Electronic Highways

MEDLINE-How do I find thee?

Let me count the ways. The popular online database, MEDLINE, published by the National Library of Medicine and containing more than 9 million references to articles published from 1966 to the present, in 3,800 biomedical and health-related journals, is available in a variety of ways.

In any of the University Libraries, MEDLINE can be accessed through BISON's Online Resources page (http://ublib.buffalo. edu/libraries/e-resources/). Under "Indexes and Abstracts: Subject-Oriented Indexes" choose MEDLINE to find an informational page about the database. In the Health Sciences and Science and Engineering libraries, you can also find MEDLINE on the local HUBNET network of electronic resources. The HUBNET workstations provide a Windows-based search screen, which looks a little different than BISON's Web-based screen, but they both contain the same search features. Both are updated monthly, and use the OVID search engine, which is highly sophisticated and quite user-friendly. Information about the Web version of HUBNET can be found on the HUBNET Web page (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/hsl/HUBNET/).

From your home or office there are even more choices. For UB-affiliated folks, the best way is by accessing BISON or HUBNET. With the advent of a newly available enhanced authentication capability, you need only enter the barcode number from your SUNYcard (the one beginning with 29072) to access the database through BISON. This is beneficial for those using an Internet Service Provider such as America Online, Compuserve, etc., and can be extremely helpful when traveling or researching from out of town. For information on configuring your computer to access BISON using a modem, consult the CIT Computing from Home Web page (http://wings.buffalo.edu/computing/home.shtml).

The National Library of Medicine offers free public Web access to MEDLINE in two ways: PubMed and Internet Grateful Med (www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/freemedl.html). Anyone can search MEDLINE here for free. The search engine differs from the UB access points, but basic and advanced searching modes are available. Both PubMed and Internet Grateful Med are updated weekly and offer PREMEDLINE-recent citations not yet fully indexed and updated daily. PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed) contains a unique link to related articles. Included, too, are links to molecular biology databases of DNA/protein sequences and 3-D structure data; links to publishers' sites for full-text journals (some by subscription only); and clinical query forms with built-in search filters for diagnosis, etiology, therapy, and prognosis. Internet Grateful Med (http://igm.nlm.nih.gov/) allows access to OLDMEDLINE which currently contains citations from 1964-1965.

In addition to the National Library of Medicine's free MEDLINE, there also are commercial sites that offer free searching on the Web. They vary widely in terms of the years covered, the type of search engine used and the search capabilities, and the frequency of updates. Some require users to register before searching the database. A select list of sites is available at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/hsl/ref/freemedline.html.

For assistance in connecting to the World Wide Web, contact the ASCIT Help Desk at 645-3542. For assistance in searching MEDLINE, contact the Health Sciences Library Reference Desk at 829-3900.

-Sue Neumeister and Lori Widzinski, University Libraries