Table of Contents: 2016 MARCH–APRIL No. 409
NLM Disaster Lit Database Observes a Milestone. NLM Tech Bull. 2016 Mar-Apr;(409):b7.
[Editor's Note: This is a reprint of an announcement published on the NLM® Web site on April 11, 2016. To be notified of announcements like this subscribe to the NLM-Announces email list.]
This month, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Disaster LitSM database added its 10,000th record on the clinical and public health aspects of natural disasters, human-caused disasters, terrorism, disease outbreaks, and other public health emergencies.
Disaster Lit describes and links to reports, webinars, training, conferences, factsheets and other documents that are not commercially published. Disaster Lit complements the journal literature in PubMed and the resources for the public in MedlinePlus. Materials are carefully selected by National Library of Medicine medical librarians and subject experts from nearly 1,000 approved sources and provide current awareness for health professionals, first responders and emergency planners who have disaster health responsibilities.
New content is sent daily to nearly 14,000 subscribers via RSS, Twitter, email subscriptions, and the DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB listserv. Disaster Lit plays a key role in collecting the earliest available trusted medical guidance soon after a disaster event or disease outbreak, often long before the same guidance can be published in peer-reviewed medical journals.
Disaster Lit supports other federal disaster information programs by providing the:
The Disaster Lit collection of grey literature was started in 2002 by the New York Academy of Medicine, with funding from the National Library of Medicine National Information Center for Health Services Research (NICHSR). In 2010, the database moved to the then-new Disaster Information Management Research Center, Specialized Information Services (SIS) Division, NLM. The database continues to grow with funding support from SIS, NICHSR and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Questions or comments may be sent to the Disaster Center at dimrc@nlm.nih.gov.
Since its founding in 1836, the National Library of Medicine https://www.nlm.nih.gov has played a pivotal role in translating biomedical research into practice and is a leader in information innovation. NLM is the world's largest medical library, and millions of scientists, health professionals and the public around the world use NLM services every day.
