Developmental features of biomedical bibliographic databases

Abstract

The genesis of bibliographic databases can be traced to the abstracting and indexing (A&I) periodicals. The <i>Journal Des Scavans</i> published in 1665 did contain abstracts of articles, but the formal abstracting journal began in 1820 (English) and in 1830 (German). The growth of primary periodicals required libraries to subscribe to A&I services to search for papers scattered in different journals as it was not possible to acquire all the primary periodical titles. The electronic versions of A&I periodicals started appearing in 1960s with emergence of database concept. The <i>Chemical Titles</i> and the MEDLARS are considered to be the earliest bibliographic databases. The Silver Platter is believed publish first biomedical CD-ROM database the MEDLINE with search facility – SPIRS. The growth and development of bibliographic databases has continued since then and enters the digital era to serve the users. The present paper theoretically examines EMBASE, PubMed and IndMed databases.