CD-ROM is having a growing impact on U. S. medical library operations and services. End-user searching of computerized databases has increased substantially since the introduction of CD-ROM. Professional searching on CD-ROM is starting to take hold, and promises to challenge the online industry. Specialized applications are becoming available such as full text and cataloging databases, and computerized training programs on interactive videodisks.
Librarians need to make important choices on which CD-ROM products to acquire, and whether to access data in print, online, or on CD-ROM. The role and image of librarians are changing as they become computer specialists and teachers of end-user searching as well as performing traditional library duties.
The future of CD-ROM will include networks and dial-access. The capacity of both disks and readers will increase. CD-ROM applications in medical libraries will expand as prices decrease and interfaces with other technologies become possible. An on-going dialog between librarians, vendors, and CD-ROM producers is necessary for this wonderful new technology to be used to best advantage.

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Reviews are assumed to be effective media for researchers in biomedical science. It seems, however, that not many studies on reviews have been conducted, since a wide variety of reviews exists and it is difficult to define them. Therefore, the processes of forming information into reviews has been unclear for reviewers, users, and people who handle reviews. The aim of this study is to explore the process of writing reviews in biomedical science from the viewpoint of ‹condensation of information›. Choosing 7 samples from Bibliography of Medical Reviews 1988, and a single additional review from Annual Review of Biochemistry, presentations in the reviews are analyzed qualitatively, in comparison with those in the primary literature. The process of forming the original information into the reviews, and how it is presented in the reviews along with new information, viz., “reviewers' evaluation, ” are shown. Furthermore, changes in the original information presented in the reviews, compared with the primary literature, are discussed. This study indicates the importance of the reviewers' evaluation in deciding on original information in a specialized field.

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There are many problems in interlibrary loans among medical libraries in Japan (mainly photocopy services), for example, (1) the concentration of requests at certain some large medical libraries, and the fact that (2) in some national schools, the procedure for payment of interlibrary loan service charges is a prepayment system.
In this paper, the author tried to evaluate interlibrary loans and hopes that the data will be useful in improving interlibrary loans among medical libraries.
The author evaluated the following four items based on Orr's evaluation methed: (1) time lag until the articles arrive (2) payments procedure (3) comparison of requests received and requests made, and (4) automation (using telex or facsimile).

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This paper discusses trends in the research activities of health science librarians by analyzing the subjects of 192 articles in the Igaku Toshokan and 257 articles in the Bulletin on the Medical Library Association (BMLA). Matheson's report in 1982 had a strong impact on many health science librarians. On the basis of her recommendation, Columbia University and other universities presented the Integrated Academic Information Management Systems (IAIMS) and Integrated Library Systems (ILS) project in the BMLA. The librarian's research on traditional activities, such as classification, cataloging, audio visual and circulation services have clearly been decreasing since the middle of the 1980s in both the BMLA and the Igaku Toshokan. Furthermore, research on information retrieval has been focused on enduser searching and CD-ROM rather than on-line bibliographic searching.

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This survey was conducted to find which journals became core for nursing schools and hospital libraries. The data of study was obtained from the number of literature in the Current Index to Japanese Nursing Literature 1987-1989, in the Japanese Nursing Index 1987 and in nursing field were classified in the JAMAS (Japan Medical Abstracts Society) subfile of JMEDICINE File 1987-1989. We obtained the number of the frequency of photocopy use from journals in the Japanese Nursing Association Library 1987-1988.
The following results were obtained. Twenty-nine nursing journals were selected as core journals. These core journals occupied 49.3% in the Current Index to Japanese Nursing Literature, 30.9% in the Japanese Nursing Index, 63.9% in nursing field were classified in the JAMAS subfile of JMEDICINE File. Twenty-nine core journals in the frequency of photocopy use occupied 70.5% of total use.
It appears that the subjects in these core journals considerably reflected the content in the field of nursing. The frequency of photocopy use was correlated with number of literature in the Current Index to Japanese Nursing Literature, but not significantly correlated with that in the Japanese Nursing Index.

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In this paper, two distinguished textbooks of internal medicine, Cecil Textbook of Medicine and Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine were compared on the basis of citation studies. The latest editions of the textbooks were examined; “Harrison” was the 11th ed. (1987), and “Cecil” was the 18th ed. (1988).
The following results were obtained:
1. Harrison had 280 contributors, and 77 (27.5%) were affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Cecil had 325 contributors, but they were not as concentrated at any one institution as in the case of Harrison.
2. There were 4, 527 citations in Harrison and 4, 040 in Cecil. The proportion of journal citations to total citations was 79.1% in the case of Harrison and 76.2% in the case of Cecil.
3. A list was made of the 20 most frequently cited journals. The most important journal was the N Engl J Med. This journal accounted for 10% of all citations in both textbooks. This list shows that all were U. S. journals with the exception of the Lancet.
4. A list was made of the 10 most frequently cited books.
5. The age of the citations is shown in Fig1. Both graphs indicate that peak age was 2-3 years. Median citation age in Harrison was 4.6 years, and in Cecil it was 4.4 years.

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Councils of scientific editors like CBE, EASE and IFSE (A) may be defined as organs for scientific information which have been internationally and interdisciplinarily oriented and which are made up of individuals who are members independent of any creeds, thoughts and feelings of their own communities. Therefore their activities have been mostly accepted by learned societies of the world. Style manuals, refereeing policies, training programs, technological innovations in printing and even discussions of ethical aspects from the councils have had not a little impact on ordinary authors as well as editors. Many problems exist, which are derived from many regions and disciplines. However, by rejecting monologue but continuing to communicate, the members of the councils will mutually share in success and prosperity; i. e., to meet together is to meet with “exciting prospects ahead!” (M. Balaban, 1978).

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