed Presidential Scholarship from UT's Graduate School of
Library and Information Science. As a graduate student, she developed
interests in indexing, health science librarianship, and outreach.
Steve Haynie is from University Heights, Ohio. He received his
degree in Communication Arts from the University of Cincinnati in June of
1995 and then went on to earn his Masters degree in Information and
Library Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo in August
of 1996. While at the University at Buffalo, Steve served as Vice
President of the SILS Student Council, Senator to the Graduate Student
Association, and Co-editor of the SILS electronic newsletter. In addition,
he was an Arthur Alfonse Schomburg fellow and recipient of the 1995/1996
E. J. Josey Scholarship Award. His interest in Health Sciences
Librarianship stems from a three-year work study at the University of
Cincinnati's Medical Center Library during which time he was inspired by
the resilence and determination of the library's staff. Steve feels
fortunate to have participated in a public service practicum at the State
University of New York at Buffalo's Health Sciences Library after his
acceptance to library school. In the future, Steve would like to become
director of an academic health sciences library. One of his visions is to
create a multi-health education information center for the underprivileged
segment of society.
Holly Grossetta Nardini is returning to the Washington DC area,
where she received a BA in English from Georgetown University in 1990.
After college Holly moved to Sardinia, Italy and worked as a translator on
an Italian Air Force base. Returning to the United States, she worked at
the Yale University Library and commuted to Simmons College in Boston
where she earned her MS in Library Science in 1994. For the past two years
Holly has been a reference librarian and the Internet Services Coordinator
at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale. She served as the
Library's first Webmaster, designed and taught Internet and online
searching classes and was heavily involved in outreach. Holly's
professional interests include user training, instructional technology and
interface design.
Carol Wu received her BA in linguistics from the University of
Chicago in 1992 and her MLIS from the University of British Columbia
(Vancouver, Canada) in May 1996. While attending library school, Carol was
very active in broadening her professional experience. She worked as a
student librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, and as a graduate
academic assistant for both the UBC Education Library and Sedgewick
Undergraduate Library. She was responsible for providing reference help
and teaching individuals as well as groups in the use of library
information systems. In addition, she worked as a librarian and a
consultant at the BC Cancer Agency (British Columbia, Canada) where she
was involved in two projects: revising a manual on unconventional cancer
therapies and updating cancer/treatment information on various cancer
sites, which is to be accessed through the World Wide Web by volunteers,
patients, and the general public. Carol's professional interests include
reference services, integrated information systems, networking, and
management.
If you would like to learn more about the NLM Associate Program, visit
the web site at http://www.orau.gov/nlm/nlmassoc.htm.
Applications for the 1997-1998 program can be downloaded from the Web. If
you have questions about the application, contact the project manager,
Libby Kittrell, at (423) 241-3319, or kittrell@orau.gov. Questions about the
program may be directed to the program coordinator, Dr. Zoe Stavri,
at (301) 435-4083, or stavri@nlm.nih.gov.
On Sept. 12th, the NLM supplied Meharry Medical College's Division of
Environmental Health with a new computer that will increase the division's
capability to access the Library's informational resources. The computer,
part of NLM's Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Outreach
Program (TEHIP), was presented by NLM Associate Director of Specialized
Information Services Dr. Melvin L. Spann, pictured second from left,
below. Also attending the presentation were: Rose Foster, left, Project
Manager/Training Specialist, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and
Education; Michael Hubbard, right, Associate Director of the Mississippi
Delta Project; and Dr. Maurice Knuckles, seated, Director of the Division
of Environmental Health. Meharry Medical College, in Nashville, TN, was
founded in 1876 for the purpose of providing health professional education
to African Americans. The school has trained nearly 40% of all
African-American physicians and dentists practicing in the U.S. today.
Photo courtesy of Meharry Medical College
NLM Director Dr. Donald A. B. Lindberg, has been elected a
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Each
year the Council elects members whose "efforts on behalf of the
advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially
distinguished." Dr. Lindberg is being honored for his contributions to
informatics in medicine and public health. Dr. Lindberg was also awarded
the U.S. National Commission of Libraries and Information Science Silver
Award.
Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, Chancellor and Distinguished Service
Professor of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine and a member of the NLM's
Board of Regents, was recently named one of the Top Ten Heroes of 1996 by
The Millennium Society. The Society, an international organization
celebrating the achievements of this millennium and promoting even greater
achievements in the next, commended Dr. DeBakey in particular for his
efforts to improve the health of Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
Dr. Alexa T. McCray, Chief, Cognitive Science Branch, Lister
Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, has received the
Priscilla Mayden Award from the American Medical Informatics Association.
The award is given each year for a paper that describes new approaches to
improving information flow or knowledge management. McCray was lead author
of the paper, "The UMLS Knowledge Source Server: A Versatile
Internet-Based Research Tool" (co-authors Amir Razi, Anantha Bangalore,
Allen Browne and P. Zoe Stavri). She received the award at the 1996 AMIA
Annual Fall Symposium, held in Washington, DC.
Dr. P. Zoe Stavri is the new Coordinator of the NLM Associate
Program. In addition to managing the Associate Program, Dr. Stavri will
spend her time working on the Next Generation Indexing Project and
advising Library Operations staff on research projects. Dr. Stavri was
herself an NLM Associate (1986-87). Afterwards she earned a PhD in the
School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin,
worked at the Library and Center for Knowledge Management at the
University of California-San Francisco, and most recently was an Applied
Informatics Fellow in the Cognitive Science Branch, Lister Hill Center,
NLM.
Nancy Selinger, a systems librarian in the Bibliographic
Services Division, received a certificate of appreciation from NIH's
Office of Equal Opportunity in October. Ms. Selinger was detailed to OEO
this summer as part of the Women's Executive Leadersihp Program. She won
commendation for her "outstanding support of the NIH Workplace Diversity
Initiative," an ongoing effort to bring about organizational change that
will engender respect for the similarities and differences employees bring
to the workplace, and assist managers in learning how to capitalize on
these differences to promote quality, fairness and efficiency.
Kushal (Tunai) Khan, a student employed by NLM's Office of High
Performance Computing and Communication between his junior and senior
years at Montgomery-Blair High School, has received several awards for the
senior research project he completed at NLM. His project, "Searching
through Cyberspace: Linking Strategies and Information Retrieval in Global
Hypermedia," focused on how people find information on Internet's World
Wide Web. Mr. Khan worked with his project mentor, Dr. Craig
Locatis of the Library's Cognitive Science Branch, to design an
experiment in which subjects completed search tasks using hypermedia
documents on the Internet having links phrased and displayed in different
ways. The effects of these various linking strategies on user search
performance was then assessed. Tunai Khan received the Central
Intelligence Agency's Science and Engineering Award, TRW Corporation's
Computer Science Excellence Award and the Sigma Delta Epsilon Graduate
Computer Science Award for his project. He returned to work at HPCC last
summer and is now a com- puter science student at the University of
Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
The following references cite works that discuss the products and serv-
ices of the National Library of Medicine. If you know of other appro-
priate citations for this column, please send reprints or references to
the editor, NLM News, Public Information Office, National Library of
Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20894. (Note: Some of the articles below may be
from journals that are out of scope for the NLM collection and therefore
are not available from the Library on interlibrary loan.)
Bloch-Mouillet E. [Foreign international bibliographic databases: In-
dex Medicus. Presentation and user instructions]. Sante 1996 Mar-
Apr;6(2):123-9.
Broering NC. Between the covers: looking from the past to the year
ahead [editorial]. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1996 Apr;84(2):271.
Bunting A, Homan MJ, Pascarelli AM, Sinn S, Jaynes PE, Eakin D, Jones
C. Daniel T. Richards, 1945-1995. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1996
Apr;84(2):283-6.
Clarfield AM. Finding pleasure and history in the Index Medicus. Can
Med Assoc J 1996 Nov 1;155(9):1327-8.
Doherty, YG. Japanese monographs and serials in the National Li- brary
of Medicine (USA). J Jpn Med Libr Assoc 1996 Jun;43(2):170- 2.
Hauser SE, Berman, LE, Thomas, GR. Is the bang worth the buck? a RAID
performance study, Proceedings of the Fifth NASA Goddard Conference on
Mass Storage Systems and Technologies. NASA Conf Publ 3340, 1996
Sep:131-40.
Hersh WR, Brown KE, Donohoe LC, Campbell EM, Horacek AE. CliniWeb:
managing clinical information on the World Wide Web. J Am Med Inform Assoc
1996 Jul-Aug;3(4):273-80.
Humphreys BL, Hole WT, McCray AT, Fitzmaurice JM. Planned NLM/AHCPR
large-scale vocabulary test: using UMLS technology to determine the extent
to which controlled vocabularies cover terminol- ogy needed for health
care and public health. J Am Med Inform Assoc 1996 Jul-Aug;3(4):281-7.
Keramidas SL. The National Information Infrastructure and health care:
an overview of key agencies. J Am Coll Dent 1995 Win- ter;62(4):36-8.
Madge B. Accessing library services. Nurs Stand 1996 Jun 12;10(38):32.
Marshall E. The human gene hunt scales up [news]. Science 1996 Nov
29;274(5292):1456.
Thoma GR, Long LR, Berman, LE. A client/server system for Inter- net
access to biomedical text/image databanks. Comp Med Imaging and Graphics
1996;20(4):259-68.
Wadman M. Ethics worries over execution twist to Internet's 'visible
man' [news]. Nature 1996 Aug 22;382(6593):657.
Wallingford KT, Ruffin AB, Ginter KA, Spann ML, Johnson FE, Dutcher GA,
Mehnert R, Nash DL, Bridgers JW, Lyon BJ, Siegel ER, Roderer NK. Outreach
activities of the National Library of Medicine: a five-year review. Bull
Med Libr Assoc 1996 Apr;84(2 Suppl):1- 60.
Zink S, Illes J, Vannier MW. NLM extramural program: frequently asked
questions. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1996 Apr;84(2):165-81.
- Alternative Therapies chosen by Index Medicus [news]. Altern Ther
Health Med 1996 Jul;2(4):28.
- Build for future technology when building for the future: a lesson
from the visible human project [editorial]. J Am Med Inform Assoc 1996
Jul-Aug;3(4):300-1.
- Free access to electronic AIDS information [news]. MCN Am J Matern
Child Nurs 1995 Jan-Feb;20(1):52.
- Information systems ... HealthSTAR [news]. Hosp Health Netw 1996 Aug
20;70(16):14, 16.
- MEDLINE free-for-all spurs questions about search value, who pays
[news]. Med on the Net 1996 Aug;2(8):1-5.
- Searching Medline on the PC [news]. Med Software Rev 1996
Aug;5(8):1-3,10.
- Visible woman meets visible man [news]. Public Health Rep 1996
Sep-Oct;111(5):385.?
The following publications are available from the National Library of
Medicine's Office of Public Information. To order, send a self- addressed
label (no postage required) to:
Office of Public Information
National Library of
Medicine
Bethesda, MD 20894
E-mail requests may be sent to publicinfo@nlm.nih.gov.
- National Library of Medicine Programs and Services Fiscal Year 1995,
a 60-page summary of NLM's activities for FY 1995.
- Outreach Activities of the National Library of Medicine: A Five-Year
Review, published as a supplement to the April 1996 MLA Bulletin.
- Survey of Online Customers: Usage Patterns and Internet Readiness, a
64-page report by the NLM Office of Health Information Programs
Development.
Cumulated Index Medicus, Volume 37, 1996
Prepared by the NLM, Cumulated Index Medicus is an annual compilation
of citations to journal articles from the world's biomedical literature,
indexed in the monthly Index Medicus. The citations within CIM are
arranged by author and subject; CIM also includes Medical Subject
Headings, List of Journals Indexed, and Bibliography of Medical Reviews.
The 1996 CIM will contain 322,215 entries. CIM96 is estimated to ship in
June 1997. Price is $423 (domestic) and $528.75 (foreign) for this set of
17 books. To request an order form, fax your name and address, and the
notation "Order Processing Code 7988" to the Superintendent of Documents,
202-512-2250, or write for more information to "Superintendent of
Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954." You may also order
by phone, 202-512-1800, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. eastern time. When ordering, refer
to the CIM96 serial number 617-052-00311-2.
"Health Sciences Serials" to Cease Publication
Due to increased online access and a decreased subscription base, NLM
has suspended production of the microfiche publication Health Sciences
Serials after the October 1996 issue.
Bibliographic information for serial titles in Health Sciences Serials
can be obtained free of charge by accessing Locator, a client-server
interface that allows menu-driven Internet access to CATLINE (catalogued
records of monographs and serials), AVLINE (audiovisuals), SERLINE
(serials owned by NLM and other libraries) and DIRLINE (directory of
health-related information resources). To access Locator, use VT100
emulation and telnet to locator.nlm.nih.gov. ?
Roger Gilkeson Departs,
Melanie Modlin Comes Aboard
He thought he was taking a short break in his education when he
accepted a temporary job at the National Library of Medicine in 1967.
That "hiatus" turned into a distinguished 30-year career for Roger
Gilkeson, who became a full-time writer-editor and eventually Assistant
Chief of the NLM's Public Information Office. Rather than furthering his
own formal education, Roger has furthered the informal education of
thousands of visitors to the Library and readers of its publications.
Roger L. Gilkeson
Among Roger's many duties was the editorship of the National Library of
Medicine News, a position he held from 1977 until his retirement in
September of 1996. Editing the newsletter introduced him to all the other
aspects of the Library, including the Lister Hill Center, the
Bibliographic Services Division and the History of Medicine Division. In
recent years, Gilkeson assumed several other duties such as playing host
to NIH groups using the Lister Hill Center auditorium for scientific
meetings, and directing the NLM Visitors Center. His encyclopedic
knowledge of the Library was put to good use in the daily tours and
computer demonstrations he provided to visitors.
Roger, a native of Fairfax County, Virginia, reports that "retirement"
has kept him busier than ever, enjoying piano playing, photography,
creative writing and volunteer work, among other interests.
The former editor of the NLM News sends the following brief note:
Dear Readers,
Thirty years to some people is a long
time, but it's true, the years really do seem to fly when you're having
fun. It also helps to be working in a place with both a treasured history
and a crew of diversely interesting people -- colleagues and visitors who,
whether they realized it or not, were always challenging me in a variety
of ways. I could write pages of thanks, and talk about how the Library is
in my blood forever, but this is a "brief" note. I really do love my new
life pursuing projects that have been on the back burner for too many
years. All the best to you, Melanie, to my other former colleagues and
friends at the Library and NIH, and to you, the readers of the News.
Thanks!
Roger L. Gilkeson
P.S. E-mail welcome: rogerg@erols.com
New NLM News editor Melanie Modlin served for 11 years with the U.S.
House Select Committee on Aging, the majority of that time at the
Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care, chaired by the late Cong.
Claude Pepper. Modlin was also Deputy Director for Public Policy of the
Foundation for Hospice and Homecare and, most recently, Director of
Communications of the Alliance for Aging Research. 
Melanie Modlin
This year, the National Library of Medicine will again sponsor a week-
long survey course on medical informatics at Woods Hole, Massachu- setts,
June 1-8.
The course is designed to familiarize individuals with the application
of computer technologies and information science in medicine. This is a
National Library of Medicine fellowship program directed at medical
educators, medical librarians, medical administrators and young faculty
who are currently knowledgeable but can become instruments of change in
their institutions. It is limited to 30 fellows.
The Medical Informatics Course web site may be found at http://medicine.ucsd.edu/mbl_info/.
For application forms and further information, you may also
contact:
Carol Hamel
Admissions Coordinator
Marine Biological
Laboratory
7 MBL Street
Woods Hole, MA
02543-1015
508-389-7401
Internet: admissions@mbl.edu.
World Wide
Web: - http://www.mbl.edu/.
Application deadline is March 11, 1997.
The Friends of the National Library of Medicine (FNLM) is a private,
nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health by increasing the use
of the latest, most effective medical and scientific information by
healthcare professionals, scientists and the general public. The
organization sends the following items to readers of the NLM News.
HII'97 Conference Coming to Washington in April
FNLM in conjunction with the U.S. Public Health Service will host The
Second Annual "Emerging Health Information Infrastructure: Enabling the
Vision" Conference, April 13-15, 1997, followed by the "Partnerships for
Networked Consumer Health Information 1997" Conference, April 14-16, 1997
at the Georgetown University Conference Center, Washington, DC. HII'97 is
a policy conference that explores opportunities and impediments in making
the health information superhighway a reality. "Partnerships" is the
leading conference on networked consumer health information. 
For registration information,mail or fax your request to the
Friends of the NLM
1555 Connecticut Ave. NW
Suite
200
Washington, DC 20036
fax: 202-462-9043
or call the
HII'97 information line (202-462-0992)
or e-mail conference@fnlm.org.
Advanced registration rates end Feb. 15, 1997.
Wall Street Journal's Jerry Bishop Receives Friends' Media Award of
Excellence
Wall Street Journal reporter Jerry E. Bishop received the FNLM's 1996
Medical Media Award of Excellence. The presentation was made at the
Friends' Annual Patron Dinner, September 25, 1996.
Bishop was hailed for more than 40 years of superb journalism,
producing news articles that give evidence of immense scientific and
medical knowledge. He was also praised for the ability to present complex
scientific discoveries in a balanced, clear fashion intelligible to the
average reader.
"Humor and Health:
Juggling Life's Stress"
Several years ago, Dr. Steve Allen, Jr., son of the entertainer of the
same name, caused great commotion when he visited NIH to present his
funny, insightful views on living healthily. Now a 59-minute, VHS format
video of Dr. Allen's presentation is available from the Friends of the
National Library of Medicine. His method of healing through humor is a
practical approach to wellness. Call FNLM at 202-462-0992 to order Item
#675. Price is $15 for FNLM members, $25 for non-members.
The National Library of Medicine was saddened by the sudden passing of
long-time friend and co-worker, Richard T. West, on October 1, 1996. Dick
was Chief of the Office of Program Planning and Evaluation, Extramural
Programs (EP) and had been with NLM for 25 years. His responsibilities
with EP included the full range of assistance grant functions and his
publications appeared in several leading medical information science
journals. He was often invited to lecture on medical information issues at
the University of Maryland School of Library and Information Services.
Richard T. West
Most notable of his accomplishments has been the implementation and
management of the IAIMS (Integrated Advanced Information Management
Systems) Program. In doing so he brought about new and creative
relationships between academic and institutional organizations and the
world of modern health information. Dick worked closely with leaders in
American medical centers to achieve the program goal of assisting the
effective management of medical information of all kinds as an essential,
national health care resource. To many investigators across the nation he
had become known as "Mr. IAIMS," and was recently honored by this medical
community for his thoughtful and constructive efforts. In a recent
narrative for a posthumous NIH merit award, Dr. Milton Corn, Associate
Director for NLM's Extramural Programs, cited Dick's enthusiasm and
diligence for the continued popularity and success of the IAIMS program.
A person of remarkable curiosity, Dick was not easily satisfied, and
when something interested him, he wanted to learn all about it. His
professional knowledge covered everything from the printing trade to
computer technology, and he understood the function of knowledge in the
broadest context of health care. His initiatives won much deserved praise.
Experienced colleagues everywhere sought Dick's advice and younger
workers always found a supportive mentor, both here and at NIH, where he
had chaired the Grants Associates Board for two terms. Dick will be
greatly missed.
Former Board of Regents Member
Dr. Charles L. Molnar Dies
The Library was saddened to learn of the death in December of Dr.
Charles E. Molnar, a member of the NLM Board of Regents 1980-4. Dr. Molnar
was the founder of the Institute for Biomedical Computing at Washington
University, St. Louis, and during his term of service at the Library, he
was Director of the Computer Systems Laboratory there. He was also the
originator of the first medical informatics training program at Washington
University. More recently, Dr. Molnar was with Sun Microsystems, where he
designed advanced computer hardware. Our condolences to the family and
friends of this good "friend of the Library."
NLM's International Involvement
Katarina Avnet of NLM's Technical Services Division presented a poster
exhibit titled, "The National Library of Medicine: Its Role in Biomedical
Communication," at the World Fulbright Alumni Conference in Budapest,
Hungary, August 14-18, 1996. Her poster session depicted the NLM's role in
world medical informatics, its services and its research projects. As a
Fulbright Scholar, Ms. Avnet served as a visiting professor at the Charles
University in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1994. 
Caption:
Katarina Avnet, TSD, with her poster exhibit at
the World Fulbright Alumni Conference, Budapest.
On June 25, 1996, Lithuanian National Medical Director Salvinija Ko-
ciene and NLM Project Officer Dr. Craig Locatis symbolically tied a cable
at a ceremony in Vilnius celebrating the Lithuanian medical li- brary's
connectivity to the Internet. The connectivity was provided as part of a
contract NLM has with the U.S. State Department to provide information
services to several newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.
After the Internet link was established, Lithuanian Minister of Health Dr.
Antanas Vinkus expressed his gratitude in a letter to NLM Director Dr.
Donald A. B. Lindberg. "Access to information is of utmost importance to
the free and independent Lithuania which strives to become a democratic
and flourishing country. . . We are happy that this channel will enhance
the accessibility to medical information and will open more possibilities
for the Lithuanian medical research to integrate into the world and to
develop health care reform." 
Caption:
NLM's Dr. Craig Locatis joins Lithuanian National
Medical Director Salvinija Kociene in a symbolic linking of the Lithuanian
National Medical Library to the Internet.
The Council on Library Resources has established a new fellowship in
honor of A. R. Zipf, a pioneer in information management systems who was
Chairman of the NLM Board of Regents 1969-80, the first non- physician to
hold the post. (Mr. Zipf continued to serve in an advisory capacity at the
Library for 20 years.) The fellowship will be awarded annually to a
graduate student who shows promise for leadership and technical
achievement in information management. Al Zipf, an engineer, enjoyed a
long and successful career with Bank of America, where his innovations in
electronic banking helped revolutionize the field nationwide.
The NLM regularly seeks the help of the medical library community in
filling gaps in its monograph and serial collections. If you can provide
any of these items, we would be most grateful. Kindly send to:
National Library of Medicine
TSD, Attn: L. Turnage
Bethesda,
MD 20894
AAMI News 30:11, 1995
AANA Journal 63:6 Dec, 1995
AAO Journal 2:1, 1992; 2:3, 1992; 3:1,1993; 3:4 1993
Abstracts, Annual Meeting/American Society for Artificial Organs 18,
1989; 19, 1990; 22, 1993
Abstracts in Oncology 1:1-4, 1993
Abstracts of Papers - American Chemical Society 96, 1939; 100,
1940;104, 1942; 207, 1994
ACA Research Quarterly 1:1-3, 1990
ACC Current Journal Review 2:3 May- Jun, 1993
Access by Design 51 Jan-Apr, 1990
Accomplishments in Cancer Research 1982-83
Acoustics Abstracts 15:9A, 1981; 17:2A, 1983; 26:9-12, 1992-93; 27:
11A-11B Jan, 1994
Actinomycetes 17:1, 1982-83
Acupuncture 1:1, 1990; 1:4, 1990; 1991-1995
Acupuncture in Medicine 7:2, 1990; 8:1,1990
Administrative Radiology 1:1,3-12, 1982; 2:3, 6-12, 1983; 3:1-2,8,
1984; 4:9-12, 1985; 5:5,7,12, 1986; 14, 1,4 Jan, 1995
Advance Data 216, 1992; 233, 1993
Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy 16:4, 1994
Advances in Exposure Prevention 1:1, 1994
Aesthetic Surgery 14:3, 1994
Africa Health Marketletter 8:1-10, 1994
Ageing International 21:2-4 Jun-Dec, 1994
Cardiovascular Drug Reviews 7:1-4, 1989; 8:1-4, 1990
Cardiovascular Professional 1:3 Sep-Oct, 1995
Care 5:1-3, 1987; 6:4 Dec, 1988
Microscopia Electronica y Biologia Celular 16:2, 1992; 17:1-2, 1993
Military Medicine 159:4-5 Apr-May, 1994
Nutrition and Cancer 22:1-2, 1994
Scandinavian Audiology. Supplementum 2, 1972; 33, 1991
Yale Psychiatry 1:1 Fall, 1991; 1:2, 1992; 2:1 Fall, 1993
Year Book of Chiropractic 1994
Year Book of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery 1993
The Presidents' Circle, a prestigious body of advisers to the National
Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, came to the National
Library of Medicine November 22nd, to learn about recent developments in
research and development at the Library. The group of about 75 corporate
and philanthropic leaders heard remarks by NLM Director Donald A. B.
Lindberg, then was treated to demonstrations of the Visible Human Project,
Internet Grateful Med, the Human Gene Map, PubMed (a new system that
allows online access to full texts of journal articles) and an
NLM-sponsored telemedicine project from the University of Pittsburgh,
giving health professionals access to multimedia patient records. After
the demonstrations, the members of the Presidents' Circle and NLM staff
attended a reception and dinner hosted by the Circle at NIH's Stone House,
where remarks by NIH Director Dr. Harold E. Varmus were delivered.
Last updated: 20 February 1997
First published: 01 September 1996
Permanence level: Permanent: Stable Content
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