The MELVYL/MEDLINE Project will set a standard for future online public access catalogs by providing, for the first time, access in a major automated union catalog to both monographs and journal articles. The project will result in the addition of the current three years of the MEDLINE database to the MELVYL catalog, the University of California's online union catalog. Project goals are: 1) to provide bibliographic access to the book and journal literature through one online catalog for library users in the life and health sciences and related disciplines; 2) to develop a model online union catalog for a multicampus system that has listings for both books and journal articles; and 3) to facilitate the use of the published biomedical journal literature for research, teaching, and patient care by providing direct, user-friendly access to the MEDLINE database for faculty, staff, and students in the University of California (UC). The three-year project will be accomplished through the collaborative efforts of the University of California's Division of Library Automation (DLA), site of the computer resources and staff for the MELVYL online catalog, and the UC health science libraries. In the project, MELVYL software will be expanded to allow for searching of the journal literature as available on MEDLINE. The resulting MELVYL/MEDLINE database will first be made available at the health sciences libraries on the five UC campuses with medical schools and at the two campuses with two-year medical programs. During the last year of the project, it will be released to libraries throughout the UC system. The MELVYL/MEDLINE Project will greatly improve access to biomedical information resources for University of California faculty, staff, and students. It will also have significant impact for other libraries in advancing the state of the art for online public access catalogs.
| Horres, M M; Starr, S S; Renford, B L (1991) MELVYL MEDLINE: a library services perspective. Bull Med Libr Assoc 79:309-20 |
| Clary, R L; Clancy, S; Butler, C (1989) MELVYL MEDLINE: reference service implications of an end-user search system. Med Ref Serv Q 8:29-42 |
