Bio-Med Reference

SciFinder Scholar problems

Hello science librarians,

I received a couple of calls this morning from people unable to access SciFinder Scholar. They have older versions of SciFinder on their computers that no longer work as of January 30 and need to upgrade to the 2007 version. You may get similar questions at your reference desks.

Meghan

--
Meghan Lafferty
Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Librarian Science & Engineering Library
University of Minnesota
108 Walter Library
Minneapolis MN 55455
Tel.: 612-624-9399
FAX: 612-625-5583
E-mail: mlaffert@umn.edu
IM (AIM, GTalk, MSN, Y!): umchemlib

SciFinder for Mac OS 10.5

For those of you not on the Science Librarians listserve...

There is now a version of SciFinder Scholar 2007 that runs on Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) without using Rosetta. You can download it at http://sciweb.lib.umn.edu/subject/software/

See previous blog posts:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/staff/biomedref/archives/002139.html
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/staff/biomedref/archives/002135.html

NLM's NTCC Classes Coming to Bio-Med in September

There will be two free hands-on online database classes offered in Minneapolis at the Bio-Medical Library, AHC Learning Commons, Diehl Hall.

The NLM Gateway and ClinicalTrials.gov (3.5 MLA CE Hours) will be on Monday, September 15, 2008 from 1:00 to 4:30pm. (The NLM Gateway & Clinical Trails database is of particular interest to public and consumer health librarians and all health information consumers.)

The PubMed® (7.5 MLA CE Hours) class will be held on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.

There have been many recent enhancements to PubMed®, including:
* Additions to “My NCBI� to allow for customize of your display, choosing your own filters, saving citations and generating automatic email alerts from PubMed®.
* Citation “sensors�.
* NEW “Automatic term mapping�.
* NEW Advanced search.

All these classes are intended for health sciences library staff, public librarians, health professionals and anyone interested in using the National Library of Medicine databases which are renowned. Use this on-line registration form for a simplified sign-up: http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/register.html?schedule_id=408

These classes are taught by two trainers from the National Training Center & Clearinghouse, 800-338-7657 (press 2), of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine of the National Library of Medicine. All training materials will be provided free of charge.

Please contact me with questions. Thanks!

Martha

EBSCOhost 2.0 & CINAHL

The link on our Web page now correctly refers to the EBSCO interface for CINAHL.

Also, the default interface for all EBSCO databases is now EBSCOhost 2.0. I haven't explored all the features yet, but for more information about the new interface, please go to: http://www.ebscohost.com/thisTopic.php?marketID=1&topicID=969. To register for MINITEX Webinars about the new interface, please go to: http://www.minitex.umn.edu/events/training/webinars.asp#192

Martha

CINAHL

This is just to make you aware that as of July 2008 the Ovid version of CINAHL is no longer available; however, the links on the HSL Web page still refer to the Ovid interface. An email has been sent to John Barneson to correct this. In the meantime, to get to the EBSCO version of CINAHL, go to the University Libraries A-Z database list, click on E and then click on EBSCO Databases. Scroll down to near the bottom and the CINAHL (EBSCO) is there.

Katherine

Changes coming to CINAHL in July

Hello all,

As you've heard me mentioning for the last year or so, CINAHL will be changing from Ovid to EBSCO in July. I've written up this announcement, which will appear soon on the Bio-Med website, and I've sent email notifications to Nursing and Allied Health users. I just wanted to keep you all updated - let me know if you have questions!

Thanks,
Liz

Major change coming to CINAHL in July 2008

Beginning in July 2008, the U’s method of access to CINAHL will change from the Ovid platform to the EBSCO platform. This change is a result of EBSCO purchasing the CINAHL database, and subsequently disallowing other vendors (like Ovid) to serve the database through their platforms. EBSCO will be the only source of access to CINAHL.

The EBSCO search interface is very different from Ovid, but the content of CINAHL itself (journals covered, record structure, subject headings, etc.) will not change. From now through the end of June, we will have access to CINAHL through both Ovid and EBSCO, so you can test out the EBSCO interface before the Ovid one is gone.

A bit of a complicating factor is that the EBSCO interface will be undergoing a change sometime in July, so what you see in EBSCO now will be changing soon. All these changes will hopefully lead to increased usability and functionality.

To access to CINAHL via EBSCO, go to http://www.lib.umn.edu/get/ebsco In the database list, CINAHL is toward the bottom of the page. Check the box beside it, and click the continue button.

You can view a brief tutorial on basic searching in CINAHL here: http://support.ebsco.com/training/flash_videos/CINAHLBasicSearching.html

If you have any autoalerts currently running in CINAHL, they will need to be recreated in the EBSCO system. Instructions for creating autoalerts in EBSCO are here: http://support.ebsco.com/help/index.php?help_topic_id=8

If you have questions or need help with anything involving the new CINAHL interface, contact Liz Fine at 612-624-6492 or evfine@umn.edu, or the Reference Desk at 612-626-3260 or medref@umn.edu.

Multilingual Enhancement in MedlinePlus!

Check out the recent multilingual additions to MedlinePlus! They don't necessarily jump out at you, so take a look at this description to see what's available and how to access it. Very cool! -Liz

--
MedlinePlus has a multilingual feature, providing access to high quality health information in languages other than English and Spanish. This new service benefits people who prefer to read consumer health information in their native language. It also helps the information professionals and health care providers who serve them.

The new collection contains over 2,500 links to information in more than 40 languages and covers nearly 250 Health Topics. Continuous growth is expected.

Users can navigate the new collection of health information in multiple languages either by language or by topic. A page listing all of the languages covered is on the MedlinePlus homepage, in the list on the left side of the page. Users can browse these languages or link to the page listing all of the topics covered.

Also, on individual English language health topics pages, a "languages" box appears on the right side of the page. The languages box lists the languages with links on that topic in MedlinePlus. The languages box also links users to the collection of health information in multiple languages. Users can also search the new collection of health information in multiple languages. Additionally, a new collection called Multiple Languages appears on the MedlinePlus search results pages.

The MedlinePlus collection of health information in multiple languages is not meant to be comprehensive. Instead, as with our English and Spanish collections, MedlinePlus staff selects materials according to our quality guidelines (quality guidelines specific to the new collection are available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/languages/criteria.html).

As always, NLM welcomes your comments and suggestions about MedlinePlus. A Contact Us link appears at the top of every MedlinePlus page.

Patient Drug Information Available via PubMed

Note: I've corrected the link for the NLM Technical Bulletin.

A new feature of PubMed is that citations now link directly to information on particular drugs based on the MeSH terms and textwords in a particular record. The Patient Drug Information links show up directly under the Related Drug Information links in the Abstract Plus view. The data comes from MedMasterâ„¢; a publication of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), which is also used in MedlinePlus. I accidentally ran across this feature while searching in PubMed the other day and it is kind of handy. For more detailed information about this new feature, please see: NLM Technical Bulletin [link revised].

Martha

Beilstein/Gmelin server changes as of 12/31/07

A re-post from the Science Librarians' list - this seems like something we might need to know at some point. -Liz

----
Please share this with your constituents who via Beilstein or Gmelin via the client (CrossFire Commander) rather than the web-based version. If you get questions after the 31st about access problems, they may just need to change the host address.

Users who have CrossFire Commander set up with one of the following server host addresses will need to modify their Commander client host setting immediately as we will no longer have access via those servers as of 12/31/07.

crossfire-acad.mdl.com
crossfire.mdl.com
direct.beilstein.com
beilstein.library.wisc.edu

If their settings are for one of the above host addresses, they've probably seen pop-up messages about this when they open CrossFire Commander. In order to have access after the 31st, they will need to switch to the preferred host address for the Elsevier Crossfire server:

crossfire-acad.elsevier.com

To change the Commander client HOST address setting:

Version 7
1. OPTIONS > DEFINE SERVER PROFILES menu
2. EDIT default.prf:
a. Change host address to crossfire-acad.elsevier.com.
b. UNCHECK "Forget user ID/Password for the server".
3. Click OK to save changes and close default.prf.
4. Click on default.prf and click on SELECT.

Version 6
1. OPTIONS > CONNECTIONS menu
2. EDIT default.prf:
a. Change host address to crossfire-acad.elsevier.com.
b. UNCHECK "Forget user ID/Password for the server".
3. Click OK to save changes and close default.prf.
4. Click on default.prf and click on SELECT.

Meghan Lafferty

Fix for SciFinder/Leopard problems (Mac)

Here's a repost for those of you not on the Science Librarians email list:
----

Hi everyone,

I've recently learned a fix for Mac users who have Leopard on their machines and want to use SciFinder Scholar 2007. (For some reason, SciFinder Scholar 2006 works with Leopard.) I haven't tried it yet myself, but one of the Chemical Abstracts Service people verified that this works.

Go to the applications folder, right click or ctrl click on SciFinder Scholar application. "Get Info". Check the box "Open using Rosetta".

Please make sure your SciFinder users are made aware of this.
Let me know if you have questions.
Meghan

Ovid session recovery is gone w/new Interface

Today (10/25/07) Ovid debuted their new interface. You can try it within the current interface by clicking on the Try OvidSP link at the top of the page.

We are not pointing to the new interface yet, but one thing that patrons need to know is that session recovery is now not available. We need to be sure to stress saving searches in Ovid to folks, many of whom I know kind of rely on session recovery to bring back their searches.

Perhaps I'm missing something and Jim and/or Katherine can chime in about the possibility of getting the session recovery back.

cheers,
Lisa

PubMed/LinkOut Error Fixed!

Many thanks to Liz and her trusty tester/husband Jared - it seems that PubMed no longer supports the URL we were using in EZ Proxy and elsewhere. If you want more info, just ask me and I can give you the whole spiel.

Cheers,
-Chad

MedlinePlus new search interface

Hi all,

Today (10/11/07), MedlinePlus rolled out a new interface. Do a search and check out how your results come back. I kind of liked it better the old way on a first glance. Now, the results come back more like a Google page.

You can read an overview of the search engine here

Lisa

DiscoveryGate now available for web-based access to Beilstein and Gmelin

Passing this along from the Science Librarians list...

DiscoveryGate, the web-based interface for Beilstein and Gmelin, is now available. See http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/moreinfo.phtml?id=14556 for more information. It doesn't require client software download, but PC users will need to download a small piece of software (for graphics purposes, I think). Pop-ups also need to be enabled for the website to be able to use it. All those Intel Mac users in AHC should once again be able to access Beilstein from their computers.
Jody Kempf and I are working on learning the new interface so we can teach people how to use it. We're having a workshop on Tuesday, October 16 at 4:30 pm, but I'm happy to answer questions about it any time.

Meghan

_____________________________________
Meghan Lafferty
Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Librarian
Science & Engineering Library
University of Minnesota
108 Walter Library
Minneapolis MN 55455
Tel.: 612-624-9399
FAX: 612-625-5583
E-mail: mlaffert@umn.edu
IM (AIM, GTalk, MSN, Y!): umchemlib

imagesMD

Hi Everyone,

It appears that for some reason, the proxy URL from LibData for the database imagesMD is incorrect. It is possible that this was the correct URL at one time, and that imagesMD changed the URL and it is not rolling over. Until Shane or Chad fix the proxy URL in LibData, the correct URL is http://www.images.md. This will work for sure in the library with the IP range -- the off-campus patrons will have to wait until until the proxy URL is fixed.

Katherine

Possible Issue with Saving Ovid Searches

This note from Scott Marsalis came across the AP Science Librarians' list, and I thought I'd post it here for those of you not on the list. It has to do with a possible error message people might get when trying to save an Ovid search. I was able to save searches with no problem yesterday so it doesn't appear to be pervasive, but here's the info just in case you get a question like this.

OVID moved their servers from Utah to Texas, and it caused problems for some users, namely an inability to create permanent saved searches. To fix it OVID needs the user's ID, which is assigned behind the scenes, so we never see it. So, to get it, have the user log into an OVID database (any will do - but make sure they use the personal, not generic, option) and in the search box, type USERINFO (all caps, one word). The search history box will display the User ID and ip:

Then create a Help Desk ticket, including the ID information. IT can the send the id to Anne at OVID, and they can delete the offending .ini file, and all should be good again.

Liz

Long patents on esp@cenet

On the reference desk last week I got a question that eventually revealed an unfortunate limitation of esp@cenet, the website of the European Patent Office. If you recall, I've been touting esp@cenet over the years as a way to access patents, including US patents, in PDF form, as opposed to the silly, difficult-to-work-with format on the USPTO website. This isn't as much of an issue now that Google Patents offers PDF versions of US patents, but something you should still be aware of.

The patron was on esp@cenet accessing a German patent. She found the patent, loaded the PDF, and saved it the way you would normally save a PDF. However, when she went to the saved copy on her computer and opened it, it acted like it had only saved one page. When she tried to move beyond the visible page, she got a strange error message.

To make a long story short, that's exactly what happened. It turns out that on esp@cenet, if a patent is more than 50 pages, you can't download or print the whole thing - you have to save or print it one page at a time. This is obviously not very helpful, since a lot of patents are long. If it's less than 50 pages, it works just fine - you can download and print the whole thing with reckless abandon and unbridled glee.

Take a look at esp@cenet to see the problem yourself. Do a number search for WO2007062371, and click on the patent name. Click on the "original document" tab to view the PDF. Save the PDF, then open the saved file and notice what happens when you try to go to another page. Yuck! Back in the browser window, you'll notice above the patent title it says "document too large." That basically means that working with this patent is going to be a pain in the butt.

There are some workarounds. The "description" tab gives most of the text from the patent, and you can copy and paste that into a Word document. The format is messy and there aren't any figures, but you can then save the individual pages from the patent that have relevant figures. Not a perfect option by any means, but better than nothing.

Additionally, the same patent may have been applied for in multiple countries, so there very well may be a US version of the patent. You can search Google Patents to see if one is available (bearing in mind that patents take a long time to be issued, so there may not be a US one available yet - seemingly the case with the example above). Also, SciFinder Scholar usually includes international patent numbers, so you can look up the patent in there and see if it gives a US patent number.

I can only assume that it's always been this way with esp@cenet, and I just never noticed before, because I can't believe they would have taken such a big step back in usability. I did find a 102-page US patent on Google Patents, and was able to download that with no problem.

So, that's that. It still sucks, but at least you can now explain why it's happening if you get the question, and have some alternative methods to try.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Liz

Floating a subheading in PubMed

For those of you who do advanced PubMed searching - has wondering how to float a subheading in PubMed kept you up at night? Have you tossed and turned thinking "there must be a way!", yet resorted to Ovid's .fs. command time after time? Rejoice! You can sleep well tonight because the secret is now revealed! Or maybe you already knew how to do it, and I'm just behind the curve. :)

In the MeSH browser in PubMed, you can look up subheadings as well as MeSH terms. I've done this for years to see the tree structure of a subheading, but it didn't click until just recently that THIS is how you can float a subheading in PubMed.

For example, if you're interested in floating the subheading "diagnosis" in your search, look up "diagnosis" in the MeSH database and select the one that says "diagnosis[subheading]". Then, just send it to the search box like you would a normal subject heading. Search PubMed, and it will pick up all the articles that have this subheading attached, regardless of which MeSH heading the subheading is attached to. You can then combine this floated subheading with the rest of the MeSH headings/keywords in your search.

There you have it! Too bad it took me years to figure this out, since it was right in front of my face this whole time (and, now that I look again, in the PubMed "help" - but I swear it wasn't there the last time I was trying to figure out if this could be done). Let me know if you have any questions!

Liz

New Natural Standard Feature

From a recent email from Natural Standard ---

"We are outreaching to all departments about new features on our website & the database in general to be sure that all of our members gets the most out of this valuable resource .....
One of the great new features is called the Advanced Interactions Checker which can be found in the interactions database on our homepage. It does all of the work for you! ....
Basically it allows you to find possible interactions between specific herbs, supplements, drugs & brand name products. Just search for specific agents, click on them to be placed in the check box in the upper right hand corner of the screen and the database will automatically find interactions between them all. When the search has found interactions, a blue hyperlinkf will appear in the results section. A good example to try is Aspirin, Ginkgo, Warfarin, or Yohimbe bark extract"

There are flyers available if you are interested that cover the new feature.

Katherine

Up To Date Access

Hello,

I wanted to let everyone know that our subscription to Up To Date has lapsed; because UTD sent us the invoice at the last minute. We have faxed our subscription renewal to UTD and it will take two working days to process it, so our access should be restored by Tuesday. In the mean time we have contacted our rep about getting some temporary access, such as a guest username/password, for UTD. I will keep you posted about this situation, please let me know if there are any questions.

Nicole

Electronic Resources for Clinicians Handout

Hello all,

The Electronic Resources for Clinicians handout that I distributed at today's reference training meeting is on the O: drive (Biomed-->PubServ-->Instruction-->Electronic Resources for Clinicians-->Handout-Electronic Resources for Clinicians.doc). Feel free to post it to your page, distribute it to classes, friends, family, etc. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Liz

Cutting and pasting search queries from Word to Ovid

I recently had a MedRef question from someone who was cutting and pasting a search strategy from a Word document into Ovid. He was getting unexpected results, and eventually figured out that it had to do with Word auto-formatting quotation marks from "straight" quotes into "curly" quotes. I don't think I would have figured that out, so since he did I thought I'd share it with everyone!

Here is an example of a search query:
("Obesity and sex steroids during gonadotropin-releasing hormone" OR "Relationship between body mass index and prostate cancer screening" OR "Obesity is negatively associated with prostate-specific").ti.

The Word "AutoFormat as You Type" feature converts straight quotes into curly quotes and OVID didn't recognize the curly quotes. Once he turned off this AutoFormat feature in Word the search worked. To turn off the feature in Word, go to the Tools menu and choose "Auto Correct options." Click the "Auto-Format as you type" tab, and uncheck the "replace as you type... "straight quotes" with "smart quotes.""

Alternately, once the search query is pasted into Ovid, you can go manually change all the curly quotes to straight quotes. That will also make the query work correctly.

I had never run across this before, so just something to tuck into the back of your mind if you ever get questions from someone who may be cutting and pasting a search.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Liz

Exam Master is useful to more than just medical students!

I was recently approached at the desk by a graduate nursing student who was wondering about resources to help him study for the Family Nurse Practitioner certification exam. Since we don't generally collect a lot of board review materials in our physical collection, I referred him to Exam Master.

Many of you are familiar with Exam Master as a tool to help medical students study for the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) Steps 1-3. However, Exam Master is useful for a wider audience than just medical students.

Students can take practice exams that simulate steps 1 through 3 of the USMLE, but they can also take sample exams in a variety of subject and practice areas, including Family Practice, Pediatrics, and OB/GYN. These subject exams are useful to students in the Family Nurse Practitioner, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and Women's Healthcare Nurse Practitioner programs. Additionally, subject quizzes like Biochemistry, Anatomy, Pathology, Physiology, etc. can be useful to students taking those classes, regardless of their program.

I'd recommend taking a look at Exam Master, so you have an idea of the things it offers. Connect to Exam Master through our website using the A-Z index, and set up an account. Once you're in, click on "Create Exams" and select either Quick Start or Custom Exams to view the available subject areas.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Liz

ISI Web of Science Saved Searches

I just had a patron at the desk who had been receiving e-mail alerts for a saved search and these alerts had stopped within the past several weeks. I asked him if his status had changed recently, thinking that this may be a libraries' flags issue, he said that it hadn't. Then I remembered that Web of Science (WoS) saved search alerts expire after 180 days. Prior to expiration, an e-mail is sent letting users know that their search(es) is set to expire. If this is the case all that they need to do is to go into WoS log in to their saved searches, chose modify settings and check off the send e-mail alerts button. This is a relatively painless process and the patron was happy.

Jim

MEDLINE changes

Greetings-

In response to an email question which came through on medref the other day, I have been made aware of some changes to MEDLINE with the latest reload. Perhaps you all are already aware of these changes, but, just in case, I am sharing with you some of what I have found out.

You might have noticed that when you go into Ovid MEDLINE, the default database is now for MEDLINE 1950-present, instead of 1966-present. This is because much of Old MEDLINE has been rolled into the regular MEDLINE database. There are about 500,000 citations remaining in old MEDLINE. Here is some of what Ovid has to say:

"The Ovid MEDLINE®, MEDLINE® In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, and Ovid OLDMEDLINE® databases have been reloaded. These reloads include the 2007 edition of MeSH® (Medical Subject Headings) from the National Library of Medicine. A complete description of the 2007 MeSH thesaurus changes are available from the NLM.

Other changes include improvements to the presentation of MeSH and Scope Note data. Previously, some references were duplicated in some scope notes. These duplications have been removed.

With this reload, 72% of the OLDMEDLINE citations have had all of their keywords mapped to the current MeSH. These records will be designated as MEDLINE records and loaded into the MED1 segment. The remaining 28% of OLDMEDLINE records remain in the Ovid OLDMEDLINE® segment. We are also pleased to announce that the Ovid OLDMEDLINE segment has been loaded as a standard Ovid Medline segment, enabling articles for linking and tool functionality."

Also, I found out from an email from Ovid tech support that a large number of duplicate records were deleted from MEDLINE with the reload.

For more information, please see http:///gateway.ut.ovid.com/gw2dsc/mednws.htm or the notification document from Ovid at O:\Reference\Ovid Medline 3rd notification.doc.

I hope that this information is helpful

Martha

Find It problems w/EBSCO --FIXED

The problem with linking to full-text from Find It to EBSCO host databases has now been fixed.

--Lisa

MICROMEDEX

Some of you may have discovered or fielded questions from our MICROMEDEX (MDX) users and learned that the search function is not working properly. Dan and Peter are aware of the problem, and have been in contact with MDX. Dan is going to re-load the data this evening at about 6:00pm and reboot our server running MDX.

In the mean time there is a rather clunky work-around for the searching problem, which involves clicking on the "Select Databases" button and checking off the "Diseasdex" and "Summary Documents" databases, and entering your search term.

Please let me know if you have questions.

Jim

New Ovid Database - Global Health

Hi all,

The newest database in our Ovid collection is called Global Health. Here's a brief blurb on it:

Coverage: 1973 to Present

Global Health brings together the resources of two internationally renowned databases - the Public Health and Tropical Medicine (PHTM) database, previously produced by the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases (BHTD), and the human health and diseases information extracted from CAB ABSTRACTS. Over 16,000 serial sources from more than 130 countries are scanned regularly for inclusion in the Global Health database, to produce approximately 25,000 new entries per year.

I'm planning on creating a pdf handout on Global Health in the next week or so. Feel free to try it out and let me know if you have any feedback.

Lisa

Micromedex PDA download

Hello Everyone,

It looks like the problems we have been experiencing with the PDA download for Micromedex have been rectified. There was a clinical expert release sent out last night that has fixed the problem. Please let me know if you run into any other glitches.

Nicole

Exam Master

As you might know we are getting Exam Master(EM), the license has been signed and I am waiting for the proxy URL so I can catalog it. However, EM seems to be very excited to get their product into the hands of U of MN students and they have already activated access and sent messages to U of MN students/affiliates telling them that we are now subscribing to their product. I had one inquiry today on Medref and I am anticipating some phone calls to the reference desk. I will catalog this resource ASAP once I get a proxy URL, so hopefully this will only last a day or two. Below is a copy of an email that was sent out by EM to a U of MN affiliate, I am also including a copy of EM's response. Let me know if you have any questions. Nicole

Hi ---:

Effective yesterday we put into place something called IP Authentication.
This prevents users who are not part of UMN or its affiliated
hospitals/entities from using the resource. The way its supposed to work is
that students on campus should be able to access with no difficulty as the
system is supposed to recognize these networks, and allow access. Users who
are off-campus, are supposed to log into a proxy server to gain access to
EXAM MASTER OnLine and other electronic resources.

So, we are sorting this out now, as you are not the only person to
experience difficulty. Check with the medical library. Depending on your
circumstances, and where you are attempting access (e.g. hospital and home),
they may be able to help you with proxy server instructions. If you can't
get a resolution in the next couple of days, please let me know.

Regards,

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:51 AM
To:
Subject: Re: EXAM MASTER OnLine Re-Activated

Hi ---
For some reason when I try to get onto the site, it is telling me my
internet connection is not authorized and I tried both at the hospital and
at my home. Is there something else I should be doing to access the site?

On 9 Sep 2006, -----@exammaster.com wrote:
>> From: -----@exammaster.com
>> To: ------
>>
>> Dear Friend:
>>
>> We are pleased to announced that the University of Minnesota Bio-Medical library has purchased a subscription to EXAM MASTER OnLine for the coming year. Your active use of and enthusiasm for EXAM MASTER OnLine helped to make that decision possible. Effective immediately, this gateway is now live. You may log in with your existing user name and password. There is a password reminder link on the log in page in case you have forgotten your access information. If you need any assistance with using this resource, please contact ---@exammaster.com.
>>
Regards,
-----
>> EXAM MASTER Corporation

Ask.com

I saw a commercial this weekend for Ask.com, in which a guy was talking about Ask.com and saying "librarians love us." Since the man on TV claims we love them, I figured I should check it out.

I played around with it a bit, and it's actually pretty cool. Early things that I like:
1. Ways to narrow or broaden your search by subject (links grouped on the side) - this is like what EBSCO is doing with their databases now. It's a neat way to discover new information and go off in different directions.
2. "Preview" binoculars for many sites, where you can hover over the binoculars and see the site it's linking to without actually going there.
3. Lots of integrated tools, like images, news, shopping, conversion, etc. - sound like any other search engine we know?
4. Nice clean interface, a la Google.
5. You can save selected search results - like a clipboard for websites that you find. You can set up an account to save permanently, tag results, etc. Very cool.
6. Has a kids version too.
7. I didn't do a lot of search comparisons yet, but the few I did were fairly comparable. Google seemed better but Ask.com's added value makes it a contender.
8. Maps feature - it will animate your route for you, tell you how long it will take you to walk, etc. Neat!

Things I didn't like so far:
1. There are sponsored links at the top and bottom and they're not set off well, so you have to look carefully to see that they're ads.

Anyway, it's pretty slick. You should check it out, so that if someone asks you if it's true that you love it (like the man on the TV said) you can give an informed answer one way or the other. It has a nice "about" section that gives a good overview.

Here's a link to an article about the ad campaign, or read it in the extended entry section.

Enjoy!
Liz

Ask.com Launches Second Post-Jeeves Campaign
› › › ClickZ News

By Kevin Newcomb | May 3, 2006

After showing the power of Ask.com's tools to civilize wild primates, the butler-less search engine will launch a second wave of TV ads today showcasing one of the company's top scientists.

Known as "AG" to his team, Apostolos Gerasoulis, executive VP of search technology, is one of the main developers of the Ask.com technology and a champion of improving the user experience of Ask.com, according to Greg Ott, Ask.com's VP marketing.

"Apostolos brings the true Ask brand forward. His passion as one of the site's creators really comes through on camera," Ott told ClickZ News.

Ask.com is investing heavily in marketing this year in a bid to gain market share from the dominant players Google and Yahoo! The latest report from comScore Media Metrix found Google accounted for 41 percent of search queries in January 2006, followed by Yahoo at 29 percent, MSN at 14 percent, and Ask.com at 5.6 percent.

Gerasoulis, a former professor at Rutgers University, stars in the latest set of :30 and :60 spots, created by Berlin Cameron New York. He was asked to use Ask.com to find out about various pop culture references that he was not familiar with, such as hip-hop culture, reggaeton, or cooking, and then to explain what he found while the film rolled.

In one, Gerasoulis shows how a search for "pimped out cars" can lead to useful information about custom rims and find sites that use related slang terms like "tight" or "phat" as well.

"Search engines understand text. Ask.com understands concepts," he says in his heavy Greek accent. "Pimped out cars are related; tight cars are related. Ask.com is a 'pimped out search engine'; it is very tight," he says.

In another, Gerasoulis explains that librarians have always been drawn to Ask.com for the way it groups information. "If librarians love us, I think the world should love us too," he says.

The sessions led to the creation of several :30 and :60 spots, which will be rotated into the plan over coming weeks. The ads will replace the current ads in the media buys made for the "Use Tools. Feel Human." campaign. Those ads, created by TBWA Chiat Day, have been running since early March, when the Ask.com redesign was unveiled.

The reason for splitting creative duties between agencies was a matter of speed, Ott said. "You have to be fast moving in this industry. We wanted to have multiple projects running in parallel," he said.

TV buys include network prime, early morning and cable placements. Online creative will not change, but will continue to stress the unique features of the site without reusing themes from the TV campaign, he said.

During parent company IAC/InterActiveCorp's quarterly investor call yesterday, IAC Chairman and CEO Barry Diller said that early marketing returns from the "Use Tools. Feel Human." campaign were very positive, with up to 30-percent increases in daily query volume common in April.

Ott said the current campaign has delivered "tremendous" results, with increases in top of mind awareness and consideration, as well as usage and unique users.

"Best of all, it's helping to drive users to what makes Ask unique and better: the tools we have that help people get what they're searching for faster," Ott said. "We're building on that momentum with the new campaign."

Academic Search Premier Alumni Edition coverage

We have received a few coverage questions regarding the Academic Search Premier Alumni Edition. You can find coverage details (in PDF, Excel or HTML format) at Ebsco at: http://www.epnet.com/titleLists.php?topicID=380&tabForward=titleLists&marketID.

The following information is included:
ISSN
Publication Name
Publisher
Indexing and Abstracting (date range)
Full Text (date range) [Full Text refers to text only, and/or text with graphics, and/or full page image coverage.]
Full Text Delay (Months)
Peer-Reviewed
PDF Images (full page)
Searchable Cited

As always with aggregators, "Publications included on this database are subject to change without notice due to contractual agreements with publishers."

Thanks,
Deb

MEDLINE now available in ISI

ISI is now serving up a version of MEDLINE on its Web of Science website. It is part of the drop down menu on the top. We will not at this time be providing a link on our website or catalog to this link, but we will also not be asking ISI to supress the link either. Initial examination shows some pros and cons of the search interface and in a nut shell, does not offer up anything really new in searching MEDLINE.
Highlights --
There are three different search interfaces (1) a simple search that is a single search box. This appears on the welcome page. (2) General search. This search includes search boxes labeled Topic, MeSH Heading, Author, Source Title, Publication Year, Address, Chemical, Identifying Codes. On this page is also a "restrick search by .." section that includes the limits from the limits section on PubMed, but greatly expands the options within the categories (beyond what PubMed allows on its limits page) -- but fewer limit options than what Ovid has on its limits page. (3) Advanced Search. This is a command line/field tagged search.

Some initial findings --
Discovered that when using the MeSH Heading search box, it does not map to MeSH headings. If you put in an incorrect heading, it just tells you that it doesn't exist, no suggestions about possible headings -- even if you have all the words right, but just in the wrong order.
On the other hand, if you just use the Topic search box, it has a radio button to map to MeSH headings and it does. There is a link to a "thesaurus" on the MeSH Heading search box.

Play around with it and see what you think. Is it worthwhile to let are patrons know about it?

Katherine

Daily InfoPOEMS

Hello all,

You may get questions at the reference desk from patrons trying to register for Daily InfoPOEMS. The main part of InfoPOEMS is InfoRetriever, which is a database that they can search online or on their PDAs - InfoRetriever has been straightforward thus far.

An additional feature is Daily InfoPOEMS, where patrons can receive a daily/weekly/monthly email containing a synopsis of clinical research. Unfortunately, they can't register for this themselves because we have an institutional subscription. If patrons want to register for Daily InfoPOEMS, they should email Katherine and she will add them to the list in our account.

Once the email address is in the system, patrons can modify their settings (such as how often they receive an email) by going to this link: http://www.infopoems.com/support/dpOptions.cfm. However, we have to add their email address initially.

I'll look into adding a note about this to our website. Let Katherine or me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Liz

2 Ebsco databases enabled for alumni access

HI all,

As you may have heard, the ULibraries and the Alumni Association have partnered together to offer alumni access to 2 Ebsco databases. Those databases are "alumni versions" of Academic Source Premier and Business Source Premier.

You can check out the info on these on the alumni page at: http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/find-articles-prelicensing.phtml

John Butler has added Alumni Association flags to x.500 records for all library staff in the following areas :

361A:Law Library
370A:Health Sciences Libraries
371A:Lib Collection Dev
372A:Lib Information Technology
374A:Lib Academic Programs
374B:Lib Acad Prgms/Sciences
374C:Lib Acad Prgms/Hum Soc Sci
374D:Lib Acad Prgms/Archv Spec Coll
375A:Lib Info Access/Del Svc

This will allow you access into these alumni databases so you can answer questions for alumni or assist with searches.

I'm not sure how much marketing the library is going to do for this, it seems that the Alumni Association is going to take the lead on this and send out their initial marketing materials on March 5-7, including an article in the Alumni magazine, a write-up in the monthly "burst" email they send to AA members, and a letter to individuals who are not yet members of the AA to tell them about this exciting new service.

You can direct any questions about this service to Vicki Glasgow.

Cheers!

Lisa

UpToDate usability changes

Hey All,

Info about UpToDate that you may need to know if patrons ask.

Katherine

Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 15:53:04 -0500
From: Greg D'Andrea
Subject: UpToDate Table of Contents Changes
To: Katherine Chew
Organization: UpToDate, Inc.

Dear Customer,

We value your subscription to UpToDate and want to inform you about changes we are making to the navigation in UpToDate online.

In order to protect our intellectual property and avoid copyright violations on a massive scale, we will be making some changes to our Table of Contents section starting Monday, December 5th. The Table of Contents will still appear, but some of the topic reviews within the Table of Contents will no longer be live links. This change will not affect the usability of UpToDate, as all of our content is still easily accessible via the main search box.

The following are a few search tips that will help you view topic reviews previously accessible through the Table of Contents. We encourage you to share these tips with your UpToDate users.

Patient Information:
To view our patient information handouts type in the words "patient info" and you will see all of the patient information topics available. To narrow your search, use the "narrow search results" button and type in the disease or condition. All of our patient information is also freely available to patients at www.patients.uptodate.com.

Drug Information:
To view information on a medication, type in the name of the medication, either brand name or generic in the main search box. For each medication you will see a number of drug information topics including adult information, pediatric information, and patient level information. UpToDate also offers international, as well as natural drug information.

Please let me know if you have any questions about these changes. Thank you for your subscription to UpToDate.

Regards,

Greg D'Andrea
Enterprise Account Manager

UpToDate
95 Sawyer Road
Waltham, MA 02453-3471

gdandrea@UpToDate.com
Direct Line (781) 392-2447
Toll Free (888) 550-4788 extension 2447
Fax (781) 642-8890

Ovid Session Recovery Feature

Given Ovid's database architecture the we are faced with two choices related to the "Session Recovery" feature: it can be enabled for all users, regardless of how they access our Ovid databases (e.g. jumpstarting into a database from our alphabetic lists, the MEDLINE/PubMed page, or connecting to Ovid via the BioMedSearch page), and whether their search had timed out or not;

Or, it is enabled just for users logging into our Ovid databases from the BioMedSearch "Connect to Ovid" link - users jumpstarting directly into a database would not have their sessions recovered.

Several months ago Dan and I had conversation about this, because we had the feature enabled for all logins and there was some annoyance from patrons/staff at always having sessions recovered. I suggested then that we enable this feature only for those users going through BioMedSearch.

After fielding an InfoPoint question and conferring with Lisa and Dan we are going to enable the Session Recovery for all logins. Please keep your eyes and ears peeled for negative feedback about this...if we hear a lot of static, we can turn it off again.

Let me know what you hear from our users.

Jim

Ovid and Netscape 8.0

Deb and Dan have been working with a patron who has been getting kicked out of the Ovid databases. This particular problem has been traced the patron's use of Netscape 8.0. If you receive a call on the desk from anyone having difficulty with Ovid keep this in mind.

Jim

Clinical Prediction Guides Added to PubMed® Clinical Queries

"A a new clinical study category called Clinical Prediction Guides has been added to the PubMed Clinical Queries page. (See Figure 1.) "

"Clinical Prediction Guides pertain to the prediction of some aspect of
a disease or condition and have been advocated as a mechanism for
enhancing clinical judgement. Clinical prediction studies develop or
validate rules, guides, indexes, equations, scales, scores or models to
predict a diagnosis, prognosis, risk (etiology), therapeutic response,
therapeutic drug level or clinical outcome. An example of a clinical
prediction guide is the Ottawa ankle rule. Can Fam Physician. 1996 Mar;42:478-80."

Full Announcement: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj05/mj05_clin_pred_guide.html

-Chad

VetCD and BeastCD

You may get questions over the next few months or so about VetCD and BeastCD. These are some of the main databases we've used at Vet (aside from PubMed). We recently cancelled our subscription to VetCD and BeastCD and instead have picked up an equivalent product called AnimalScience.com. This is essentially the same database as VetCD + BeastCD, but on a better interface, with more simultaneous users, for less money. You can see why we switched.

Evidence Based Medicine Reviews (EBMR) no longer available via Ovid

Evidence Based Medicine Reviews (EBMR) no longer available via Ovid.

The Bio-Medical Library has decided not to renew access the Evidence Based Medicine Reviews (EBMR) suite of databases via the Ovid system. EBMR databases included those in the Cochrane Library: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry, and article reviews from the American College of Physicians, ACP Journal Club.

Each of these specialty databases is available online to Bio-Medical Library users by going to (http://www.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/cochl.cgi) for the Cochrane Library databases and (http://tc.liblink.umn.edu/sfx_local?sid=sfx:e_collection&issn=1056-8751&pid=serviceType=getFullTxt) for the ACP Journal Club.

The Cochrane Library interface is Wiley InterScience now, and even less user friendly than the old Update Software interface.

Jim

Access to AMED & IPA suspended

Gail discovered today, during a reference consultation, that IPA (International Pharmaceutical Abstracts) was missing from our Ovid menu. We have also lost access to AMED. Apparently we did not received a renewal invoice for these databases and our subscriptions to them is set to expire in September. Katherine, Ashley, and Deb are working to restore access by the end of the day. In the mean time we will not have access to AMED or IPA.

Jim

JCR for 2003 available online

The 2003 edition of Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is available online via the Libraries' electronic subscription. Bio-Med has not yet received the print/microfiche version of the 2003 edition in Reference yet, so if anyone asks for journal impact factors, refer them to the online JCR for the most current factors.

Thanks, Kathy

Ovid service window

Ovid will be unavailable for approximately one hour tonight (6/23), from 11:00pm until 12:00am. During this time, users will be unable to access Ovid. During this service window, I will be adding more Ovid IDs and fixing a small duplicate-ID bug in our Ovid gateway software.

Please email debertin@umn.edu (or comment here; I'll be watching) if you have problems/questions.

-Dan Debertin

Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office

The National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce that Series 1 of IndexCat, the online version of the Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office, is now available online at:
http://indexcat.nlm.nih.gov

All five series are now available. Please note that this is still a pilot release - - - additional enhancements are under construction.

Elaine

U of M facts and figures

To find statistical information about the University of Minnesota (e.g., number of students/faculty or University budget), see the Office of Institutional Research and Reporting website (http://www.irr.umn.edu). Try the links on the left (e.g., "Student Data"), or use the "University Facts and Figures" link to create your own report by specifying the variables for which you want figures.

Yesterday, we used the "Official Registration Statistics" option on the Student Data page to find the total number of students in the AHC (just over 5,000).

Kathy

Patent PDFs

Exciting news! Esp@cenet now offers U.S. and international patents in PDF format. No more printing one page at a time. Use the advanced search page to enter a patent number (publication number), then choose the Original document tab. Voila! Thanks to Liz for this time-saving find! http://ep.espacenet.com

Mary

BioMedNet to close 30 June 2004

BioMedNet, an online "awareness tool" from Elsevier aimed at biomedical researchers, will shut down on June 30, 2004 after nine years of operation. Boo hoo.

More info at http://gateways.bmn.com/

Scirus - the search engine

Our friends at Elsevier have created a search engine called Scirus (www.scirus.com) that focuses on scientific content on the Internet, and many researchers find it useful. In addition to web sites, it also searches bibliographic databases, such as PubMed. The only full text journal articles it searches are those that are either open access (e.g., BioMed Central) or those from ScienceDirect. (For a complete description of what it searches, see http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/aboutus/#range).

Some researchers think it is searching ALL full text articles, so that is a misconception we should be aware of. However, the advantage of Scirus is that by searching the full text, it's a good place to go to look for specific methods, techniques, named products (e.g., devices) and company names. These terms are usually not in the citations or abstracts, but are in the Methods sections of articles. Another database that permits similar full text searching is Journals@Ovid Full Text, which includes about 600 journals.

Health Services Research Filters

Try out these pilot search filters for Health Services Research (HSR) from the National Information Center on Health Services Research (NICHSR). The two available filters are on Quality-Related Queries and Cost-Related Queries. They act in a similar way to the clinical filters, only they are more focused on either costs/economics or appropriateness/outcomes assessment/process assessment. The URL for these filters is: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/hedges/search.html.
They might prove to be an efficient way to search those pesky cost/economics questions.

History in PubMed is Now Editable!

As of the 5th of May, you can now edit your search History in PubMed. The search statements are hyperlinked, so that when you click on one, a drop down menu appears. From this menu you can AND, OR, NOT, delete statements, see the Details of the statement or just GO to the search results. The AND, OR, NOT function allows you to combine statements without having to type them in (and remembering to include the #'s and capitalize the AND/OR/NOTs)

RefWorks Link Moved

The link to RefWorks on the Library's homepage has been moved to the Resources/Collections drop-down menu and is replaced by a link to UpToDate. Please direct users to the drop-down menu for access to RefWorks or send them to http://www.lib.umn.edu/refworks/.

--Jim

new links on Ref Quick Links page

Two new resources will be added to the Reference Quick Links webpage (http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/ref/ref.html). This is the page that we use as a homepage on the Reference Desk computers.

Minnesota Medical Association Physician Finder (http://www.mnmed.org/phyFinder/)
can be used to search for physicians in Minnesota, and also produce a list of who is on staff of a specific Minnesota health care facility (e.g., Park Nicolet).

Healthcare Facts (http://healthcarefacts.org) produced by Blue Cross/Blue Shield Minnesota, can be used to compare facts about specific health care facilities in Minnesota (e.g., United Hospital in St. Paul). It provides information on such facts as number of common procedures done, ratio of patients to RNs, etc.

Any questions, please ask. Thanks, Kathy

Current Protocols

Our patrons now have access to Current Protocols in Cell Biology and Current Protocols in Molecular Biology. Although direct proxy URLs to each of these have not yet been created, patrons can access them both on campus and remotely by going to the Wiley site (http://www.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wil.cgi), and clicking on the "Current Protocols" link in the Browse by Product Type section. (once the direct URLs are done, they will be put in MNCAT and on our E-Texts webpage)

These resources are aimed at basic science researchers who are looking for procedures (i.e., protocols) for various laboratory research methods. Some examples are cell-substrate adhesion assays, determining protein transport to the plasma membrane, DNA sequencing strategies, and molecular cloning of PCR [polymerase chain reaction] products.

If you have any questions, please ask me or Kevin. Thanks, Kathy

Up-to-Date access

On-campus access to Up-to-Date is now available to anyone on campus (http://uptodate.com). Access is IP controlled, and patrons don't need to use a username and password.

For the inevitable questions we will be getting from U of M patrons who want to access Up-to-Date remotely, we can tell them that although our contract does not permit this, several other health organizations have their own subscriptions that our patrons can use at their sites. All of those listed provide access via their Intranets, except for Abbott.

Fairview Riverside
Abbott Northwestern Hospital (one computer in their library)
Regions Hospital
HCMC
VA Medical Center

I know that Health East hospitals (St. John's and St. Joseph's) do not offer access to Up-to-Date at this time.

Any questions, please ask me, or Jim, or Katherine. Thanks, Kathy

Up-To-Date

The U Libraries is currently in the process of licensing access to Up To Date (online collection of topic reviews for clinicians). According to the E-Resources tracker, we've sent the publisher our IP ranges and this may be the reason that we can get access to it from within the library. We have not finished negotiating a contract or paid for this yet so the record does not appear in MNCAT. If you want to try it out go directly to: http://www.uptodate.com

--Lisa