NLM Update RUSA STARS ILL Discussion Group and ILL Committee ALA Midwinter 2007

Interlibrary Loan

NLM received 328,661 ILL requests in FY06 and filled an all-time high of 83% of those requests. Even more impressive: of the 274,039 requests filled by NLM, 97% were filled within 8 hours! Our overall volume of ILL requests represents a decline of almost 4% from the previous fiscal year, which roughly parallels that of the entire National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM). Total NN/LM ILL traffic on DOCLINE reached a high of just over 3 million requests in 2002, but has declined an average of 6% each year since. In FY06, the 3219 NN/LM libraries initiated 2.3 million requests in DOCLINE.

The ILL Unit incorporated NLM’s DocMorph software into its delivery workflow. DocMorph converts PDF documents into TIFFs, allowing ILL staff to send articles from e-journals via all electronic delivery methods (previously Ariel and fax were unavailable when delivering a PDF).

In an effort to assist libraries affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, NLM agreed to provide free ILL services for as long as necessary to any library affected by these disasters. Between July 2005 and September 2006, NLM waived ILL fees for 2,461 requests submitted by 65 eligible institutions.

DOCLINE

NLM released several updates to DOCLINE this year. On June 27, NLM released DOCLINE 2.8 which offers several enhancements to the Loansome Doc registration process, such as limiting search results to libraries serving the public and requiring new users to enter an authorization code if the host libraries select this registration option. A maintenance release, 2.8.3, was issued in August to correct a bug with duplicate Loansome Doc requests. DOCLINE 3.0, released in October, allows EFTS libraries to generate a file of transaction data which they can then to EFTS for billing; it also includes messages alerting users to their own LinkOut and DOCLINE serial holdings to prevent unnecessary requests.

Collection Management

The Preservation and Collection Management Section has completed a serials inventory for 73% of the 13,500 titles indexed in Index Medicus/Medline. To date, approximately 13,000 items have been identified as missing. As soon as our holdings and items records are accurate, we hope to begin a program to replace the missing items.

NLM’s 20-year old preservation microfilming program ended in March after filming 105,000 brittle volumes, most of which were serials indexed in Index Medicus/Medline.

Digital Projects

An NLM Library Operations working group has almost finished drafting functional requirements for an NLM digital repository, which will contain e-content produced at NLM as well as e-content acquired from commercial and other outside producers.

We recently completed selection criteria for digitization projects and will be digitizing items from the collection that are of high interest as well as those in poor condition. We awarded a purchase order for digitization and have started a pilot project involving digitizing 19th century pamphlets on the subject of cholera. PubMed

PubMed, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in October, is now available as a search engine add-on in both Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7.0. From a PubMed Web page, click the search box drop down arrow next to the default search engine Google, and then select “Add PubMed search.”

The Limits page menu for "Type of Article" was modified to include nine new Publication Types, such as “Comparative Study.” These had previously been treated as MeSH terms.

A new type of Comment/Correction notation has been added to PubMed citations to indicate when an article has been partially retracted. Citations for the partial retraction will display the note, Partial retraction of, followed by citation information for the article being partially retracted. Citations for the article being partially retracted will have the notation, Partial retraction in, followed by citation information. Whenever possible, there will be links between the related citations.

NLM is pleased to announce a new "Bioethics Information Resources" web page which provides links and search boxes to a variety of NLM and NIH resources, including PubMed and the NLM catalog, which deal with the topic of bioethics.

NLM Web Search Selected

NLM's Web and Reference Services Section together with NLM's Office of Computer and Communication Services has selected the Vivísimo Velocity search engine product for the Main Web and MedlinePlus sites. The Vivisimo product will allow NLM to have more flexibility, reliability and control over the search service it provides to the public. We expect a first release later this year.

Personnel Changes

Sheldon Kotzin was appointed to the position of Associate Director for Library Operations in August. Mr. Kotzin came to the NLM as a Library Associate and subsequently served as Head of the Catalog Maintenance Unit, Head of the Collection Access Section, and Coordinator of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, before becoming Chief of the Bibliographic Services Division. Mr. Kotzin has also served as Executive Editor of MEDLINE and Administrator of the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee, the body that reviews and recommends journals for indexing in MEDLINE. He is also NLM's representative to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, a group of 12 clinical journal editors who establish standards for submission of journal articles.

Martha Fishel was appointed Chief of the Public Services Division (PSD) in October 2006. Ms. Fishel has nearly thirty years of experience in public and technical services at NLM and has served as Deputy Chief of the Division since 1989. During her seventeen years in PSD, Ms. Fishel has acquired a broad knowledge of interlibrary loan activities, reference services, preservation, collection management, and DOCLINE. More recently, she has been manager of the highly successful PubMed Central back file scanning project and she serves on the Section 108 legislative study group, working on revising the section of the Copyright Law dealing with access to and preservation of digital material.

NLM Long Range Plan

One of NLM’s biggest accomplishments this year is the culmination of our long range planning process and the release of our new plan, entitled “Charting a Course for the 21st Century: NLM’s Long Range Plan 2006 – 2016.” The plan delineates 17 specific recommendations in 4 very big goals:

1) Seamless, uninterrupted access to expanding collections of biomedical data, medical knowledge, and health information; 2) Trusted information services that promote health literacy and the reduction of health disparities; 3) Integrated biomedical, clinical, and public health information systems that promote scientific discovery and speed the translation of research into practice; and 4) A strong and diverse workforce for biomedical informatics research, systems development, and innovative service delivery.

The full text of this plan is available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/plan/lrpdocs.html.

Space Planning

One of the most significant priorities delineated in the Long Range Plan is to ensure adequate space and storage conditions for current and future collections. NLM has architectural plans for a new library which would provide adequate growth space through 2027, though we do not yet have funding for this project. Because our stacks will be at 100% capacity by 2010, we have already developed a plan to move some of our low-use materials, such as government documents and modern manuscripts, into our off-site storage facility at Iron Mountain, relocate some of our operations internally, and install additional compact shelving in the stacks. Core testing, completed in December, indicates that some floor strengthening will be required to accommodate the additional compact shelving.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary A. Hollerich Head, Collection Access Section National Library of Medicine