Library Notes

The folks at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) continue to add new features to PubMed, making it easier for searchers to quickly locate relevant article citations. Here are a few more recently added enhancements.

Single Citation Matcher

Suggested author entry in PubMed's Single Citation Matcher - just one of PubMed's recent enhancments

Changes made to the Single Citation Matcher include autofill for both journal title and author name and the ability to search by first author only. Here's how the autofill works: As soon as you start typing an author name in the author field or a journal title (or journal abbreviation) in the journal field, you will notice a list of suggested entry terms based on what you have typed. Simply choose the desired author or journal name from the list and continue with your search. Check the box directly to the right of the author name search field to limit your retrieval to articles where your desired author is listed as first author.

Pubmed Full Author Name Searching

It is now possible to search PubMed using an author's full name. You can enter the full name in either natural or inverted order e.g. Lucian L Leape; Leape Lucian L (without comma); or Leape, Lucian L (with comma). This can lead to less than consistent search results if the author's last name is a common first name e.g. Nelson James vs. James, Nelson. There are other caveats to searching by full author name as well. Retrieval is limited to article citations published from 2002 forward. For more information about full author name searching see the NLM Technichal Bulletin.

RSS Feeds

It is now possible to save searches as RSS feeds. After running a search, choose RSS Feed from the "Send to" pull-down menu. On the resulting page, name your search, select the number of results to be retrieved in your feed, and click the "Create Feed" button. A new page will appear with the familiar orange XML button. Follow the usual steps to create a feed with your RSS Reader (instructions may vary based on which RSS reader or aggregator you use).

Special Queries

A new link called Special Queries is available in PubMed's blue side bar. There are special queries targeted for clinicians and health services workers as well as subject specific special queries which will limit your PubMed searches based on the subject you choose. Subjects include AIDS, bioethics, and cancer. You can also use Special Queries to limit your PubMed searches to specific journal subsets such as core clinical journals, dental journals, or nursing journals.

We regularly offer classes on how to search PubMed. See our class schedule for a list of upcoming classes or contact the Reference Desk at 503-8109 or ghsl-ref@northwestern.edu with your questions.

A newsletter for patrons of the Galter Health Sciences Library

Summer 2005 New Series #37

PubMed Rings in More Changes

Mark Berendsen, MLIS, Education Librarian, m-berendsen@northwestern.edu

Summer 2005

New Series #37