At 12:00 AM 2000/02/26 -0600, the Scout Report Scouts reported:
>  1. The Scout Report -- February 25, 2000
>Feedback is always welcome: [log in to unmask]
>...
>3.  PubMed Central [.pdf]
>http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/
>
>After almost a year of sometimes contentious debate, the National
>Institutes of Health has officially opened PubMed Central, a free
>online archive of full-text, peer-reviewed research papers in the
>life sciences. While the majority of the major scientific publishers
>have declined to participate, a number of respected journals will be
>featured at the site. The first of these are _Molecular Biology of
>the Cell_ and _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the
>United States of America_. At the time of writing, only the November
>1, 1999 issue of _Molecular Biology of the Cell_ was available. Users
>can view abstracts or the full text of over 30 articles in HTML or
>.pdf format. The full texts of issues for both journals from 1999 and
>1998 are in preparation. Forthcoming journals include _Biochemical
>Journal_, _Canadian Medical Association Journal_, _Frontiers in
>Bioscience_, and five journals from BioMed Central. Background and
>participation information are available at the site. While current
>offerings at the site are modest, PubMed Central promises to become a
>major resource for scholars and professionals in the life sciences.
>[MD]



Dear Scouts:

I am flummoxed by this review of the wonderful WWWeb facility that is PubMed.

The original [abstracts only] website was opened in June 1997 by US Vice
President Al Gore, viz:

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VICE PRESIDENT LAUNCHES FREE ACCESS TO WORLD'S LARGEST SOURCE
OF PUBLISHED MEDICAL INFORMATION ON WORLD WIDE WEB
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Consumers and Health Professionals Worldwide
to Have Fingertip Access to Cutting-Edge Research

(Bethesda, MD -- June 26, 1997) --Vice President Gore announced today that
a new service launched by the National Library of Medicine, a part of the
National Institutes of Health, will provide all Americans free access to
MEDLINE -- the world's most extensive collection of published medical
information -- over the World Wide Web. Prior to this announcement, users
have had to register and pay to search MEDLINE and other NLM databases.
This free service will be demonstrated by Vice President Albert Gore at a
press briefing to be hosted by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) on Thursday, June
26, 1997 at 10:30 a.m. in Room 192 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building,
United States Senate.

"From a computer in the comfort of their own home or from one in their
neighborhood library, Americans will be able to access timely and accurate
medical information," theVice President said. "Better and more up-to-date
information in the hands of consumers means we can treat diseases more
quickly and maybe even prevent some of them in the first place."

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said in a statement
released at the press conference, "American citizens now have at their
fingertips both the scientific information gathered by the National Library
of Medicine, as represented in MEDLINE, and the extensive consumer health
information in Healthfinder, the service for the public that we announced
in April. We are committed to using the new technology, including the World
Wide Web and the Internet, to provide health information to the public."

"The National Library of Medicine's debut of free Web-based searching could
not be more timely," said NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D. "The
health care delivery landscape is changing. Citizens are increasingly
turning to the Web as a source of information to improve their daily lives,
including their health. So, it is vital that they, and the health
professionals who serve them, have access to the most current and credible
medical information."

"Medical breakthroughs are happening so rapidly that I believe health care
professionals and consumers alike should be able to tap into the most
recent medical information," added pioneering heart surgeon Michael E.
DeBakey, M.D., chair of NLM's Board of Regents. "Such information is often
the critical link in reaching the correct diagnosis, resulting in lives
saved, unnecessary treatment avoided, and hospitalization reduced. Even
with all our modern advances in health care, I still consider good
information to be the best medicine." Dr. DeBakey emphasized this same
point this past spring in testimony before a Capitol Hill appropriations
subcommittee.

Harold Varmus, M.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health,
applauded free access and observed it would have the additional benefit of
improving the nation's scientific literacy. "The press briefing will
demonstrate how the public, including high school and college science
classes, will be able to search through MEDLINE and the Human Gene Map,
another one of NLM's Web-based databases, and learn about inherited
diseases that are located on our chromosomes -- in terms that the public
can understand. No longer will the public be left in the dark as this
fascinating and historic human genome research process unfolds."

"The medical library community is pleased that this vast treasure trove of
medical knowledge will be opened up to the general public," said Rachael K.
Anderson, President of the Medical Library Association. "Patients and their
families are regularly turning to health sciences librarians to find
reliable health information. Free MEDLINE means that we can now provide
consumers with better access to the quality information they need, and
librarians can help them to tap into the full power of this authoritative
source."

To demonstrate the value this new service will have for consumers and
health professionals, the press briefing will bring together a sampling of
Americans whose stories are compelling examples of how access to MEDLINE
and other sources of medical information from the Library positively
touched their lives. Among those who will provide written or oral
statements are:

* A Pennsylvania book editor who went online to learn about non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma and to find a clinical trial for her daughter, a University of
Iowa student, who was diagnosed with the disease;

* A Maryland pharmacist who had six miscarriages before she consulted
MEDLINE, found a treatment, and carried a baby successfully to term;

* A Connecticut librarian who searched MEDLINE for a doctor who was
concerned about hospitals performing mastectomies on an out-patient basis
for insurance purposes. Her search resulted in a reversal of such insurance
policies;

* A New York police officer who searched MEDLINE to recover important
information for three relatives with cancer -- his wife, father-in-law, and
aunt. He now trains other officers in the use of MEDLINE;

* A Virginia couple whose 6-month search of medical literature resulted in
treatment for their son's rare inherited disease -- a search that became
immortalized in the movie "Lorenzo's Oil";

* A District of Columbia director of an AIDS advocacy group that uses
AIDSLINE, an NLM database that is already free to the public.

* Other individuals, from throughout the United States, will be available
for comment by contacting the NLM.

The web address for the National Library of Medicine is:
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov>

Press will also be invited to view a demonstration of "PubMed" -- a new
free NLM online service that will allow the public to establish direct web
links between MEDLINE abstracts and the publishers of the full-text
articles.

This new service is the result of a collaboration between the NLM and major
science publishers such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Science,
Journal of Biological Chemistry, and The Proceedings of the National
Academy of Science.
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I have made liberal use of it since then on a weekly basis in re a Parkinson's
Disease on-line support group.

I fail to see how the term 'modest' can be applied to the current or even past
offerings at the website, which I have considered an internet miracle from day one.

Any review of the newly improved and enlarged PubMedCentral website which fails
to mention PubMed's history on the WWWeb [not to mention MEDLINE's]  is, in my humble
opinion, missing quite a large boat.


Yours in WWWeb-surfing and -mining,


janet paterson
52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
a new voice: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/
613 256 8340 PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario Canada K0A 1A0