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Slide 1: National Library of Medicine Classification and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Joshua A. Parker 4 December 2007 LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) Graduate School of Library & Information Science Simmons College • Boston, MA
Slide 2: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) The National Library of Medicine  National medical library of the United States    1836: Library of the Surgeon General's Office 1922: Army Medical Library 1956: National Library of Medicine       Largest medical collection in the world Developed and maintains the NLM Classification and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) MEDLINE, PubMed, and PubMed Central UMLS (Unified Medical Language System) Maintains several databases of genetic information Produces advanced bioinformatics research tools Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 3: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Development & History of NLMC & MeSH  1944: Need for a new specialized medical classification system recognized 1948: Preliminary edition of the Army Medical Library Classification published 1951: First edition of Army Medical Library Classification published 1954: Subject Heading Authority List published 1960: First edition of MeSH published Present: NLMC & MeSH updated annually and are freely available for download at www.nlm.nih.gov      Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 4: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) NLMC: Basic Structure, Strengths, & Weaknesses  Basic Structure    Covers preclinical as well as medical sciences 35 main classes Supplemental 19th Century Schedule Well-suited for most contemporary medical collections Simple, highly enumerative structure; easy to apply Accommodates the use of LCC for non-medical works Alternative and non-Western medicine Public Health/Social Medicine Not analytico-synthetic; limited descriptive potential  Strengths     Problem Areas    Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 5: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) NLM Classification: Main Classes QS QT QU QV QW QX QY QZ W WA WB WC WD WE WF WG WH Human Anatomy Physiology Biochemistry Pharmacology Microbiology and Immunology Parasitology Clinical Pathology Pathology Health Professions Public Health Practice of Medicine Communicable Diseases Disorders of Systemic, Metabolic or Environmental Origin, etc. Musculoskeletal System Respiratory System Cardiovascular System Hemic and Lymphatic Systems WI Digestive System WJ Urogenital System WK Endocrine System WL Nervous System WM Psychiatry WN Radiology. Diagnostic Imaging WO Surgery WP Gynecology WQ Obstetrics WR Dermatology WS Pediatrics WT Geriatrics. Chronic Disease WU Dentistry. Oral Surgery WV Otolaryngology WW Ophthalmology WX Hospitals and Other Health Facilities WY Nursing WZ History of Medicine 19th Century Schedule Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 6: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) NMLC: Notation  Structure: Main Class indicated by letters  Subordinate classes by ordinal numbers  Cutters; special geographic codes (Table G)  The annual report of the Boston Lying-in Hospital for 1947 WX 2  Hospitals, etc. + Serial Hospital Reports .AM4  Massachusetts (from Table G) B7L6a  Cutter for author + work mark 1947  Year of publication  Arrangement Division between preclinical & clinical topics  Rough attempt to express structural relationships  Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 7: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) NMLC: Comparison to DDC & LCC Notation modeled on LCC  Schedules very highly enumerative, the only supplementary schedule (sometimes) applied is Table G.  Less structured than DDC; does not strongly express relationships among classes  Some mnemonic use of numbers as in DDC  QX WI WN WZ 18.2 18.2 18.2 18.2     Parasitology. Educational materials Digestive System. Educational materials Radiology. Educational materials History of Medicine. Educational materials Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 8: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) MeSH: Basic Structure & Strengths  Structure  Poly-hierarchical • The entry for each term fully describes the location of the term using both visual trees and notation  Syndetic Structure • See Also/See Related, XR references • Entry Term/X (Used For references) • Consider Also references  Strengths    Allows for several approaches to any single term Scope notes and annotations for every term and qualifier (subheading) Used for both monographic literature and indexing papers published in journals Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 9: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) MeSH Structure Example: Alzheimer Disease DISEASES Nervous System Diseases PSYCHIATRY & PSYCHOLOGY Mental Disorders Neurodegenerative Diseases Central Nervous System Diseases Delirium, Dementia, Amnestic, Cognitive Disorders Brain Diseases Tauopathies Dementia Alzheimer Disease Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 10: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) MeSH Structure Example: Sjögren's Syndrome DISEASES Eye Diseases Musculoskeletal Diseases Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases Immune System Diseases Stomatognathic Diseases Lacrimal Apparatus Diseases Joint Diseases Connective Tissue Diseases Mouth Diseases Rheumatic Diseases Arthritis Dry Eye Syndromes Autoimmune Diseases Salivary Gland Diseases Arthritis, Rheumatoid Xerostomia Sjogren's Syndrome Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 11: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) MeSH: Characteristics of the Vocabulary  Extremely specific and exhaustive for medical and medically-related topics Vocabulary designed to treat each term consistently in comparison to other parallel terms Limited subject field helps maintain internal coherence Particularly powerful when used with NLM's MEDLINE/PubMed, allowing for the construction of very focused searches    Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 12: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) MeSH: Facilities for Coordination  Use of Qualifiers  Each qualifier has a note detailing its use parasitology (A, B1, B2, B6, C, E7, F3, J2) PS, parasitol Used with animals, higher plants, organs, and diseases for parasitic factors. In diseases, it is not used if the parasitic involvement is implicit in the diagnosis.  The description of each MeSH term includes a list of allowable qualifiers  Application of multiple terms 245 00 650 _2 650 _2 650 _2 650 _2 650 _2 ‡a Salivary electrostimulation in Sjogren's syndrome. ‡a Xerostomia ‡x therapy. ‡a Xerostomia ‡x etiology. ‡a Sjogren's Syndrome ‡x complications. ‡a Salivary Glands ‡x secretion. ‡a Electric Stimulation Therapy. Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 13: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) MeSH: Comparison to LCSH  MeSH designed for a specific set of disciplines (medical sciences; associated basic and social sciences; health administration, etc.) Permits much more specific description for these fields  LCSH may also be required to adequately describe non-medical works   MeSH documentation much more clear and exhaustive than that provided for LCSH Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 14: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Current Use of NLM Classification & MeSH  National Library of Medicine  Maintains NLMC and MeSH  Other Medical Libraries Academic  Hospital   MEDLINE/PubMed http://www.pubmed.gov/  Powerful tool for using MeSH to search biomedical literature  Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 15: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Bibliography [1] Army Medical Library. Classification: Medicine. Preclinical Sciences, QS-QZ. Medicine and Related Subjects, W. 1st ed. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1951. ———. Classification: Medicine. Preclinical Sciences, QS-QZ. Medicine and Related Subjects, W. Prelim., 1948 ed. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1949. Coletti, M. H. and H. L. Bleich. "Medical Subject Headings used to Search the Biomedical Literature." Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association: JAMIA 8, no. 4 (Jul-Aug, 2001): 317-323 (accessed November 17, 2007). Cunningham, Eileen R., Eleanor G. Steinke, and Mary Louise Gladish. Classification for Medical Literature. 5th ed. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1967. Gault, L. V., M. Shultz, and K. J. Davies. "Variations in Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Mapping: From the Natural Language of Patron Terms to the Controlled Vocabulary of Mapped Lists." Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA 90, no. 2 (Apr, 2002): 173-180 (accessed October 6, 2007). Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 16: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Bibliography [2] Hallett, K. S. "Separate but Equal? A System Comparison Study of MEDLINE's Controlled Vocabulary MeSH." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 86, no. 4 (Oct, 1998): 491-495 (accessed November 17, 2007). Hjørland, Birger. "Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), Lifeboat for Knowledge Organization. http://www.db.dk/bh/Lifeboat_KO/SPECIFIC%20DOMAINS/ medical_subject_headings.htm (accessed November 17, 2007). Jenuwine, E. S. and J. A. Floyd. "Comparison of Medical Subject Headings and Text-Word Searches in MEDLINE to Retrieve Studies on Sleep in Healthy Individuals." Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA 92, no. 3 (Jul, 2004): 349-353 (accessed November 17, 2007). Lindberg, Donald A. B. and Robert Mehnert. "National Library of Medicine." In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, edited by Miriam A. Drake. 2nd ed., 2013-2022. New York: Marcel Dekker, 2003 (accessed October 6, 2007). Lipscomb, Carolyn E. "Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 88, no. 3 (2000): 265-266 (accessed October 6, 2007). Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 17: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Bibliography [3] Lowe, H. J. and G. O. Barnett. "Understanding and using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Vocabulary to Perform Literature Searches." JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 271, no. 14 (Apr 13, 1994): 1103-1108 (accessed November 17, 2007). Muench, Eugene V. Biomedical Subject Headings :A Reconciliation of National Library of Medicine (MeSH) and Library of Congress Subject Headings. 2nd ed. Hamden, Conn.: Shoe String Press, 1979. National Library of Medicine. "Medical Subject Headings." http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/ (accessed November 17, 2007). ———. "NLM Classification 2007." http://www.nlm.nih.gov/class/ (accessed November 17, 2007). ———. Medical Subject Headings: Annotated Alphabetic List. Springfield, Va.: National Technical Information Service, distributor, 2003. ———. National Library of Medicine Classification: A Scheme for the Shelf Arrangement of Library Materials in the Field of Medicine and its Related Sciences. NIH Publication. 5th , rev ed. Bethesda, Md.; Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, 1999. Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007
Slide 18: NLM Classification & Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Bibliography ———. Medical Subject Headings. Bethesda, Md.: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, 1960. Olson, Tony and Gary Strawn. "Mapping the LCSH and MeSH Systems." Information Technology and Libraries 16, no. 1 (1997): 5-19 (accessed November 17, 2007). O'Rourke, Alan J., Andrew Booth, and Nigel Ford. "Another Fine MeSH: Clinical Medicine Meets Information Science." Journal of Information Science 25, no. 4 (1999): 275-281 (accessed November 17, 2007). Wineburgh-Freed, Maggie and Norris Medical Library. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and NLM Classification for Catalogers: A Syllabus. 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: Norris Medical Library, University of Southern California, 1997. [4] Womack, Kristina R. "Conformity for Conformity's Sake? the Choice of a Classification System and a Subject Heading System in Academic Health Sciences Libraries." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 42, no. 1 (2006): 93-115 (accessed October 6, 2007). Joshua A. Parker • LIS417: Subject Cataloging & Classification (Joudrey) • Simmons College GSLIS • 4 December 2007