Subject Access Medical Subject Headings Me SH R

Subject Access: Medical Subject Headings (Me. SH) R. Campbell B. Durland A. Kussman D. Schmick J. Roberts K. Kloser C. Leckenby B. Robben S. Thornton Emporia State University

What is Me. SH? • The acronym created from Medical Subject Headings • An organized listing of words and phrases related to biomedical topics • A controlled vocabulary thesaurus created and maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM)

Me. SH is also • Used to index articles and to catalog items owned by the NLM • Used to search for biomedical information in: - Pub. Med/MEDLINE database of the NLM - Other databases of the NLM

Me. SH provides • Consistent terminology • Refined search terms • Terminology equivalent to the controlled vocabulary • Links to broader or narrower search terms • Weekly updates

How is Me. SH organized? • There are three basic types of records in Me. SH - Headings or descriptors…over 25, 000 - Subheadings or qualifiers - Supplementary Concept Records

Searching with Me. SH • Automated mapping - Other NLM databases - Pub. Med/MEDLINE • Me. SH browser - More detailed searching - Obtain terms to use outside of NLM databases

What is the Me. SH Browser? • Part of the Me. SH web pages, governed and updated by NLM • An online tool to determine the Me. SH vocabulary • Search headings, subheadings or Supplementary Concepts • Does not link to any database retrieval system

History of Me. SH • First published in 1954 as the Subject Heading Authority List • Adapted from the Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus (1940) and the Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office

The Subject Heading Authority list was hierarchical, which exposed inefficiencies when searching for a subject Subject Heading Authority List (1954) Organs Tissues Regions Surgical Procedures Abnormalities Anesthesia • The system had subheadings that fell mostly within the headings they were contained in • For example: “Abnormalities” was a subheading under the general headings of organs, tissues, and regions, and “Anesthesia and Analgesia” would be a subheading under surgical procedures

1960 – A TRAILBLAZING YEAR • The creation of the Index Subject Medicus, a bibliography Heading that would be combined Authority List with the Subject Heading Authority List. • The combination would be known as Medical Subject Headings (Me. SH) • A digitization project was Index in the works to allow a user Medicus to search the index on demand. Medical Subject Headings (Me. SH)

Me. SH – First Design (1960) Advantages • • • Disadvantages Subheadings reduced from 100 to 67 Subheadings broader and classifiable under any practical header Articles AND books were classified under this single authority list Cause(s) of PKD • • Classify under “Therapy” Diagnosis • Under the subheading “Etiology” Treatment • Couldn’t be classified An entry could only be assigned ONE subheading › That one subheading was as specific as an entry could be described › Example: If one were to classify a paper discussing the cause, diagnosis and treatment of Polycystic Kidney Disorder (PKD), the graphic illustrates how restrictive the descriptors would be

Me. SH Beyond 1960 • 1963 - first Medical Subject Headings List published - 13 main categories - 58 separate subheadings and main headings • Designed to be dynamic and evolving. Annual updates no longer done. - Updates done in an instant - overseen by the NLM under the NIH • The number of descriptors has expanded to classify new science-related discoveries: - 1960 – 4, 400 descriptors - 1963 – 5, 700 descriptors - 2010 – 25, 588 descriptors

Uses for Me. SH

Users in an Academic/Medical Library Researchers Medical Students Faculty Clinicians Patients

Me. SH in Many Languages Babel. Me. SH and PICOLinguist = Translation into 41 Languages incuding: Arabic French German Italian Portuguese Japanese Russian Finnish Dutch Spanish Slovene Swedish Norwegian Turkish Chinese An interlingual database of Me. SH translations http: //babelmesh. nlm. nih. gov/ or http: //babelmesh. nlm. nih. gov/pico. php

The Health Information Prescription Program began in Iowa in 2003

Me. SH Uses in Hospital Libraries • How is it used? - Locate and identify medical information - The Librarian acts as an internal consultant when information is needed • Who uses it? - Clinicians - Patients and their family & friends - Hospital staff

Uses in a Public Library • Librarian as information professional… on all topics? - Assist patrons on the different databases (Pub. Med, MEDLINE, Locator. Plus) - Anyone has use of these databases; there are free versions and versions that can be purchased

Comparing Me. SH and text-word searches in Medline • Why MEDLINE? • Me. SH and text- word compliment each other

Social Tagging: A Case Study • Why Social Tagging? • 46% of survey responders found Me. SH a clear concept • 12% found Me. SH “muddy”

Me. SH and Pub. Med • It’s in the details • Automated Term Mapping • It’s all relevant, just not in Pub Med

But what does it all mean, Basil?

Changes to Me. SH for 2010 • Vocabulary Data Changes - New Descriptors- 422 - Changed Descriptors - Deleted Descriptors - New by Tree Subcategory • The Medical Subject Headings Section Staff continually revise and update the Me. SH vocabulary • 11 Staff Members

Filters on Pub. Med • Reduce the amount of articles retrieved • Specific characteristics • Single term filters • Further research is needed to determine value of filters

Pub. Med and NCBI New and Noteworthy • Pub. Med Homepage redesigned • Auto Suggest button added to search box • My NCBI My Bibliography

The Future of Me. SH • Programmers are combining Me. SH with other qualifiers to ease find-ability of unpublished information. • Adaptations include improving search terms, changing the display of published information, and classifying information on the deep web.

Me. SH Spiderbots GEOGLE SCIMINER GENDOO CLEANEX

The Future is in the Mother Ship • Centralized data application combining Me. SH terms with data miners. • Focus on print and non-print sources. • Requires removal of contracts for Open Access.

References Dillon, K. (January/February/March, 2004). "Health Information Prescription" Project Launched in Virginia. Retrieved October 26, 2009 from http: //scholar. lib. vt. edu/ejournals/VALib/v 50_n 1/dillon. html Jenuwine, E. , & Floyd, J. (2004). Comparison of medical subject headings and text-word searches in medline to retrieve studies on sleep in healthy individuals. Journal of Medical Library Association, 92(3), 349 -353. Maggio, L. , Bresnahan, M. , Flynn, D. , Harzbecker, J. , & Blanchard, M. , Ginn, D. (2009). A Case study: using social tagging to engage students in learning mesh. Journal Medical Library Association, 97(2), 77 -83. With special thanks to Rhonda Altonen for answering questions. Me. SH Subject Headings. What’s New. Retrieved October 16, 2009 from http: //www. nlm. nih. gov/mesh/whatsnew. html National Center for Biotechnology Information. (January 13, 2009). Pub. MEd New and Noteworthy. Retrieved October 16, 2009 from http: //www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/feed/rss. cgi? Chan. Key=Pub. Med. News National Center for Biotechnology Information. (January 13, 2009). Databases. Retrieved October 18, 2009 from http: //www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/Database/index. html National Library of Medicine. (December 15, 2008). Fact Sheet: Medical Subject Headings (Me. SH). Retrieved September 12, 2009 from http: //www. nlm. nih. gov/pubs/factsheets/mesh. html

References con’t. National Library of Medicine. (December 22, 2006). Uses of Me. SH in Online Retrieval. Retrieved September 12, 2009 from http: //www. nlm. nih. gov/mesh/intro_retrieval 2007. html National Library of Medicine. (November 20, 2001). An Interlingual Database of Me. SH Translations. Retrieved September 30, 2009 from http: //www. nlm. nih. gov/mesh/intlmesh. html National Library of Medicine, Mehnert, R. and Cravedi, K. The Health Information Prescription: Senator Tom Harkin Joins National Library of Medicine and American College of Physicians—American Society of Internal Medicine Foundation to Launch Patient Information Program. (April 2, 2003). Retrieved October 12, 2009 from http: //www. nlm. nih. gov/news/press_releases/IAhealth RX 03. html NIH. (July 11, 2006). Summary: NIH International Representatives Meeting. Retrieved September 30, 2009 from http: //www. fic. nih. gov/programs/international/forum/2006/summary_jul 2006. pdf United States National Library of Medicine. (September 1, 2009). Me. SH Subject Headings. Me. SH Record Types. Retrieved October 18, 2009 from http: //www. nlm. nih. gov/mesh/intro_record_types. html United States National Library of Medicine. (September 1, 2009). Medical Subject Headings. Me. SH Browser. Retrieved October 18, 2009 from http: //www. nlm. nih. gov/mesh/mbinfo. html