Glossary and Acronyms
AAPCC
American Association of Poison Control Centers
AIDS
acquirficiency syndrome
AIDSDRUGS
a factual online database (available on MEDLARS) containing information on chemical and biologic agents being evaluated in AIDS clinical trials
AIDSLINE
a bibliographic online database (available on MEDLARS) covering the scientific literature on AIDS and related topics
AIDSTRIALS
a factual online database (available on MEDLARS) containing information on the clinical trials of substances being evaluated for use against AIDS, HIV infection, and AIDS-related opportunistic diseases
AOEC
Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics
ATSDR
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
CANCERLIT
Cancer Literature, a bibliographic online database (available on MEDLARS) covering the scientific literature on cancer epidemiology, pathology, treatment, and research
CAS
Chemical Abstracts Service, a division of the American Chemical Society; CAS is an abstracting and indexing service for the scientific literature on chemistry.
CAS Registry Number
an identification number assigned by CAS to each unique chemical entity
CCRIS
Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System, a factual online database (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) sponsored by NCI containing scientifically evaluated data derived from carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, tumor promotion, and tumor inhibition tests
CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CD-ROM
compact disk read-only memory
CERCLA
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, also known as the Super-fund Act
ChemID
Chemical Identification, a nonroyalty chemical nomenclature and dictionary online database (available on MEDLARS) containing information on more than 294,000 chemical substances
CHEMLEARN
a computer-based tutorial, developed by SIS, to teach librarians, information specialists, and scientists how to effectively search ChemID and CHEMLINE
CHEMLINE
Chemical Dictionary Online, a royalty chemical nomenclature and dictionary online database (available on MEDLARS) containing information on more than 1.4 million chemical substances
CRISP
Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects, an online database providing information on NIH-funded research grants
DART
Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology, a bibliographic online database (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) containing citations to the scientific literature on teratology and other aspects of developmental toxicology
DHHS
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
DIRLINE
Directory of Information Resources Online, a directory database (available on MEDLARS) containing information on more than 17,000 health and biomedical organizations, including federal, state, and local agencies, professional societies, support groups, academic and research institutions, and voluntary organizations
DOCLINE
NLM's automated interlibrary loan request and referral system
DoT
U.S. Department of Transportation
EHPC
Environmental Health Policy Committee, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
EINECS
European Inventory of Existing Commercial Chemical Substances
ELHILL
MEDLARS software designed for bibliographic retrieval; a gateway links ELHILL to TOXNET allowing users to search all NLM databases.
EMIC and EMICBACK
Environmental Mutagen Information Center database (and its backfile, pre-1950 to 1991), bibliographic online databases (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) covering the scientific literature on chemical, biologic, and physical agents that have been tested for mutagenic activity
EPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
ETICBACK
Environmental Teratology Information Center backfile, a bibliographic online database (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) covering the scientific literature on teratology (pre-1950 to 1989); ETICBACK is continued by the DART database.
FDA
Food and Drug Administration
FEDRIP
Federal Research in Progress, an online database containing information on ongoing federally funded research projects in the physical sciences, engineering, and life sciences
FEMA
Federal Emergency Management Agency
FIFRA
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (1947)
FTE
full-time employee
FY
fiscal year
GENE-TOX
Genetic Toxicology, a factual online database (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) created by EPA containing peer-reviewed genetic toxicology data on approximately 3,000 chemicals
Grateful Med
an NLM-developed software package that facilitates searching of MEDLINE and other NLM online files
HBCUs
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
HIC
Health Information Center of the Wheaton Regional Library, Montgomery County, MD; NLM sponsors a project in conjunction with HIC to provide environmental health and HIV/AIDS information resources to the general public.
HIV
human immunodeficiency virus
HSDB
Hazardous Substances Data Bank, a factual online database (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) containing peer-reviewed toxicity, regulatory, emergency treatment, and environmental fate information on more than 4,500 chemicals
IAIMS
Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems, IAIMS grants are available through NLM to support institution-wide computer networks linking administrative, patient care, research, and education-related information systems.
IARC
International Agency for Research on Cancer
IOM
Institute of Medicine
IRIS
Integrated Risk Information System, a factual online database produced by EPA (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) containing information on the carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic health risk assessment of more than 660 chemical substances
ISG
Information Systems Grants, grants available through NLM that provide funds for improving or expanding access to information technologies; larger hospitals and academic health centers are the primary recipients of these grants.
ISM
Information Sources Map, one of four knowledge components of the UMLS project; ISM is a database with information on the scope, location, and access points of biomedical databases.
LOANSOME DOC
a feature of the Grateful Med software program that allows health professionals to order full-text documents for references retrieved in MEDLINE and other NLM databases
Medical Informatics
the study of medical information, including medical decision making, cognitive processes, human-machine interface, knowledge representation, and information storage and retrieval
MEDLARS
Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System, NLM's network of more than 40 online bibliographic and factural databases
MEDLINE
Medical Literature Online, NLM's major bibliographic database covering the biomedical literature
MED75, 80, 85, 90
back files of MEDLINE
MeSH
Medical Subject Headings, NLM's controlled vocabulary thesaurus consisting of terms arranged in both an alphabetical and a hierarchical structure
Metathesaurus
a knowledge source component of UMLS that establishes conceptual links between biomedical terms from diverse source vocabularies and classifications
MTD
maximum threshold dosage
NAS
National Academy of Sciences
NCEH
National Center for Environmental Health
NCI
National Cancer Institute
NCTR
National Center for Toxicological Research
NEDI
National Environmental Data Index
NIEHS
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
NIH
National Institutes of Health
NIOSH
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
NLM
National Library of Medicine
NN/LM
National Network of Libraries of Medicine, a network of more than 4,500 health science libraries
NTIS
National Technical Information Service
NTP
National Toxicology Program
ORNL
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy multiprogram laboratory
OSHA
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
PDQ
Physician's Data Query, a factual online database established by NCI containing information on cancer treatment and clinical research programs (available on MEDLARS)
POISINDEX
a commercial database produced by Micromedex, Inc., that provides toxicity and treatment information for exposures to household products and other chemical substances
R&D
research and development
RML
Regional Medical Library, major health science libraries that administer and coordinate services in the eight geographical regions of the NN/LM
RN
Chemical Abstracts Registry Number
RTECS
Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances, a factual online database produced by NIOSH (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) that provides chemical toxicity data on more than 133,000 substances
SARA
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (1986)
SIS
Specialized Information Services, the NLM division with responsibilities for the management of the TEHIP program and AIDS-related databases
SPECIALIST
a knowledge source component of UMLS that establishes lexical entries for biomedical terms and is used in natural language processing programs
SRP
Scientific Review Panel, experts in toxicology, medicine, and the environmental sciences that regularly review the content of HSDB
Superfund Act
(see CERCLA)
SUPERLIST
a feature of the ChemID database providing information on the chemicals that appear on key state and federal regulatory and environmental health listings
TEHIP
Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program, NLM's program that encompasses 16 factual and bibliographic databases providing toxicology and environmental information
Telnet
program that lets Internet users log into computers other than their own host computers
TIP
Toxicology Information Program, NLM program created in 1967 to disseminate toxicology information; in 1994, the program changed its name to TEHIP.
TIPCOM
Toxicology Information Program Committee, a National Academy of Sciences advisory committee that provided policy and technical advice to SIS from 1969 to 1994
TOMES
Toxicology, Occupational Medicine, and Environmental Series, a commercial database produced by Micromedex, Inc., that provides medical and hazard management information for exposures to chemical substances
TOXLINE
Toxicology Information Online, a multicomponent, nonroyalty bibliographic online database (available on MEDLARS) providing citations to the worldwide literature on toxicology and related fields
TOXLINE65
TOXLINE backfile that primarily covers citations from 1965 to 1980
TOXLIT
Toxicology Literature, a royalty-based bibliographic online database (available on MEDLARS) composed primarily of citations from Chemical Abstracts
TOXLIT65
TOXLIT backfile that primarily covers citations from 1965 to 1980
TOXNET
Toxicology Data Network, NLM's microprocessor-based system for building, maintaining, and online delivery of databases in toxicology and environmental health; a gateway links the TOXNET systems with ELHILL so that the user can search all NLM databases.
TRI
Toxic Chemical Release Inventory, a series of online databases (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) created by EPA from industry submissions of annual environmental releases (approximately 300 chemicals)
TRIFACTS
Toxic Chemical Release Inventory Facts, an online database (available on MEDLARS through TOXNET) containing summarized information on the health, ecological effects, safety, and handling of chemicals listed in TRI
TSCA
Toxic Substance Control Act (1976)
TSCAINV
Toxic Substances Control Act Inventory
UMLS
Unified Medical Language System, a multicomponent NLM research and development initiative working on the retrieval and integration of biomedical information from a variety of sources
WWW
World Wide Web
