The NLM Catalog

2005 MLA Annual Conference

Diane BoehrNational Library of MedicineNational Institutes of Health

U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services

Two ways to access bibliographic data at NLM

• LocatorPlus– Voyager ILS

• NLM Catalog– Entrez

Direct link

• http://nlmcatalog.nlm.nih.gov

NLM Catalog

• Same functionality as PubMed and other Entrez databases– Simple searching– Phrase searching– Boolean operators– Use of qualifiers to search specific fields– Ability to limit searches– Ability to view and reuse previous searches– Use of truncation and wildcards

Unique features of the NLM Catalog compared to LocatorPlus

• Term mapping to equivalent MeSH heading

• Automatic term explosion when your entry matches a MeSH heading

• Ability to view how your terms were searched

• No limit on number of records retrieved

Use of qualifiers

• There are 28 field limit qualifiers available• Many are identical to those used in

PubMed and retrieve the same type of information

Shared Qualifiers • [all] All fields• [au] Author• [cn] Corporate name (plus conferences) • [mh]* MeSH term • [majr]* MeSH Major topic• [sh]* MeSH subheading• [ot] Other term• [ps] Personal name as subject

• *all may be used with :noexp

Shared qualifiers

– [la] Language– [pl] Place of publication– [pt] Publication type– [dp] Publication date (year only)– [ta] Journal title abbreviation– [ti] Title– [sb] Filter

Qualifiers unique to NLM Catalog

– [itag] Abstract/Index tags– [fau] Full author name– [item] Item type– [jo] Journal title (full or abbreviated)– [nlmid] NLM unique ID– [olio] Note fields– [other num]Other standard numbers

Qualifiers unique to NLM Catalog

• [fps] Personal full name as subject• [status] Publication status• [publ]Publisher• [res type] Resource type• [ser] Series• [url] URL

Use of limits

• You may restrict your search to a specific– Field– Language– Material type– Publication date or date range

Display options

• Several options:– Brief– Summary– XML– Expanded– Subject– Full

Brief display

Summary view

Expanded view

Subject view

XML view

Using the NLM Catalog vs. LocatorPlus

• LocatorPlus – has authority control of name and title

headings and a cross-reference structure– is updated in real time– includes current information on NLM’s

holdings, orders, and an item’s circulation status

– Retrieval limited to 10,000 citations

Using the NLM Catalog vs. LocatorPlus

• NLM Catalog – can explode MeSH terms and keywords that

map to MeSH– Has no citation retrieval limit– is updated daily

Use the NLM Catalog• Your search is likely to retrieve over 10,000 citations

• You wish to explode on MeSH headings

• You wish to identify or search primary subjects

• You are certain of the name of the author or organization

• You wish to view or use bibliographic records in XML format

• You are searching a known item

Use LocatorPlus• You are unsure of the exact name used by the author or

organization responsible

• You are interested in NLM’s holdings or the circulation status of a title

• You wish to view or use bibliographic records in MARC 21 format

• You wish to view or use authority records for names and titles

Getting to L+ from NLM Catalog

• Click on NLM Holdings in LocatorPlus button

• Click on NLM UI hotlink in the bib record• Click on Links on the right side of the

screen

For more information

• http://nlmcatalog.nlm.nih.gov– View any of the topics on left of the screen

under Entrez NLM Catalog