Search 27

SEARCH 27

6 May 2005

It is 10.15 pm. The kids have gone out with their dad to bring home a new >RM200 bike from The Family Cycle Shop in Taman Uda Murni, Pengkalan Chepa.

Since I already have the names of the 13 early Malay doctors, I am now going to concentrate my efforts on consolidating the early Malay manuscripts and books. I will need to search in libraries both locally and globally. I have no idea of how early medical publications are kept overseas.

The NLM seems to be a good place for learning and to understand the basics of how historical medical writings and publications are catalogued. Every medical school in Malaysia has an associated medical library. What we are missing is a network of all our medical libraries. We are also missing a national medical library in Malaysia presently. So this search should serve as a simple guide on how to set up one. The national medical library can be combined with a medical museum should the need arise. This is only food for thought if we want to improve to preserve our medical history for our future generations.

The 27th search is to scrutinise the information re History of Medicine provided on the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH) website athttp://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/index.html which I had accessed and printed on 15 March 2005.

History of Medicine

The web page states that the content permanence level is permanent and dynamic. It was last updated on 3 December 2004.

The historical collections are compiled into 5 categories: books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, films and videos, and digital collections.

Books and Journals

I had clicked on the Books and Journals link. On the Books and Journals page, it says the NLM historical collection has more than 600,000 printed works, and includes pre-1914 (i.e., prior to WW1) books and serials, thousands of pamphlets and dissertations, and even an older collection of pre-1871 journals. Looks interesting!

Material in this collection covers only history of medicine and the health sciences in the US and Europe, and substantial collections of Latin America and Asian publications. So, it has something re Asia.

Here is what it lists (I have excluded the irrelevant listings):

• Books Published before 1914
• Journals Published before 1871
• Incunabula (books printed before 1501)
• East Asian Collection (15th-20th century)
• Pamphlets (16th-20th century)
• Dissertations (16th-20th century)
• Reports (19th-20th century)
• History of Medicine Reading Room Collection

Books Published before 1914 (before WW1)

This collection includes about 500 incunabula (books printed before 1501), about 57,000 16-18th century books, and 95,000 items published between 1801-1913. Nearly every European language and many Asian languages are represented. The book collection includes monographs, serials, pamphlets, medical school dissertations and catalogues, hospital, health department and other government reports.

Among works of popular and ephemeral interest are home health guides, pharmaceutical almanacs, patent medicine catalogues, medical equipment catalogues, personal narratives, first-hand accounts, broadsides, pharmacopoeias, illustrated herbals, and botanical name indexes (materia medica).

Medical history landmarks in the collection include:

• Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica (1543)
• William Harvey's Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis (1628)
• William Withering's An Account of the Foxglove (1785)
• Edward Jenner's An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Varioleae Vaccinae (1798)

It also has comprehensive holdings of the works of major medical figures:

• Hippocrates
• Galen
• Paracelsus
• Boerhaave
• Osler

Journals Published before 1871

This collection includes bound and unbound medical journals between 17th century-1870.

Incunabula (books printed before 1501)

The NLM has about 500 incunabula titles. The word incunabula comes from the Latin word cuna (cradle, as in the word lacuna of bone cells) and refers to books printed during the infancy of printing, which dates back to the invention of the moveable type (circa 1455-1500). Check when was the newsprint type press and typewriter were invented. This will give an idea of what type of text to expect from the different eras.

East Asian Collection (15th-20th century)

This collection has 3,000 books, manuscripts, prints, photographs, and pieces of ephemera from Japan, China, and Korea dating from 15th-20th century. About 1,000 items date from before 1850.

The NLM has begun a project to catalogue the East Asian collection online using vernacular characters. It is also converting the collection to microfilm to make the text available to other libraries in the US and Asia. This seems interesting and may have something about our early Malay doctors. If it does, then this is good. If it doesn't, then we may have to feed our information to the NLM. Re-check this collection in December 2005.

Pamphlets (16th-20th century)

This collection has 75,000 pamphlets (short essays, treatises, articles and are unbound) dating from the 16th-20th century. Some are documents of controversies over new discoveries and practices such as blood circulation in the 17th century and smallpox vaccination in the 19th century.

Many post-1800 pamphlets are not catalogued. The NLM has recently added all 1801-1913 bound and unbound pamphlets to its catalogue.

Dissertations (16th-20th century)

This collection includes dissertations and theses on medical subjects from US and European universities and date back to 16th-20th century.

About 180,000 dissertations were printed since 1800. About 20,000 dissertations were printed before 1801.

Reports (19th-20th century)

This collection includes published reports of hospitals, medical schools, and organizations, reports of state, local and federal health-related agencies, which deal with matters such as disease prevention, hygiene, and safety. Most of this material dates back from the 19th-20th century.

History of Medicine Reading Room Collection

This collection includes major bibliographic resources necessary for historical research and standard works in the history of medicine. It includes general histories of medicine, histories of diseases, medical directories, encyclopedias, biographies, and collective biographies, and reprints of medical classics. Reference sources such as directories, handbooks, regulations, abstract tools, statistical sources, and prepared bibliographies are used by patrons and by staff to answer reference questions.

How to search the NLM

If you have never used a medical library before, then it is high time to learn. In the NLM, you have a choice of using either LocatorPlus, MEDLINE/PubMed, HistMed, IndexCat or Index-Medicus. Each has its own strengths and inherent pitfalls. Before you search, you must first know whether the item you want to search is available in print version or catalogued online.

LocatorPlus

This is a new but powerful search engine used by the NLM to search its catalogue in the Books and Journals collection. It is quite a robust search engine with an acceptable search speed considering that it is searching more than 152,500 items! A material must be catalogued first before it can be searched using LocatorPlus. I managed to use it to locate publications in NLM submitted by our Malaysian Ministry of Health. So this search engine is good and very useful.

MEDLINE/PubMed

This is a searchable database for finding articles in journals. It is available online. However, it gives only abstracts or lists review titles without abstracts. It can be very disappointing at times when you need a recently published full-text article and only the abstract is free. It can be very annoying too!

To find journal articles in the history of medicine that were published after 1964, click Limits on the PubMed homepage and select Subset History of Medicine.

HistMed

Search History of Medicine.

IndexCat

An online Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office

Index-Medicus

Index to journal articles in biomedical journals worldwide published from 1879-1927.

We currently have Dr. Ayub in the School of Dentistry (PPSG) whose research project is to construct the Malaysian Index-Medicus.

Library Loans

Most libraries offer two types of loans, a domestic interlibrary and an international interlibrary loans. The NLM only mentions the domestic interlibrary loan.

Interlibrary Loan

The NLM does not lend historical material in its original format. Its interlibrary loan services are available only to libraries, not to individuals. Individuals who want to borrow NLM material should make a request through a local library.

International Interlibrary Loan

There is no note on this matter.

Contact Addresses and Numbers

Reference

E-mail: hmdref@mail.nlm.nih.gov

Phone: (301) 402-8878

Fax: (301) 402-0872

Mr. Michael North

Head

Rare Books & Early Manuscripts

E-mail: northm@mail.nlm.nih.gov

Phone: (301) 496-9204

Fax: (301) 402-0872

History of Medicine Division

Bldg. 38, Rm. 1E-21

National Library of Medicine

8600 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, MD 20894

It is 1.10 am on 7 May 2005.

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Acknowledgement

My next task

Concentrate on consolidating information of the early Malay manuscripts and books. Search local libraries and globally. Learn how early medical publications are kept overseas.

US National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Operates the NLM.

US National Library of Medicine (NLM) under NIH

The NLM is a good place for learning about the basics of how historical medical writings and publications are catalogued. Its website is at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/index.html . Accessed and printed on 15 March 2005.

US History of Medicine

US History of Medicine is provided on the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH) website at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/index.html . I had accessed and printed it on 15 March 2005. The content is permanent and dynamic. It was last updated on 3 December 2004.

The historical collections are compiled into 5 categories:

• Books and journals
• Archives and manuscripts
• Prints and photographs
• Films and videos
• Digital collections

Books and Journals

On the Books and Journals page, the NLM historical collection has more than 600,000 printed works, and includes pre-1914 (i.e., prior to WW1) books and serials, thousands of pamphlets and dissertations, and even an older collection of pre-1871 journals. Material in this collection covers only history of medicine and the health sciences in the US and Europe, and substantial collections of Latin America and Asian publications.

Here is what it lists (I have excluded the irrelevant listings):

• Books Published before 1914
• Journals Published before 1871
• Incunabula (books printed before 1501)
• East Asian Collection (15th-20th century)
• Pamphlets (16th-20th century)
• Dissertations (16th-20th century)
• Reports (19th-20th century)
• History of Medicine Reading Room Collection

Books Published before 1914 (before WW1)

This collection includes about 500 incunabula (books printed before 1501), about 57,000 16-18th century books, and 95,000 items published between 1801-1913. Nearly every European language and many Asian languages are represented. The book collection includes monographs, serials, pamphlets, medical school dissertations and catalogues, hospital, health department and other government reports.

Among works of popular and ephemeral interest are home health guides, pharmaceutical almanacs, patent medicine catalogues, medical equipment catalogues, personal narratives, first-hand accounts, broadsides, pharmacopoeias, illustrated herbals, and botanical name indexes (materia medica).

Medical history landmarks in the collection include:

• Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica (1543)
• William Harvey's Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis (1628)
• William Withering's An Account of the Foxglove (1785)
• Edward Jenner's An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Varioleae Vaccinae (1798)

It also has comprehensive holdings of the works of major medical figures:

• Hippocrates
• Galen
• Paracelsus
• Boerhaave
• Osler

Journals Published before 1871

This collection includes bound and unbound medical journals between 17th century-1870.

Incunabula (books printed before 1501)

The NLM has about 500 incunabula titles. The word incunabula comes from the Latin word cuna (cradle, as in the word lacuna of bone cells) and refers to books printed during the infancy of printing, which dates back to the invention of the moveable type (circa 1455-1500). Check when was the newsprint type press and typewriter were invented. This will give an idea of what type of text to expect from the different eras.

East Asian Collection (15th-20th century)

This collection has 3,000 books, manuscripts, prints, photographs, and pieces of ephemera from Japan, China, and Korea dating from 15th-20th century. About 1,000 items date from before 1850.

The NLM has begun a project to catalogue the East Asian collection online using vernacular characters. It is also converting the collection to microfilm to make the text available to other libraries in the US and Asia. This seems interesting and may have something about our early Malay doctors. If it does, then this is good. If it doesn't, then we may have to feed our information to the NLM. Re-check this collection in December 2005.

Pamphlets (16th-20th century)

This collection has 75,000 pamphlets (short essays, treatises, articles and are unbound) dating from the 16th-20th century. Some are documents of controversies over new discoveries and practices such as blood circulation in the 17th century and smallpox vaccination in the 19th century. Many post-1800 pamphlets are not catalogued. The NLM has recently added all 1801-1913 bound and unbound pamphlets to its catalogue.

Dissertations (16th-20th century)

This collection includes dissertations and theses on medical subjects from US and European universities and date back to 16th-20th century. About 180,000 dissertations were printed since 1800. About 20,000 dissertations were printed before 1801.

Reports (19th-20th century)

This collection includes published reports of hospitals, medical schools, and organizations, reports of state, local and federal health-related agencies, which deal with matters such as disease prevention, hygiene, and safety. Most of this material dates back from the 19th-20th century.

History of Medicine Reading Room Collection

This collection includes major bibliographic resources necessary for historical research and standard works in the history of medicine. It includes general histories of medicine, histories of diseases, medical directories, encyclopedias, biographies, and collective biographies, and reprints of medical classics. Reference sources such as directories, handbooks, regulations, abstract tools, statistical sources, and prepared bibliographies are used by patrons and by staff to answer reference questions.

How to search the US NLM

In the NLM, you have a choice of using either LocatorPlus, MEDLINE/PubMed, HistMed, IndexCat or Index-Medicus. Each has its own strengths and inherent pitfalls. Before you search, you must first know whether the item you want to search is available in print version or catalogued online.

LocatorPlus

This is a new but powerful search engine used by the NLM to search its catalogue in the Books and Journals collection. It is quite a robust search engine with an acceptable search speed considering that it is searching more than 152,500 items! A material must be catalogued first before it can be searched using LocatorPlus.

MEDLINE/PubMed

This is a searchable database for finding articles in journals. It is available online. However, it gives only abstracts or lists review titles without abstracts. It can be very disappointing at times when you need a recently published full-text article and only the abstract is free. It can be very annoying too!

To find journal articles in the history of medicine that were published after 1964, click Limits on the PubMed homepage and select Subset History of Medicine.

HistMed

Search History of Medicine.

IndexCat

An online Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office

Index-Medicus

Index to journal articles in biomedical journals worldwide published from 1879-1927.

Interlibrary Loan

The NLM does not lend historical material in its original format. Its interlibrary loan services are available only to libraries, not to individuals. Individuals who want to borrow NLM material should make a request through a local library.

US NLM Contact Addresses and Numbers

Reference

E-mail: hmdref@mail.nlm.nih.gov

Phone: (301) 402-8878

Fax: (301) 402-0872

Mr. Michael North

Head

Rare Books & Early Manuscripts

E-mail: northm@mail.nlm.nih.gov

Phone: (301) 496-9204

Fax: (301) 402-0872

History of Medicine Division

Bldg. 38, Rm. 1E-21

National Library of Medicine

8600 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, MD 20894

Medical libraries in Malaysia

Every medical school in Malaysia has an associated medical library. What we are missing is a network of all our medical libraries.

National Medical Library, Malaysia

We are also missing a national medical library in Malaysia presently. The NLM search should serve as a simple guide on how to set up one. The national medical library can be combined with a medical museum should the need arise.

Malaysian Index-Medicus

We currently have Dr. Ayub in the School of Dentistry (PPSG) whose research project is to construct the Malaysian Index-Medicus.

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Telehealth Research Group
http://www.medic.usm.my/rnd/~telehealth
School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia