The purpose of this project is to index the records in the Directory of Information Resources Online (DIRLINE) database with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), the controlled vocabulary used by the National Library of Medicine for indexing MEDLINE and several other databases. DIRLINE is an online directory of organizations which respond to inquiries for information from the public. There are currently over 15,000 records in DIRLINE, with several hundred records anticipated in the next year. Since DIRLINE is composed of several subfiles from different sources, there is no single controlled vocabulary. This makes it difficult for users to search and retrieve relevant information. Currently, DIRLINE is searched using text words or fragments of the names of organizations. For this project, the contractor will index the DIRLINE records according to the MEDLARS Indexing Rules, using MeSH main headings only. The number of records requiring indexing is estimated between 14,000 and 16,000 records. Almost all records in DIRLINE will be indexed with MeSH. For many records not within the scope of biomedicine, only one or a few terms from MeSH will be required for indexing. However, the indexers may find a few records for which there are no appropriate terms in MeSH. In these cases, the indexers will flag the records. The contractor will use the DIRLINE Input System (DIS) to read and index the records. The DIS will be provided by NLM. Every two weeks NLM will provide the contractor with floppy disks containing unindexed DIRLINE records and the contractor will return to NLM the previous weeks floppy disks with MeSH indexing or a flag indicating indexing was not necessary. The period of performance of this project is one year.
