Happy Birthday! PubMed Turns 20
A link-rich history of this important resource.
From the NLM Technical Bulletin:
PubMed was first released two decades ago in January 1996 as an experimental database under the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) retrieval system. The word “experimental” was dropped from the Web site in April 1997, and on June 26, 1997, a Capitol Hill Press conference officially announced free MEDLINE access via PubMed.
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PubMed continued to evolve and, in 2007, the NCBI retrieval engine was completely redesigned to provide a foundation for the discovery initiative. In 2008, highlights included a number of discovery tools such as, an “also try” feature, query terms in article titles display, and a drug sensor. Collections were added to the My NCBI user tools, automatic term mapping was enhanced, an advanced search feature was added, and citation and gene sensors were released. The PubMed citation sensor continues to be one of the most popular discovery features; users love it!
Highlights for 2009 included a recent activity feature that tracks up to 6 months of a user’s NCBI database searches and viewed records, an autosuggest feature, and a totally revamped, user-friendly interface. Feedback from users on the redesigned interface was overwhelmingly positive.
Read the Complete Article
See Also: Early Capture of PubMed Homepage (June 15, 2006 via Wayback)
Filed under: News, Patrons and Users
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.