Skip to content | Skip to search box

Books & Bytes

Volume 5, Number 6    February 1993

Books & Bytes is produced by the HSLIC Library Staff for Health Sciences Center personnel. Copyright University of Washington.

Table of Contents

  1. Serial Title Changes: February 1993
  2. Recent Gifts and Contributions to the Collections
  3. NLM Database Access for American College of Physicians
  4. Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines
  5. FDA Electronic Bulletin Board
  6. Gift Processing
  7. Hot Topic Bibliographies
  8. Personal Files Management
  9. National Library of Medicine Lowers Database Prices
  10. Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials (OJCCT)
  11. PsycINFO Database Searching

Serial Title Changes: February 1993

New Serial Titles

Clinical practice guidelines, n.1(1992)--.
Clinical practice guideline. A patients guide, n.1(1992)--.
Clinical practice guideline. Quick reference guide for clinicians, n.1(1992)--.

Title Changes

Silver, Kempe, Bruyn & Fulginiti's handbook of pediatrics, 16th(1991)--.
Book Stacks: WS 100 S587h.
Continues: Handbook of pediatrics.

Acta ophthalmologica. Supplement, n.170(1985)--.
Continues: Acta ophthalmologica. Supplementum.

Heart and stroke facts, 1992--.
Reference Book Stacks: W1 HE644K; earlier in Book Stacks.
Continues, in part: Heart facts.

[Return to Table of Contents]

Recent Gifts and Contributions to the Collections

Acknowledgment and appreciation are extended to the following individuals and departments who have recently made contributions to the Library:

Dr. George N. Aagaard; Dr. Edwin L. Bierman; Ms. Geraldine A. Brady; Dr. Peter H. Byers; Dr. Philip J. Fialkow; Dr. Hjordis M. Foy; Dr. Allen Gown; Dr. Daniel O. Graney; Ms. Sandra J. Mitchell; Dr. Arno G. Motulsky; Ms. Maxine Patrick; Dr. William Portuese; Dr. Thomas H. Shepard; Dr. Jefferson Slimp; Dr. John S. Snypp; Dr. Karl Spees; Dr. Loren C. Winterscheid; Department of Microbiology; Department of Neuropathology; Department of Ophthalmology; Office of the Dean, School of Medicine.

Contribution of Funds:

Ms. Suzanne Corbett; David R. and Dr. Sherrilynne Fuller.

[Return to Table of Contents]

NLM Database Access for American College of Physicians

National Library of Medicine (electronic mail reprint )

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the American College of Physicians (ACP) are pleased to announce the extension of the experimental flat fee program, effective April 1, 1993. Many ACP members took advantage of this unique program in 1992 to obtain unlimited access to MEDLINE and the 40 other databases at NLM. Through programs such as this and the outreach programs done by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, NLM can continue to work toward meeting the challenge of disseminating the latest scientific findings to health professionals, particularly those unaffiliated with a medical library.

The agreement remains the same as last year with a few additional benefits. The subscriber will have one year of unlimited access to MEDLINE for his/her individual use only. The password is not to be shared. A prepayment of $200 (check, money order, credit card number) will accompany each application sent to NLM. Those who took advantage of this program last year can simply send a renewal check, money order or authorization for renewal of payment by credit card to NLM by March 1, 1993.

After April 1, 1993, sign-up can be rolling, and someone may sign up for a 12-month period anytime during the year (i.e., June 1, 1993-May 30, 1994). Should ACP and NLM establish a new agreement, there will be no proration of this fee. A three-month notification will be given of pending changes in the agreement. An announcement of the new agreement appears in the January ACP Observer. For further information, please contact Karen Ginter at (301)402-4277.

While the ACP agreement does offer routine access to all NLM databases, ACP members should be aware that the entire MEDLINE database (1966-date) will soon be available at no charge to UW faculty, staff, and students through UWIN and WILLOW.

[Return to Table of Contents]

Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines

by Carolyn Weaver, Associate Director for Administration

Educators must obtain permission of the copyright owner to include photocopies of copyrighted materials in anthologies for student use. Anthologies (e.g., compilations of publications from different sources) are specifically excluded under the "Fair Use" provision of copyright law, as confirmed by a number of recent court decisions.

Under the Fair Use guidelines for classroom copying in not-for-profit educational institutions, the following use is permitted:

  1. A single copy may be made by a teacher for his or her individual scholarly research or for use in teaching a class. Single copies may include brief works such as a chapter of a book, an article from a periodical or newspaper, short story, essay, poem, chart, graph, cartoon, etc.
  2. Multiple copies (not to exceed more than one copy per pupil per course) may be made by or for the teacher for classroom use, provided that the copying meets certain tests of brevity, spontaneity, and cumulative effect. The "spontaneity" test states, "The inspiration and decision to use the work and the moment of its use for maximum teaching effectiveness are so close in time that it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to a request for permission."

Anthologies created by photocopying copyrighted materials always require permission of the copyright owners for each item which is included. The Fair Use guidelines state, "Copying shall not be used to create or to replace or substitute for anthologies, compilations or collective works."

For more information, please consult Update to the Copyright Act of 1976: Guidelines for Educators; Revised by Edwin J. McCullough, Office of the Attorney General, State of Washington; January 1987, which is available at all Libraries Reserve Desks.

[Return to Table of Contents]

FDA Electronic Bulletin Board

by Debbie Ketchell, Associate Director, Resource Management & Systems Development

An FDA electronic bulletin board service (BBS) with a simplified user interface is available free via the Internet. It includes the following information resources:

You can access the FDA BBS using the following Internet name or number address: fdabbs.fda.gov or 150.148.8.48. Once connected you will receive a login prompt, to which you reply: bbs

The first-time user will be asked to register, although there is no charge for the service. The menu of services and instructions then leads you through the FDA information resources. Basic help as well as a detailed manual is available online.

Technical support for the FDA BBS System is available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST, Monday thru Friday. Contact the Parklawn Computer Center (PCC) at (301) 443-7318. If you are looking for a specific report or article, contact Karen Malone in the FDA Press Office at (301) 443-3285.

For those using the UWIN Gopher or Gopher client software to access Internet, the FDA BBS can be reached through several gopher servers, including

Preferred Gopher Servers ->
NCSU Library Without Walls -> Discipline specific ->
Medicine ->

Internet access is also available with a dial-up modem by first connecting to a campus computer (e.g., Carson) and then using the telnet command. Brief "how-to" instruction sheets on using telnet from a campus computer like Carson or using the NCSA Telnet software on your Macintosh or PC-compatible computer are available. Contact the Reference Desk or the library liaison for your school or department. Factsheets on selected other health-related resources available via the Internet (including Gopher) are also available.

[Return to Table of Contents]

Gift Processing

Because of remodeling, the Gifts Processing section at HSLIC will be in temporary quarters for approximately six weeks, beginning around April 1. For this reason, we must suspend acceptance of gifts of library materials from March 1 until remodeling is complete (approximately May 15.) Your material gifts are important to the Library, and we will resume accepting gifts when we are back in a permanent work area. Do remember that monetary gifts during this time will be gratefully accepted!

[Return to Table of Contents]

Hot Topic Bibliographies

by Terry Ann Jankowski, Information Services Librarian

The Information Services Section recently began compiling bibliographies on "hot topics," subjects of current interest relating to health and medicine. These one-page bibliographies include a search strategy which guides individuals in performing more in-depth searches for information on this topic.

The first two Hot Topics are 93-1: Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and 93-2: E. Coli 0157:H7 Colitis. Copies are available for viewing in several locations in HSLIC:

You also may request a copy of a bibliography by name or number from the Document Delivery/Photocopy Service at standard photocopy rates (12 for UW students, staff and faculty; 20 for others). Copies may also be requested via HSLIC's electronic mail service (hsl at u.washington.edu). In the future, we hope to make these bibliographies available for FTP transfer from HSLIC's server. Watch for more information in future issues of Books & Bytes.

Additional Hot Topics will appear on an irregular basis. To suggest a topic for future bibliographies, call the HSLIC Reference Desk or your departmental library liaison.

[Return to Table of Contents]

Personal Files Management

Your publisher has asked you to verify one of the references in your bibliography. You have no idea where your copy of the article in question may be. You look through every file cabinet, your desk, on the floor -- still no luck. You vow that it's time to organize those reprints!

A personal computer database of selected references provides ease and flexibility in locating and using the published literature in your field of interest. Reprints can be searched by author, subject heading, journal title, words in the article title, etc., and results can be printed out in bibliographic format. ProCite, Reference Manager and Endnote are some common personal file management software packages.

Reference librarians are available to consult with users in developing a database of articles using the software which best fits their needs. Ellen Howard, K.K. Sherwood Librarian, for example, used ProCite to develop a reprint file maintained by John Sheffield, M.D., chief medical resident at Harborview Hospital. Residents in the department use the file for locating articles in preparation for grand rounds presentations, answering patient care questions, verifying references to the published literature and keeping up with the latest news in medical care. We expect that the ProCite file in the future will serve as a model for other similar files being kept manually by the librarians at affiliated Seattle area teaching hospitals.

For more information about the residency ProCite file, contact Ellen Howard at 223-3360 or ehh@u.washington.edu. To learn how to develop a personal reprint file of your own, call the HSLIC Reference Desk (543- 3394), the Social Work Library (223-3360), or the K.K. Sherwood Library (223-3360). A ProCite demonstration is scheduled on February 24 in HSLIC, room T-219; check the Information Management Education schedule for details.

[Return to Table of Contents]

National Library of Medicine Lowers Database Prices

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has announced that beginning January 1, 1993, prices will be lowered for access to all NLM databases. The reductions apply not only to those who directly access the Library's computer online, such as Grateful Med users, but also to licensees who provide commercial access to NLM data.

"We are pleased to be able to reduce significantly the costs of access while not sacrificing the high quality for which MEDLINE and other NLM databases are noted," said NLM director Donald A. B. Lindberg, MD"The Congress has urged us to increase the usage of the Library's extremely valuable databases and suggested that we ensure that costs not be an inhibiting factor."

The cost of access to most of NLM's online databases will be reduced by 40 percent, from the equivalent of $30 per hour of connect time to $18. These amounts are approximate because charges are not based strictly on time but include other factors, such as the number of characters transmitted. It is estimated that the average search of MEDLINE will cost a Grateful Med user $1.25 under the new structure.

The reduced fees will be immediately noticed by Grateful Med users and others who directly access the NLM computers. UW's local MEDLINE database will, of course, continue to be available to faculty, staff, and students at no charge through UWIN and WILLOW. The impact of the reduction in NLM's charges for HSLIC's mediated Database Search Service fee structure is still unknown.

[Return to Table of Contents]

Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials (OJCCT)

by Lorraine Raymond, Collection Development/Catalog Librarian

In the May/June 1992 issue of Books & Bytes, we announced the publication of a new kind of journal by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) -- the Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials (OJCCT) in which subscribers are able to read complete reports of clinical trials on screen. The journal, edited by Dr. Edward Huth, former editor of Annals of Internal Medicine, publishes its articles within 24 hours following conventional peer review, acceptance and editing.

In September 1992 the OJCCT and Lancet announced that papers published in the online journal can also appear in abridged form in the weekly Lancet. Beginning August 28, 1992, papers submitted to the OJCCT, unless they have "irremediable defects", will be forwarded to Lancet, if the authors concur.

Personal access to the OJCCT is obtained by subscription from the AAAS, Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials, 1333 H Street, N. W., Washington, D.C. 20005. The subscription price of $110 provides the subscriber with a password and documentation. There are additional charges for downloading, mailing, or faxing an article, and for telecommunications fees.

At present, there are two interface options. EPS, an ASCII terminal interface emulating a VT100 terminal, is similar to dialing into any database using your own telecommunications software. The second alternative is to use the Windows-based software, Guidon, which is included in the OJCCT documentation. It has been announced that the journal will soon be accessible over the Internet as well.

Once Internet access is available, we will place OJCCT with its Guidon interface for direct use. The current dial-up method is both slow and incurs communications charges. The HSLIC provides photocopy delivery for articles from OJCCT in the same manner and at the same prices for paging and photocopying as from a print journal.

OJCCT currently contains the following articles, excluding articles about the journal itself:

Analgesia in Colles Fracture
Chemoimmunotherapy of Melanoma
Coronary Heart Disease: NIH Consensus
Depression: NIH Consensus
Early Melanoma: NIH Consensus
Exosurf: Early Or Selective
Gallstones: NIH Consensus
MARS: Design, Methods, Baseline
Methotrexate and Multiple Sclerosis
Panic Disorder: NIH Consensus
Prevention of Urinary Tract Infection
Routine Episiotomy: Justified?

To request a copy of these articles, call the Reference Desk at 543- 3394.

[Return to Table of Contents]

PsycINFO Database Searching

by Terry Ann Jankowski, Information Services Librarian

Searching the PSYCINFO database on UWIN and WILLOW is quite similar to searching any other database accessible through the campus network. Some of the major differences are noted below.

PUBLICATION TYPE is listed in both the print and online documentation. Publication types have been designated for materials entering the database after 1970.

BOOKS or book chapters have been included for the years 1967 - 1980. To restrict your retrieval to entire books rather than book chapters or book reviews, use the strategy [search statement number] and book.pt. and book.sw.

AUTHORS: Both full first names and initials for first names appear in the database, depending upon the practice of the source publication. For comprehensive retrieval, authors should be searched by surname- initial$, e.g., freud-a$. Only the first four authors' names are searchable from 1988 to date. Before 1988, only the first author's name is included in the database.

SOURCE: Journal names use an ampersand (&) instead of the word "and". In order to search the exact title, use hyphens to link the words and ampersand signs in the title. Otherwise, the system will interpret the ampersand as a "boolean and", and retrieve any titles with those words appearing in the title. For example, physiology-&- behavior retrieves articles from the journal Physiology and Behavior.

LANGUAGE: Three letter codes are used to designate the language of the article. The limit command should be used in UWIN to restrict your retrieval to specific languages. In WILLOW click on the limit button for English or enter the language abbreviation on a search query line for other languages.

AUTHOR AFFILIATION: To locate materials published from the University of Washington, use u washington seattle.in. This strategy will avoid false drops from Washington, DC, Washington University (St. Louis), etc.

IDENTIFIER: These uncontrolled vocabulary words are assigned by the indexer. Unlike descriptors which are selected from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, no standardized lists exists for identifiers.

SW is the new field label for single word subject descriptors such as "stress" or "sleep." Use the field label, e.g., stress.sw. to avoid false drops such as "physiological stress."

LIMITS: UWIN has eight limits, including human/animal and age groups, which are listed in the print and online documentation. WILLOW has three buttons (English language, human or animal.)

ANIMAL/HUMAN: PSYCINFO designates articles which discuss both human and animal populations as "animal." The human tag is used for studies using only human subjects.

AGE DESCRIPTORS: In UWIN you can select the appropriate age level in the LIMIT command, e.g., ao=y. In WILLOW, you must use the "single field" button on a query box and type in the appropriate single word, e.g., adolescence. For comprehensive retrieval, the word should be truncated, e.g., adoles$, in order to retrieve variations on the word, such as adolescent or adolescence.

For more information on PSYCINFO searching, or to receive a copy of the PSYC printed documentation, call the HSLIC Reference Desk or your departmental library liaison.

Thanks to Loretta Lopez, Curriculum Materials Librarian, Suzzallo Library, for her hints in writing this article.

[Return to Table of Contents]

Overview of Social Work Library

by Ellie Marsh, Social Work Librarian

The Social Work Library is a repository of information, a continuing source of the newest information and, most importantly, a place where the transfer and acquisition of information is expedited. As a result, the library has a role to play in the development of new relationships and support of research in the School of Social Work.

The Social Work Library is also undergoing change, which is most apparent in electronic information. In digital form, vast amounts of information can be stored throughout the world, sifted efficiently at local sites, and quickly delivered to users. Change is constant in the field of information management. The traditional forms continue to be valuable, and the new systems all have their own pathways and jargon to be mastered over time by library professionals and users.

This is the environment in which the Social Work Library (Room 252, Social Work Building), as a branch of the Health Sciences Library and Information Center, finds itself. With 80,000 bound volumes, 300 serial subscriptions, and online access to databases such as PSYCINFO, ERIC and MEDLINE, the library staff seeks to educate and assist users through orientations, classes, seminars and reference services.

The library encompasses areas including social policy, aging, social welfare policy and administration, marriage and family issues, abuse and criminal delinquency. It strives to maintain good collections, rapid access, a scholarly environment and quality service in the midst of change. Library hours are 8 am - 10 pm Monday thru Thursday, 8 am - 5 pm Friday, and 1 pm - 5 pm Saturday and Sunday. Contact Ellie Marsh at 685-2180 or emarsh@u.washington.edu for further information.

[Return to Table of Contents]