HSLS Update

Director’s Reflections...Looking Back, Looking Forward – and Thank You!

In October 2006, MEDLINE marked its 35th anniversary.  When I began my career as a medical librarian in 1974, the ability to search online for medical journal articles instead of poring through voluminous print volumes of Index Medicus was a miraculous advance.  It was fun to be viewed as a magician who could solve research problems with a keyboard terminal and a printer.  Never mind that the interface and hardware were clunky and slow, and that two weeks of onsite training at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in Bethesda, Maryland were required.  Only librarians were able to acquire passwords – end users weren’t eligible.  Fast and accurate typing skills were a necessity, as users were charged by the minute for connect time.  Lengthy search results were generally printed offline and mailed from NLM the next day, to be received in the library three to five working days after that.

To show how far we’ve come in 35 years, NLM created a comparison of MEDLINE then and now¹.  Some notable statistics: 

•  In 1971, according to the September-October National Library of Medicine NEWS of that year, MEDLINE featured 239 indexed journals. In 2006, that number has grown to 4,928.
•  In 1971, MEDLINE served 25 users. In 2006, MEDLINE/PubMed will average 77 million unique visits in 2006 and about 800 million searches.
•  In 1971, MEDLINE was available via dial-up telecommunications. In 2006, the site is freely available to anyone on earth via the World Wide Web.
•  In 1971, MEDLINE operated on an IBM 360/50 mainframe computer. In 2006, MEDLINE/PubMed runs on 20 Dell PowerEdge 1850 Servers, 2 CPU 8Gb RAM, with the Linux operating system in 64-bit mode.

At this time of year, it’s enjoyable to pause for a moment to appreciate how far we’ve come, but it’s even more exciting to focus on the future.  Articles elsewhere in this issue describe improvements to physical facilities in Falk Library, and enhancements to our Web site that allow you to locate electronic documents more efficiently.  Watch for continuing developments in 2007.

Also in this issue is a list of the many generous individuals who have contributed money and new books and journals to HSLS during the past year.  Your support of our programs and services is deeply appreciated, and helps us stretch our budget dollars even further. 

On behalf of the entire HSLS staff, I wish our user community a happy holiday season, and a successful and productive new year!

--Barbara Epstein bepstein@pitt.edu

References:

1. www.nlm.nih.gov/news/medline_35th_birthday.html