PubMed for Librarians: Free Online Classes Open for Registration

[Editor's note added March 29, 2013: An additional suite of classes for Summer 2013 has been added.]

[Editor's note added July 11, 2013: Register now for sessions in December 2013, January 2014, or March 2014.]

[Editor's note added April 16, 2014: Additional May 2014 and August 2014 classes are available for registration.]

"Even though I have been using MESH for many years, I learned (or re-learned) new things. I understand the automatic explosion better now, and also was interested to find how to get to the definitions of the subheadings/qualifiers."

"The instructor's pacing was perfect for me. I picked up a number of tips that I did not know existed. I especially like the pacing and now I will try to slow down and be conscious of pacing myself when I am teaching PubMed."

"I appreciate this FREE class that I don't have to leave work and DRIVE to!"

                    --Comments from "PubMed for Librarians" class participants

Join the National Library of Medicine Training Center (NTC) for the free online class "PubMed for Librarians." Classes in April, June, and September 2013 are now open for registration.

The PubMed for Librarians class is divided into five segments (90 minutes each). Each segment is a synchronous online session that includes hands-on exercises and is worth 1.5 hours of MLA CE credit. Participants can choose any or all of the 5 segments that interest them.

The segments are as follows:

Introduction to PubMed: Attend this class to learn about the difference between PubMed and MEDLINE, how to run a PubMed search, assess your search retrieval, analyze search details, customize with My NCBI, discover and employ three ways to search for a known citation, and use the Clinical Queries search tool.

MeSH (Medical Subject Headings): Attend this class to learn about the NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database. We will talk about the 4 different types of MeSH terms and how searchers can benefit from using MesH to build a search. We will investigate the structure of the MeSH database and look at the components of a MeSH record.

Automatic Term Mapping (ATM): Attend this class to learn about Automatic Term Mapping (ATM), the process that maps keywords from your PubMed search to the controlled vocabulary of the MeSH database. Learn why searching with keywords in PubMed can be an effective approach to searching. We will also look at the explosion feature, what is and is not included in Search Details and lastly we will explore how PubMed processes/handles a phrase.

Building and Refining Your Search: The class will focus on using some of the tools and features built into PubMed that are designed to help you search more effectively. We will explore the new Filters Sidebar and topic-specific subsets. We will use History, tools in the NLM Catalog, and the Index to build searches and explore topics.

Customization - My NCBI: Attend this class to learn about the advantages of creating a My NCBI account, managing and manipulating your My NCBI page content, identifying and differentiating available filters on PubMed's filter sidebar, selecting and setting up to 15 filters, and creating a custom filter.

Class space is limited, so register now.

Questions? Contact Sharon Dennis, Assistant Director, National Library of Medicine Training Center, at Sharon.dennis@utah.edu or (800) 338-7657, press 2.