MEDLINE Now Free to the Public

The National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database is now accessible free to the general public through PubMed and Internet Grateful Med. Hot links to IGM and PubMed are available on the NLM home page.

PubMed is an experimental search system that provides free access to MEDLINE in a single search. The search features include:

  • Sets of related articles pre-computed for each article in MEDLINE;
  • Choice of search interfaces from simple keywords to advanced Boolean expressions;
  • Searching by MeSH index terms ( main topics and subheadings) and field restrictions;
  • Links to publishers' Web sites for full-text journals. Initially 24 journals are available, some by subscription only;
  • Clinical query form with search filters for diagnosis, therapy and prognosis;
  • Links to molecular biology database of DNA/protein sequences and 3-D structure data.

Internet Grateful Med provides free access to MEDLINE, as well as AIDSLINE and HealthSTAR. The features include:

  • Use of the full range of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and the UMLS Metathesaurus;
  • Ability to limit searches by language, publication type, age groups, etc., using pull-down menus;
  • Loansome Doc document delivery service.

Currently, searching Internet Grateful Med requires a valid User ID and password; however, users will not be billed. A new version to be released in July will include free access to several additional databases (AIDSDRUGS, AIDSTRIALS, DIRLINE, HISTLINE, HSRPROJ, OLDMEDLINE, and SDILINE) and will no longer require a User ID.

Free MEDLINE is limited to Web-based searching via the Internet because of great savings to NLM in telecommunications and software costs. Thus, access to all NLM non-Web-based systems will continue to be billed (i.e., direct command language searching of ELHILL; TOXNET; PDQ; and the DOS, Macintosh and Windows versions of Grateful Med whether access is by direct dial, FTS2000, or the Internet).—June Kinoshita

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References

External Citations

  1. NLM home page

Further Reading

Papers

  1. Mosch B, Morawski M, Mittag A, Lenz D, Tarnok A, Arendt T. Aneuploidy and DNA replication in the normal human brain and Alzheimer's disease. J Neurosci. 2007 Jun 27;27(26):6859-67. PubMed.

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