About

The NLM Technical Bulletin, produced by the National Library of Medicine, announces updates to NLM products and services.

ISSN 2161-2986

Updates

As needed or appropriate, editor’s notes will be added to articles in the case of errors or relevant updates.

Archiving

Born-digital article content beginning in September 2005 can be searched on this website. Find original layouts and designs of the born-digital content in Archive-It. Visit the NLM Institutional Archives to view print issues.

Enumeration

Individual articles will use identifiers:

• e# to enumerate articles that detail new, and useful information for searching NLM systems.
• b# to enumerate briefs, or short informative articles that do not require in-depth explanation. Briefs were implemented in 2012(384).

Enumeration evolved over the years as the publication transitioned from print to online, and adapted to advancements in technology. Individual articles adopted the e# identifier in 1998. Technical Notes preceded briefs, and consisted of several short announcements with separate publish dates in one page. Technical Notes were generally assigned e1 between 1998(300)-2007(359). To improve findability in the modernized design, technical notes have been separated into individual pages. The publication stopped using Technical Notes in 2008. In 2012, the publication adopted briefs, which are enumerated as b#.

Title History

NLM Technical Bulletin [Apr 1977(96) - present]
Merged from Library Network/MEDLARS Technical Bulletin and the TOXLINE Technical Bulletin (ISSN: 0093-8793).
Online ISSN: 2161-2986 [Jan-Feb 2012(384) - present]
Print ISSN: 0146-3055 [Apr 1977(96) - Nov-Dec 2011(383)]
Frequency: Bimonthly [Jul-Aug 1990(255) - present], Monthly [Apr 1977(96) - Jun 1990(254)]

Library network/MEDLARS technical bulletin [Nov 1969-Mar 1977 (7-95)]
MEDLARS/Network technical bulletin [(May 1969-Oct 1969 (1-6)]
ISSN: 0090-1350
Frequency: monthly

General Search FAQ

Can I search a phrase?

To search for phrases, type the phrase in quotation marks. For example, type "health services research" in quotes in the search box.

Are Boolean searching and wildcards allowed?

The Boolean operators 'OR', 'NOT', '-', and '+' may be used in your query. Using 'AND' is not necessary. All words are searched by default. The asterisk '*' can be used as a wildcard character.

Boolean Term	Description
OR	Use 'OR' when you only need at least one of the search words to appear in the results. Example: "aspirin OR tylenol"
NOT or -	Use 'NOT' or '-' when you do not want a particular term to appear in the results. Examples: "heart defects NOT attack" or "heart defects -attack"
*	Use '*' as a wildcard to search on all words that contain the letters you enter. You must enter a minimum of three letters plus the '*' character. Example: "mammo*" would find "mammogram" or "mammography" or "mammoplasty"

What is the difference between using the search bar and "Search archive" link? Where does the "Search archive" link go?

Users should use the search bar to find articles dating back to [September 2005]. The content is displayed in the new design.

The "Search archive" link takes users to the NLM Technical Bulletin web archive collection hosted by the Internet Archive’s. Users can find all historical versions of the NLM Technical Bulletin web pages.

Is the search case-sensitive?

No, the search engine is not case-sensitive. For example, a search on "MEDLINE" will also return pages containing "medline."

Are special characters recognized, like ñ?

The search engine does not require foreign language words to contain accented symbols, but you may enter them if you want to. For example, searching "espanol" will return results with "español."