E-DRUG: Changes at National Library of Medicine

["Joan D. Levin" <jdlevin@interaccess.com>]

E-drug: Changes at National Library of Medicine
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The National Library of Medicine of the U.S., which many health
professionals access through the MEDLARS/MEDLINE system,
is moving completely to an internet based system.  Plans are
being made to do away with the older mainframe based ELHILL
software.  While the new system has many advantages, and
should certainly be maintained and expanded, it also suffers from
many disadvantages that will seriously impede the efficiency and
thoroughness of literature reviewer.

The elimination of the ELHILL mainframe is being done quietly,
and without great fanfare.  No specific dates have been announced,
but its demise, which may take place sometime this year, will forever
shut an important doorway to the world's largest biomedical database.

Users who are concerned about this should immediately contact
Dr. Donald Lindberg, Director of National Library of Medicine.  His
e-mail address is lindberg@nlm.nih.gov.

Those of you who work in the U.S. might also write to the President
and to your representatives in the U.S. Congress.

If you would like specific examples of the features that will be forever
lost with the planned demise of the ELHILL mainframe, please feel
free to get in touch with me.  

If you have further ideas about what can or should be done, I would
like to hear from you!
 
Joan D. Levin, J.D., M.P.H.
Apt. 20-D
1300 North Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60610
tel: 312-988-7181
fax: 312-988-7182
e-mail: jdlevin@interaccess.com
...and visit my website: http://homepage.interaccess.com/~jdlevin
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