ML Bibliographic Products Now Available to Licensees
NLM announces the availability of two new Extensible Markup Language (XML) products, CatfilePlus in XML and Serfile in XML. Both products contain bibliographic records derived from the MARC 21-formatted bibliographic records in NLM's LocatorPlus database, reformatted in XML to more closely correspond to the element names, attributes and file format used in MEDLINE^® citations.

The applicable Document Type Definitions (DTD), data element and attribute descriptions, sample files and other information are available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/licensee.html and http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/leased.html.

CatfilePlus in XML and Serfile in XML are available for licensees to ftp on a monthly basis, with each month's file containing the appropriate records added, revised, or deleted in LocatorPlus during the previous month. The complete file of each product will also be regenerated on an annual basis.

NLM continues to offer CatfilePlus and Serfile in MARC 21 format as well as in XML. Catfile is available in MARC 21 format only.

NLM Completes Conversion from Wade-Giles to pinyin Romanization of Chinese Characters in Bibliographic and Authority Records in LocatorPlus
NLM has completed the final phase of its multi-year project to convert Wade-Giles romanization of bibliographic and authority records to the pinyin romanization scheme consisting of the manual conversion of complex Wade-Giles authority headings to pinyin as well as the review of those authority headings and bibliographic records converted by machine during October 2002. For a complete description of the scope and history of this project, see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/cataloging/pinyinconversion.html.

Although NLM has completed the systematic review and automated maintenance from Wade-Giles to pinyin of all headings identified as needing this conversion, users may still encounter Wade-Giles headings which were missed or errors caused by the romanization conversion. Users who identify problems should notify NLM by contacting custserv@nlm.nih.gov.

Distribution of Vernacular Data for Chinese and Japanese Bibliographic Records
NLM has begun to add vernacular data to selected records for Chinese and Japanese bibliographic records in LocatorPlus. On May 20, 2004, NLM began to include this vernacular data in records distributed to Catfile licensees.

Specifically, NLM is including the MARC 21 066 field, as well as the 880 field(s) and the linking $6 subfields in the corresponding variable length fields containing romanized data represented in the record. Approximately 2500 records which had previously been distributed by NLM only in romanized form have been reissued in order to supply these vernacular data to Catfile licensees.

Users should note that the vernacular data is not currently visible in LocatorPlus due to the limitations of the release of Voyager now in use at NLM.

Change to Table G in the NLM Classification
In the NLM Classification (see http://wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/class/), the Table G caption at "DV5" has been changed from "Virgin Islands" to "Virgin Islands of the United States" (see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/class/TableGOutline.html). This change clarifies existing practice that this number is used only for the U.S. Virgin Islands. Material on the British Virgin Islands is assigned the Table G number for the West Indies in "DW5".

By Diane Boehr
and
Marti Scheel
Cataloging Section

Boehr D, Scheel M. Cataloging News. NLM Tech Bull. 2004 Jul-Aug;(339):e6.