Free! (Almost) from the National Library of Medicine DOCLINE: A Specialized ILL System

What Is DOCLINE? Interlibrary Loan System for sharing medical, health, and related information Primarily used to send requests for, and receive copies of journal articles Works closely with PubMed (MEDLINE on the Web)

Who Uses DOCLINE? Hospitals and Academic Medical Centers Colleges and Universities with Nursing, Veterinary, and Other Health Programs Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies Consumer Health Libraries and a few Public Libraries

What’s Different about DOCLINE? DOCLINE only ILL system used by many libraries that specialize in health and medical information Rarely need to look up locations (Automated routing based on serials holdings records) National Library of Medicine prefers to receive requests via DOCLINE

DOCLINE Is Free! (Almost) No charges for joining, no connect or subscription charges for use Connectivity and software: Web access and browser (Your library probably already has) However, some participation requirements: – Input serials holdings information – Read account daily and respond – Keep directory information up-to-date

Serials Holdings Information Must input holdings for at least 25 serials, prefer medical and health-related Serials must be listed in LOCATORplus (NLM’s Online Catalog) Not necessarily medical – General (e.g. Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report) – Business (e.g. Business Week, Forbes,) – Academic non-medical (e.g. Nature, Science, Scientific American) – Others

Why Bother? If frequent needs for medical and health information, DOCLINE best for ILL All U.S. libraries with good medical/health collections use DOCLINE—and give it high priority DOCLINE libraries can participate in FreeShare! – National reciprocal agreement within DOCLINE – Libraries borrow and lend to each other for no charge – 932 libraries participate so far

Borrow-Only: Another Option Use of DOCLINE for borrowing but not lending No requirement to enter serials holdings An option when needs for medical/health information are less frequent FreeShare participation not available—Lenders will charge

Access Without DOCLINE National Library of Medicine accepts ALA forms —but lower priority Pacific Northwest libraries’ serials holdings: Free medical/health journals on the Web:

Questions? Contact your local National Network of Libraries of Medicine’s Regional Medical Library office from within the U.S. at