Customer support developments. (National Library of Medicine, National Cancer Institute, Mead Data Central)

NLM Solicits Searcher Feedback

Uncle Sam Wants You! At least the U.S. government's leading search service--the National Library of Medicine --wants to hear from searchers. The January/February 1993 issue of the NLM Technical Bulletin even provided two forms for contribution. Appendix G offers a "Suggestion for Medical Subject Headings Change," requesting a statement on the nature of the change, frequency of encountering the concept, reason for suggesting the change, and sample citations for the new subject entry. The last page of the Bulletin provides a standard "Compliment/Concern" form for open comments. As the form says, "We work for you. Please tell us what is right and what you would like to see changed."

Now isn't that refreshing?! Amazing how a bureaucratic behemoth like the federal government manages to remember to listen to its clients, while sharp, user-friendly, commercial search services charging more for some single searches than a typical NLM user would pay in a month neglect to provide any ready tools for customer feedback. (HINT! HINT!) Thank you, NLM, for your concern with your searchers' interests and clear respect for their contribution as information professionals.

CancerFax and CancerNet Optional Delivery for National Cancer Institute Data

The National Cancer Institute has opene a fax and Internet route to the latest announcements from its PDQ (Physician Data Query) data on state-of-the-art treatment, patient information, and supportive care statements and some referral data. CancerFax lets users get information about PDQ, PDQ distributors, and other NCI products and services from a voicemail menu through a call to 301/ 402-5874. CancerFax operates round the clock and updates the beginning of each month. CancerNet provides the same information on electronic mail through the Internet using the e-mail address "Cancernet[at] IBICB.NCI.NIH.-gov". Just send a message to the address with a blank subject line and the world HELP in the body of the message and CancerNet will return a contents list of CancerNet id-numbers for specific topics. Each document fax-ed in CancerFax appears as its own message in CancerNet. Again the service works around the clock.

Mead Sets Up NEXIS Faxline for Prospective Customers

Mead Data Central has upgraded its customer support services with the new NEXIS Faxline, developed and operated by World Data Delivery Systems. The toll-free, automated, fax-on-demand system provides immediate access to documents on the NEXIS service via touch-tone telephone and fax machine. Dialing 1-800-34-NEXIS (1-800-346-3947) connects to a voicemail menu that requests the caller's fax number. Then users can request specific documents offering an overview of the NEXIS service, type of equipment needed to access the service, subscription options, new database additions, and samples of how to use the service in various professions, e.g., advertising, journalism, politics, finance, et al.