Dentistry Library Newsletter

April 1999

* Reminder! -- Book Return Available
* Drug Information Database
* Practice Guidelines Resources on the Web 
* Molecular Modeling Resources on the Web 
* Technology Trends Databases for Higher Education & Health 
* More Y2K Information
* BMJ Article (About NLM & Plans for Electronic Publishing Archives) 

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REMINDER! -- BOOK RETURN AVAILABLE

I have been asked to remind patrons of the Dentistry Library that we do indeed have a new book drop, and that this can be found in the stairwell in the Research Tower which is located at the rear of the library. Please feel free to return your books and journals here at times the library is closed.

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DRUG INFORMATION DATABASE

The web version of Micromedex is available at: 

http://s-ummc-web8.mcit.med.umich.edu/mdxdocs/mdxhome.html 

This includes drug information, drug interactions (you can build a patient profile), and much more. It is being made available to the University of Michigan community only. 

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PRACTICE GUIDELINES RESOURCES ON THE WEB 

Primary Care Clinical Practice Guidelines at new URL: 

http://medicine.ucsf.edu/resources/guidelines/

has links to major guidelines from around the world... hundreds of links to governmental agencies, 
professional organizations, medical centers, primary articles, reviews, and other resources. 

http://www.guidelines.org

Canadian Medical Association. Clinical Practice Guidelines Infobase. 
http://www.cma.ca/cpgs/

The Center for Disease Control's Prevention Guidelines 
http://aepo-xdv-www.epo.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/pginfo.htm 

Includes sections on Dental Diseases, Clinical Laboratory Improvement, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, 
Nitrous Oxide, Oral Cancer, Oral Health Medicine, Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH), 
Smokeless Tobacco (Oral Implications), Smoking/Smokeless Tobacco, and Tobacco Smoke. 

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MOLECULAR MODELING RESOURCES ON THE WEB

Researchers may be interested to know about a variety of molecular modeling resources which are 
available to them, either to download or which can be used from within your web-browser, with 
proper configuration. One of the easiest to use is RasMol, a freeware software program which has 
become a fairly standard way for people to share protein configuration files. Many University 
research pages link to downloadable RasMol files as well as the application. The main RasMol 
homepage is located at:
http://www.umass.edu/microbio/rasmol/

Additional free chemical and biomolecular modeling programs can be found at:

http://ccl.osu.edu/ccl/acs-fall97/user4/small-size/index.htm

Arguably, the most exciting option is to actually download three-dimensional biomolecular modeling information from within your web browser, and be able
to manipulate, rotate, and perform many other functions. You can search a combined index of international genetic and biomolecular databanks as part of the National Library of Medicine's PubMed service. 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/

You will need to do some extra configuration of your Internet Browser, primarily installing the 
Cn3D software. This is available free from NCBI on their web server.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/CN3D/cn3d.html 


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TECHNOLOGY TRENDS DATABASES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION & HEALTH 

The University Library, in conjunction with ITD, has acquired the rights to a group of databases 
that will aid researchers and information technology (IT) managers in keeping up-to-date with IT 
products, services, and trends.

The Research Advisory Service (RAS) provides objective analysis that can help you stay ahead of 
IT trends, directions and vendor strategies. We subscribe to the following RAS packages: 
Higher Education Technology Strategy
Higher Education Package
Health Technology Package

UM also receives Gartner's DataPro information, which focuses on products and services that 
allow you to quickly gain a thorough understanding of specific technology areas and product 
categories. 

To get search and browse this information, go to: 
http://images.umdl.umich.edu/gartner/

Uniqname and Kerberos password required. 

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MORE Y2K INFORMATION

A group of health-care giants is expected to unveil a backup plan to keep hospitals functioning 
if the millennium bug disrupts their systems. More information available at: 

http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/CWFlash/99030895B2

Taming the Millenium Bug, by Robert Lewis (AARP Cover Article) 
http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/oct98/2000bug.html

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BMJ ARTICLE

The following article

NIH's plans for online publishing could threaten journals Tony Delamothe , BMJ

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) may set up a single electronic repository for peer 
reviewed, biomedical research papers in what would mark the most radical shift in scientific 
publishing since the first peer reviewed journals appeared in 1665. Such a web based service 
would free up millions of dollars spent by libraries on journal subscriptions, while leaving 
the business plans of many scientific publishers in shreds. 

It would be a logical extension of the National Library of Medicine's PubMed service, similarly 
funded by the US taxpayer but freely available worldwide. Whereas PubMed provides electronic 
access to Medline's nine million citations, the new service would provide the full text of 
articles as wellall available from one place.

Pat Brown, a genetics researcher at Stanford University and one of the driving forces behind 
the new proposals, complains that journals currently "just balkanise the literature and then 
charge a toll for access." 

The main inspiration has been the success of the high energy eprint server set up by Paul 
Ginsparg in 1991. Physicists now routinely submit their completed articles to this fully 
automated electronic archive, which is freely accessible over the world wide web. About 
2500 articles are submitted each month, and the service has supplanted traditional journals 
as the means of first publication in many areas of physics. Most of these articles are 
subsequently submitted to traditional peer reviewed journals. 

What is different about the NIH's plan is that it will add some form of peer review thus 
making peer reviewed journals redundant. David Lipman, the director of the US National 
Council for Biotechnology Information, has spoken of trying to develop a "third way" -- 
not the traditional journal or an eprint server, "but a completely different model with 
a different philosophical basis."

Details of what this might be are scarce, and the NIH's ideas for peer review are apparently 
undergoing rapid evolution. Last week Science suggested that articles might be posted alongside 
the comments of two peer reviewers. Another recent version had traditional journals retaining 
their functions as guarantors of quality and stamping their approval on articles they deemed 
worthy of it.

The idea was first aired publicly by Harold Varmus, the institute's director, last week. He 
plans to publish a fuller discussion within the month, acknowledging the need for more input 
and discussion before proceeding. Despite the funds at NIH's disposal Science quotes Varmus 
as saying that this "doesn't mean a thing if the scientific community doesn't want to play."

The announcement has set off waves of excitement and fear among academic circles and 
scientific publishers. Many learned societies pay for their activities from their publishing 
profits.