Index Section

The Index Section is responsible for the indexing, editing, keyboarding and input of journal literature for MEDLINE, Index Medicus, and other NLM publications. Indexing involves analyzing and assigning to each article descriptive headings selected from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®), the controlled vocabulary which contains nearly 19,000 terms. Over 10 million articles have been indexed for MEDLINE dating back to 1966, and about 400,000 are added to the database each year.

Much of the initial indexing is obtained from firms under contract to the Library to index journal articles and from International MEDLARS Centers. To ensure the integrity of the database, members of the Section review the indexing done outside NLM for accuracy and consistency and correct errors detected by users of MEDLARS products and services.

Frequently Asked Questions about Indexing

Indexing Statistics: 1965-2000

Contact Information:

Index Section

National Library of Medicine

8600 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, MD 20894

Phone: (301) 496-3261

Last updated: 17 August 2001
First published: 17 August 2001
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