1 / 27

MeSH Update

MeSH Update. A presentation for the Authority Control Interest Group ALA Midwinter Meeting, Boston, Mass. January 17, 2010 Diane Boehr Head of Cataloging, National Library of Medicine, NIH, DHHS boehrd@mail.nlm.nih.gov. Introduction. MeSH: Medical Subject Headings

jayden
Download Presentation

MeSH Update

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. MeSH Update A presentation for the Authority Control Interest Group ALA Midwinter Meeting, Boston, Mass. January 17, 2010 Diane Boehr Head of Cataloging, National Library of Medicine, NIH, DHHS boehrd@mail.nlm.nih.gov

  2. Introduction • MeSH: Medical Subject Headings • A thesaurus of medical terminology developed and maintained by the National Library of Medicine • Descriptors are arranged both alphabetically and hierarchically (trees) • Used at NLM for indexing in medical journals in MEDLINE/PubMed and for cataloging of books, serials, AVs, etc.

  3. MeSH Record Types • Descriptors (Main Headings) • Categories A-N of the MeSH trees • Publication Characteristics (Publication Types) • Category V of MeSH tree • Geographics • Category Z of the MeSH tree • Qualifiers (subheadings) • All updated on an annual basis

  4. MeSH Record Types • Supplementary Concept Records (formerly Supplementary Chemical Records) • Used by indexing for specific substance names, such as chemicals and drugs • Not used in cataloging • No tree numbers—each is mapped to one or more Descriptors • Updated weekly

  5. MeSH • Available as an online tool through the MeSH browser http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html • Also available for downloading • XML format (weekly) • ASCII format (weekly) • MARC 21 format (monthly)

  6. MeSH Statistics • Contains 25,588 Descriptors and over 160,000 entry terms • 83 Qualifiers • 186,686 Supplementary Concept Records (SCRs)

  7. MeSH-MARC files • Descriptor terms: 150 field • Geographic terms: 151 field • Publication characteristics: 155 field • Subheadings: 180 field, but MeSH-MARC records are also created for every valid head/subheading combination: 150 $a $x

  8. Faceted Subject Analysis • The MARC structure of the distributed records reflects the way NLM applies the subject headings in its catalog • NLM does not use the full 650 subject strings permitted in MARC • Instead of 650 $z, NLM uses 651 • Instead of 650 $v, NLM uses 655 • NLM uses 650 $x only for topical subheadings • Main descriptors are used for temporal information • Language information is in 008 and 041 only

  9. Faceted Subject Analysis • Adopted in 1998 when the library implemented the Voyager ILS • Followed indexing practice • Allowed for better retrieval in a federated search of NLM databases • Better semantic interoperability in the online environment

  10. Distribution of Bibliographic Records • In its distribution of MARC bib records, NLM programmatically reattaches the 651 and 655 fields as $z and $v respectively to the 650 fields in the records

  11. Example • In LocatorPlus database • 650 12 $a Health Maintenance Organizations $x history • 650 22 $a History, 20th Century • 651 2 $a United States • 655 2 $a Interview • 655 2 $a Personal Narratives • MARC distributed record • 650 12 $a Health Maintenance Organizations $x history $z United States $v Interview • 650 12 $a Health Maintenance Organizations $x history $z United States $v Personal Narratives • 650 22 $a History, 20th Century $z United States $v Interview • 650 22 $a History, 20th Century $z United States $v Personal Narratives

  12. Example • In LocatorPlus • 650 12 $a Drug Interactions • 650 12 $a Pharmacokinetics • 650 12 $a Pregnancy $9n • 650 22 $a Breast Feeding $9n • 655 2 $a Handbooks • MARC 21 distribution • 650 12 $a Drug Interactions $v Handbooks • 650 12 $a Pharmacokinetics $v Handbooks • 650 12 $a Pregnancy • 650 22 $a Breast Feeding

  13. Overview of 2010 MeSH Changes • Added 422 Descriptors • 52 Descriptor terms replaced with more up-to-date/accurate terminology • 20 Descriptors were deleted

  14. Further Information • For complete instructions on how to create a subject string from a LocatorPlus record: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/catpractices.html#CreatingTraditional • For complete instructions on how to create a faceted subject display from an OCLC record: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/cataloging/unstringmesh.html

  15. Major Tree Revisions • Category B (Organisms Tree) was reorganized in a major fashion to reflect current thinking • 20th century classification emphasized modes of nutrition and locomotion • 21st century classification is based on ultrastructure, biochemistry and genetics • Protozoa was deleted as an outmoded phylogenetic concept

  16. Major Tree Revisions • Organisms formerly treed under Protozoa are now chiefly treed under Eukaryota and are no longer treed under Animals • However, terms such as Protozoan Infections, Protozoan Genes, and Protozoan Proteins were retained

  17. Rare Diseases • Collaborative effort between NLM and the NIH Office of Rare Diseases and Research (ORDR) to merge the list of rare disease terms maintained by ORDR into the MeSH vocabulary http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/RareDiseaseList.aspx • 10,379 terms have been reviewed • 440 identified as already in MeSH • 274 were added in 2010 • 372 will be added in 2011 • The rest will become a new category of Supplementary Concept records in 2011

  18. 2010 Changes • Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype was adjusted • Entry terms added for H1N1 Virus and Swine-Origin Influenza A H1N1 Virus • No entry term for "swine-flu" because of the ambiguity of this term • Catalogers and indexers coordinate this with Influenza, Human as needed

  19. Annual Updating at NLM • Both the PubMed/Medline and LocatorPlus/NLM Catalog files are updated annually after the new MeSH files are issued • Descriptors in existing records are changed to reflect the new vocabulary, but reindexing does not occur • In some cases, when a concept has split into 2 new headings we may need to do special processing or manual examination of records to assign the new headings correctly

  20. Local Catalog Decisions • All bib records that have been changed are redistributed to our subscribers, including OCLC—so a library may get these changes if they subscribe to an updating service • Locally created records in your catalog will not automatically get updated, nor will OCLC records using MeSH created by other libraries

  21. Annual Updating • Indexing uses the MeSH Identifier number to find and replace records for year end processing • Library catalogs generally do not carry the MeSH identifier in bibliographic records, so we must rely on the character strings to identify needed changes

  22. Updating Voyager • Each year Cataloging takes the list of changed and deleted headings supplied by MeSH and loads them into our test Voyager database • This generates a global queue change list of old and new headings and the number of bib records impacted for each heading. Replaced headings with no associated bib records are ignored

  23. Updating Voyager • We create Excel spreadsheets from the global change list which are then manually reviewed to make sure the old and new headings are correct • Because Voyager ignores punctuation, when the only change to the heading is in punctuation, we must find these manually • E.g. Biofeedback (Psychology) changes to Biofeedback, Psychology

  24. Updating Voyager • The case of "as Topic headings“ • Portraits vs. Portraits as Topic • Bibliography vs. Bibliography as Topic • Do you add “as Topic” to all your 650’s or do you flip your 650’s to 655?

  25. Expected future directions for 2011-12 • More work on rare diseases • Examination of disaster headings • In 2012 the 5th ed. of the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-V) will be released

  26. Acknowledgments • Thanks to Jacque-Lynn Schulman, Senior Technical Information Specialist, MeSH Section and Sharon Willis, Senior Cataloging Specialist, Cataloging Section for their assistance in preparing this presentation

More Related