IndexCat Data Available in XML

NLM has announced the release of XML data from the IndexCat™ database (//indexcat.nlm.nih.gov). It includes the digitized content of the printed sixty-one volume Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon’s General’s Office containing references to over 3.7 million bibliographic items, spanning five centuries and covering subjects of the basic sciences, scientific research, civilian and military medicine, public health, and hospital administration. The XML data include millions of journal and newspaper articles, obituaries, and letters, hundreds of thousands of monographs and dissertations, and thousands of portraits.

Also released is an integrated XML file for the two historical collections developed from the electronic database of A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin (rev.), by Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre (eTK) and the updated and expanded version of Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference (eVK2) edited by Linda Ehrsam Voigts and Patricia Deery Kurtz. These resources encompass over 42,000 records of incipits, or the beginning words of a medieval manuscript or early printed book covering various medical and scientific writings on topics as diverse as astronomy, astrology, geometry, agriculture, household skills, book production, occult science, natural science and mathematics largely intermingled in the medieval period of European history.

The data are available free for downloading via FTP and no license is required.

Inquiries about the new XML datasets and DTDs associated with the IndexCatalogue and eTKeVK2 collections may be directed to NLM Customer Service.