NLM® Classification 2009 Edition Now Available
T he NLM Classification, available online at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/class/, incorporates all additions and changes to the schedules and index from April 2008 through March 2009. The PDF version will be updated with 2009 classification data by May 7, 2009.
The W (General Medicine. Health Professions), WZ (History of Medicine. Medical Miscellany), and 19th Century schedules were the major areas of focus for the 2009 edition, along with Table G.
The header titles of the W and WZ schedules were augmented to better reflect the contents of the schedule:
- W was changed from Health Professions to General Medicine. Health Professions.
- WZ was changed from History of Medicine to History of Medicine. Medical Miscellany.
Some W, WZ, and 19th Century class number captions and notes were revised to better reflect the scope of the number. For example:
- At W 20.5, the caption Medical research was changed to Biomedical research.
- At W 10, the following note was added: Classify works on travel medicine at WA 108.
- At WZ 350, the caption Literary and artistic works by physicians and other association items was changed to Literary and artistic works by health professionals and associations.
- At WBA, the caption Popular medicine was changed to Popular medicine. Domestic medicine.
Table G (geographic breakdown) is now permitted with W 84.6 Primary health care.
Class Numbers Added and Canceled
Seventeen new class numbers were added to the main schedules. For a complete list of the new class numbers, go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/class/newclasses.html. Four new class numbers were added to the 19th Century schedule. One class number was canceled.
Class Numbers Added — 2009
| New Number | Class Name | Former Number |
General Medicine. Health Professions |
||
| W 20.55.E7 | Ethics in research | W 20.5 |
| W 84.4 | Quality of health care (General) (Table G) | W 84 |
| W 84.41 | General coverage (Not Table G) | W 84.1 |
| W 84.61 | [Primary health care] General coverage (Not Table G) | W 84.6 |
| W 85.2 | Patient satisfaction | W 85 |
| W 85.4 | Patient rights. Advocacy | W 85 |
Practice of Medicine |
||
| WB 107 | Wilderness medicine | None |
| WB 113 | Integrative medicine | None |
Respiratory System |
||
| WF 653 | Lung injury | None |
Nursing |
||
| WY 100.7 | Evidence-based nursing | None |
History of Medicine. Medical Miscellany |
||
| WZ 24 | Archives (General) | None |
| WZ 80.5.H8 | Hispanic Americans | WZ 80 |
| WZ 112.5.G9 | Gynecologists | WZ 112 |
| WZ 112.5.M3 | Midwives. Nurse midwives | WZ 112 |
| WZ 112.5.O2 | Obstetricians | WZ 112 |
| WZ 135 | [Collective biography (by period)] 21st century | None |
| WZ 331 | Medicine, as depicted in art | WZ 330 |
Class Numbers Canceled — 2009
| Canceled Number | Class Name | Now Classed in |
History of Medicine. Medical Miscellany |
||
| WZ 332 | Anniversaries and special events | [Number never used at NLM] |
19th Century Schedule Additions
| New Number | Class Name | Former Number |
| QTB | Diet | None |
| W 26 | Equipment and supplies | None |
| WOB | Military surgery | None |
| WYA | Military nursing | None |
Table G (Geographic Notations)
A new Table G Section was created for historical jurisdictions or entities that existed in the past and whose former territories are not encompassed by a single present day country. Some of the jurisdictions listed in this section were removed from the Obsolete Table G Notations section. Some cutters of present day countries are also being used for the historical lands even though these are not one-to-one matches. For example, GR9, the cutter assigned to Russia (Federation), is also assigned to the USSR and Russia (Pre-1917).
HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS
GC8—Czechoslovakia
GG4—Prussia
GR9—Russia (Pre-1917)
GR9—USSR
GY8—Yugoslavia
JA7—Arabia
Other Table G changes
DA6—Antigua and Barbuda [Barbuda was added]
JM1—Macau [spelling changed from Macao]
M1—International agencies (General or not listed below) ["1" added to notation]
Two cross-references were added:
- Persia see Iran
- New Guinea see Papua New Guinea
Other Changes to the Schedule
Class number captions were also revised in other schedules. For example:
- At WE 259, Osteochondrosis was added to the caption.
- At WB 102.5, Evidence-based medicine was changed to Evidence-based practice.
Instructional notes were added or modified to clarify classification practices as needed, e.g., a note was added to WA 292: Classify works on wilderness medicine in WB 107.
Changes to the Index
Eighty-one new index entries were created of which thirty-four are from the 2009 MeSH®; the remainder are MeSH terms from previous years. All main index headings are linked to the 2009 vocabulary in the MeSH Browser.
Numerous main index entries and cross references were modified to reflect changes in the MeSH vocabulary. In particular, some major categories of index terms affected by MeSH changes were:
Physiology terms that changed to Physiological Phenomena, e.g.,
Child Nutrition Physiology to Child Nutritional Physiology Phenomena
Prescription related terms, e.g.,
Drugs, Non-Prescription changed to Nonprescription Drugs
All index entries pertaining to the aforementioned schedule additions and changes were modified.
Index entries with Library of Congress (LC) H schedule numbers were reviewed for accuracy.
To learn more about the NLM Classification, see the Fact Sheet.
By Sharon R. Willis
Cataloging Section, Technical Services Division
Willis SR. NLM® Classification 2009 Edition Now Available. NLM Tech Bull. 2009 Mar-Apr;(367):e19.