Meet PubMed's grandfather.The world's first "electronic librarian" is now in operation. The National Library of Medicine (NLM Software that runs in a NetWare server. Although NetWare servers store DOS and Windows applications, they do not execute them. All programs that run in a NetWare server must be compiled into the NLM format. They are typically written in C and use Novell's libraries. ) is using a large-scale Honeywell 800 computer to keep track of the tens-of-thousands of medical journal articles it receives each year. It is part of NLM's unique new information retrieval information retrieval Recovery of information, especially in a database stored in a computer. Two main approaches are matching words in the query against the database index (keyword searching) and traversing the database using hypertext or hypermedia links. system called MEDLARS MEDLARS abbr. Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (computerized index system of the US National Library of Medicine) MEDLARS, n. (Medical Literature Analysis Retrieval System), and is said to be the first computer ever used to solve complex problems of scientific information handling in a library.... Information is prepared in the form of "citations"--one for each article--by NLM's skilled indexers and revisers who code each article according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. such categories as author's name Noun 1. author's name - the name that appears on the by-line to identify the author of a work writer's name name - a language unit by which a person or thing is known; "his name really is George Washington"; "those are two names for the same thing" , the title of the article, the name and date of the journal in which it appeared, the language in which it was written, and a number of medical subject headings that describe as completely as possible the article's subject content. The computer is programmed to take this information, sort it out, and prepare "data files" for storage on magnetic tape. Citations are then available for use in a number of ways; indexed in such a manner that a request for information on any particular subject will immediately call out of the files everything that has been recorded on the subject. The computer takes about five minutes to search one complete reel of magnetic tape containing citations for 25,000 to 30,000 articles. Assuming the main file will require about six reels a year, a five-year search through thirty reels of magnetic tape containing 750,000 to 900,000 citations would take about two-and-one-half hours. Without the computer's high speed, this would be impossible. "Computer Controls Medical Information Retrieval System" Physical Therapy 1964;44(10):938-939. [Editor's note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : Today, PubMed searches more than 12 million citations in seconds.] |
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