MeSHMedical Subject Headings

Rhonda AltonenElise Blas

Barbara BlumJuliann Brant

LI 804 Theory of the Organization of Information

MeSH Defined

• Medical Subject Headings

• National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus.

• Descriptors are arranged in both an alphabetic and a hierarchical structure.

How is it constructed?

• MeSH Browser

• Newest Version– Updated weekly

• Searches conceptual relationships

• Restricted or limited

MeSH Record Types

• Descriptors – Publication Characteristics (Publication

Types)

• Geographic's

• Qualifiers

• Supplementary Concept Records

Descriptors

• AKA Main Headings

• Special Uses– Annual Reports– Dissertations

Geographics

• Continents

• Regions

• Countries

• States

Qualifiers

Supplementary Concept Records

Publication Characteristics (Publication Types)

Relationships

• Main Headings

• Qualifiers

• Supplementary Concepts

• Example of the relations in Medical Subject Headings (from Jakob Voss: Collaborative thesaurus tagging the Wikipedia way).

History of MeSH

• 1818 Army Medical Library

• 1840 Army Medical list in notebook

• 1864 Civil War catalog

• 1879 Index Medicus published

• 1880 Index-Catalog printed – 1961

• 1927 Index Medicus merge - Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus

• 1954 NLM Subject Heading Authority List

• 1960 Index Medicus

• 1963 Medical Subject Headings

Organizing Principles

• Specialized fields

• Conflicting doctrines

• Subject headings as Artificial language

What is it based on?

• Current List of Medical Literature

• Index-Catalogue + 1940 Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus Subject Headings

Where? Who? When?

• US NLM, Bethesda, Maryland

• 1954,1960 - Frank B. Rogers

• 1960,1963 – Winifred Sewell

Why?

• Controlled vocabulary of medical sciences needed

• Multiple subject headings

• Early computer use - MEDLARS

How?

• 1954– Index-Catalogue + Quarterly Index

Medicus Subject Headings

• 1960– Expanded Subject Headings

• 1963– MEDLARS anticipation– Greater coverage & deeper indexing

Other Controlled Vocabularies or Thesauri

• CINAHL

• EMBASE

• ERIC

• PsychInfo

Uses of MeSH

• MeSH Browser

• MeSH Entrez

• UMLS Metathesaurus

How is it used?

• Indexing articles• NLM-produced database

– bibliographic reference

• Search queries• Database searching• Cataloging (NLM)• ERMS• Scope Notes• Tree Structure

Tree Structures

• Anatomy     Body Regions        Back            Lumbosacral Region            Sacrococcygeal Region

Who uses it? 

• Searchers of MEDLINE/PubMed

• NLM Indexers

• Catalogers

• Medical Students

• Medical/Health Science Librarians

• Researchers

• Medical Professionals

How COULD it be used?

• PubMed• Subject headings• Cataloging

• Taxonomy/Indexing• Metadata• Search Engine Retrieval

• Dictionary• Authors

– Keyword– Reference Interview

Evaluation – The Good

• Standardized

• Translations

• UMLS

• A Work in Progress!

Evaluation – The Bad

• Issues– Knowledge of terms– End Users– Incorrect usage– Database indexing– Translations– Acronyms

Effectiveness

• “I think it is one of the best controlled vocabularies in medicine. It’s really an excellent tool and it can be taught to others.” Karen Wells, EDM, MSLIS, Manager, Medical Library Services, Exempla Lutheran Medical Center

Changes?

• Structure

• Annual

• XML/ACSII format

• Printed Discontinued

What we think

Additional information

• It’s FREE• 12 minute video -

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/video

• Websites that index using MeSH– CliniWeb– Diseases, Disorders and Related

Topics (DDRT) – OMNI

Links

• http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html

• http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html