Print

Ceased Abstracting and Indexing Publications Containing MEDLINE Citations: Retain or Discard from Collections?

Over the years, certain abstracting and indexing publications were produced in cooperation with NLM. These include:

               Hospital Literature Index and its successor Hospital and Health Administration Index

               Index to Dental Literature

               International Nursing Index

In general, the NLM-derived citations in these publications, whether from MEDLINE or one of the previously separate specialized databases such as Health (later renamed to HSTAR), are still in MEDLINE/PubMed (except as noted below).  However, some of these abstracting and indexing publications also contained separate sections for monographic materials.  No analysis has been done to determine if the monographic materials might be in the NLM collection.

Librarians are thus advised that if access to the monographic materials in these tools are important at your institution, then retain these old print indexes in your collection.

More details about each publication are provided below:

Hospital Literature Index (HLI), and/or its successor, Hospital and Health Administration Index (HHAI)) [and also including the Cumulative Index of Hospital Literature (see NLM Tech Bull. 1980 Aug;(136):9-13]

Note: HLI and HHAI were produced from 1978-1999 from the various renditions of the HEALTH database (including HSTAR) offered by NLM; the majority of the HEALTH database was pulled from MEDLINE, but HEALTH also included Special List Health journals that were indexed with MeSH but not considered Index Medicus.  All of those Special List Health citations were merged into MEDLINE when it was reinvented and offered via PubMed. Also, these HLI and HHAI indexes had a separate section on monographs prepared by the American Hospital Association.  These monographic data are not in MEDLINE/PubMed.

From the NLM Catalog record, NLM Unique ID 7807587 for Hospital Literature Index:

v.13, no. 2-v. 50; Dec. 1957-1994.
Compiled 1978- with the cooperation and assistance of the National Library of Medicine.
Journal citations for 1978- also included in MEDLINE.
Print issues contain book, dissertation, and/or audiovisual citations that may not be in the NLM collection.

Libraries may want to retain the HLI issues for both the monographic citations over the years, and the journal citations prior to 1978, because those earlier journal citations won’t necessarily be in MEDLINE.

From the NLM Catalog record, NLM Unique ID 9601831 for Hospital and Health Administration Index:

v.51, no. 1-v. 55; 1995-1999.
Journal citations for v. 51, no. 2 (1995)- also included in MEDLINE.
Print issues contain book citations not included in MEDLINE.

Libraries may want to retain the HHAI issues for access to those monographic citations.

Index to Dental Literature (IDL)

Note: IDL was created from MEDLINE which contained Index Medicus citations and citations from Special List Dental journals that were indexed with MeSH but not considered Index Medicus.  All of those Special List Dental citations were retained in MEDLINE when it was reinvented and offered via PubMed. Also, IDL had separate sections called “Dental Books” and “Dissertations and Theses.” These monographic data are not in MEDLINE/PubMed.

From the NLM Catalog record, NLM Unique ID 0042766:

Began with issue for 1st quarter of 1962; ceased with 1999.
Vols. for 1965-<1999> issued in cooperation with the National Library of Medicine.
Journal citations for 1965- also included in MEDLINE.
Print issues contain book and/or dissertation citations not included in MEDLINE that may not be in the NLM collection.

Libraries may want to retain the IDL issues for both the monographic citations over the years, and the journal citations from 1962-1964, because those earlier journal citations won’t necessarily be in MEDLINE.

International Nursing Index (INI)

Note: INI was created from MEDLINE which contained Index Medicus citations and citations from Special List Nursing journals that were indexed with MeSH but not considered Index Medicus.  All of those Special List Nursing citations were retained in MEDLINE when it was reinvented and offered via PubMed. Also, INI had separate sections called “Publications of ANA and NLN” and “Dissertations.” These data are not in MEDLINE/PubMed.

From the NLM Catalog record, NLM Unique ID 1246225:

v. 1- 1966-Ceased with: Vol. 35 (2000).
Published in cooperation with the U. S. National Library of Medicine.
Journal citations for 1966- also included in MEDLINE.
Print issues contain book and/or dissertation citations not included in MEDLINE that may not be in the NLM collection.

Libraries may want to retain the INI issues for the monographic citations over the years.