Medical E-Reference: A Benchmark for E-Reference Publishing in Other Disciplines

Background

The NLM published the first volume of Index Medicus: A Monthly Classified Record of the Current Medical Literature of the World in 1879. This index included books, medical articles, reports, and other literature (Miles & National Library of Medicine, 1982). NLM set high standards for information retrieval systems and vocabulary control in 1964 when it developed MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System), which was based on Index Medicus. This database was too large for the remote access by computer systems in 1970 (McCarn, 1970), but by 1971, NLM had developed the first available online IRS, MEDLARS ON-LINE or MEDLINE, by using existing U.S. Department of Defense computer programs. DIALOG, the first well known, multidiscipline, and searchable database, was developed after MEDLINE in 1972 (Palmer, 1987). The NLM’s impact can even be seen in current copyright practices. The 1976 Fair Use sections of the copyright law developed as a result of lengthy litigation between NLM and publishers who objected to NLM’s photocopying practices (Miles & National Library of Medicine, 1982). During the 1980s, the NLM benefitted by having a director who was simultaneously the director of NLM and the National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and Communications (Groen, 2007). Under this director’s leadership, NLM developed a computer program called Grateful Med, which was the precursor to PubMed (Hersh, 2003). PubMed became freely available on the Internet in 1997 and currently includes the full text to over 100 medical e-books (U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2010).