The Japan Information Center of Science and Technology (JICST) began its online information retrieval service to some limited institutions on October 1976, and opened its service to all information service units through the public telephone line on October 1978 by the JICST's system (JOIS), Among the JOIS databases, the MEDLINE is very highly used, and it is remarkable that higher utilization of the JOIS comes from medical information users than other users fields. Since April 1981, some advantages in the MEDLINE retrieval service have been come into operation such as all the weekdays service for the recent five-years current files, abstract printout, strategies by natural languages, preparation of back from 1974, with the uprading of the JOIS to the JOIS II. On October 1981, the new file of Japanese medical literature was added to the JOIS online service. This file is comprized from the selected 300 Japanese journals in cooperation with the Igaku Chuo Zasshi Kankokai, and will be cummulated about 30, 000 articles within this one year. The searching strategies is available from the JICST's thsaurus and its classification system, with author's names, their affiliations, etc. In order to get higher retrieval efficiency in the new file, it will be needed to enrich medical terms in the JICST's thesaurus.

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The distinctive feature of a medical library is medical journal collection which is normally comprise 60 to 80 per cent of its whole collection. In this circumstance, the journal selection is an important part of the library activities.
In this paper, the author attempted to review some of the well-known methods on journal selection. The approach taken are grouped into two: quantitative one and qualitative one. Some favorite ways of the former are of circulation data, citation frequency, list recommended by specialists and some holding lists or union catalogs. But, in addition to these data, journal selection based on cost/effectiveness recently has been advocated by P. H. Kraft, and others.
The qualitative methods is to make up a form designed specially for journal evaluation and to gather data requested from health care personnel. And, the emphasis here is on gathering of the appropriate data in a reasonable manner.
In my conclusion, the library staff as a decision maker should spend any more his time in journal selection and evaluation.

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This is supplementary to the author's previous paper entitled “On the structure and function of search request form for medical literature search services”, with special reference to user-system interaction. In online information retrieval, the quality of the librarian's interview with the user and his technique and ability to analyse the request statement could be considerably important factors which determine the results of searching. In addition to the function as a record of the user's request, a well-designed request form has other positive functions to support user-system interaction; 1) It can help a user to state his request clearly and completely, 2) A librarian who fully understands what functions of each item in the request form has in various stages of searching may perform effective interviews. The quality of the subject statement expressed both in sentence and by keywords is also described to discuss the ambiguity of the subject statement. It is recommended that the user express his request clearly in the request form before coming to the library.

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Nowadays the Japan Medical Library Association (JMLA) is confronted by the problem how to make up the information network including hospital libraries. A brief review of the historical activities of JMLA tells us that the association has been much purified as an organization principally consisting of libraries affiliated to medical schools. In order to cope with the growing demand for the medical information from those who are engaged in the medical service, a more general system such as the National Scientific Information System promoted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture should be taken into due consideration. Within that framework, hospital libraries are not regarded as information agencies but as users of medical libraries like other individual practitioners. The membership system of JMLA must be examined from other points of view than that of the information network.

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The purpose of this article is to provide a practical approach in the application of a word processor, TOSHIBA Japanese Word Processor JW-5, in library opearations such as library catalog production.
It is of my opinion that the word processor can be applied not only in general document processing, but also in information administration of libraries.

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The Tokyo Women's Medical College library has a small AV-Room (20m²). This study analyzes the relationship between hours of utilization and the number of newly purchased video cassette tapes over 9 years from 1972 to 1980.
Increase of utilization hours from 1974 to 1975 can be attributed to repletion of AV materials and convenience of use due to establishment of the AV-Room inside the library in August 1975. For the period 1975 to 1978 growth of utilization hours was parallel to increase in number video cassette tapes. In 1976 53 video cassette tapes were purchased, the most purchased in one year duringuthe period. Thereafter about 25 video cassette tapes were purchased annually through 1978.
In 1979 utilization of the AV-Room began to slacken. This is because the purchase of new video cassette tapes was kept down to four, the lowest annual number. In 1979 the total number of video cassette tapes was 195 pieces, but addition of new cassettes diminished, causing reduction in hours of utilization.
In order to increase the number of hours of utilization of the AV-Room, judging from the above, it is necessary to continuously purchase a variety of up-to-date video cassette tapes annually. At the same time, medical librarians shoud arrange AV materials for convenient use, publicize AV materials among instructors and students, and be ready to offer their services at any time.
Average daily hours of utilization was 1 hour and 26 minutes, counting a month as 24 days. This means there is still much room for further utilization. Perhaps one should consider not only the number of video cassette tapes available, but also the service in supplying the materials by audio-visual material personnels.

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The 9th SEAMIC Seminar held at Surabaya, Indonesia on 26-31 of August, 1981 is reported. The SEAMIC (Southeast Asian Medical Information Center) is one of the main projects which the International Medical Foundation of Japan is executing under the subsidy of the Japanese Government. SEAMIC's purpose is to contribute to the promotion of health planning in the region of the Southeast Asia by providing, exchanging and generating information on a multilateral basis. 16 persons from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and WHO discussed the theme of the Seminar, “Multilateral Collaboration on SEAMIC Health Sciences Documentation and Library Services Activities” through technical papers and country reports. The technical papers, country reports of the state of the arts and recommendations for the SEAMIC are summarized. The main recommendations are: 1) Book Donation Program is satisfactory, however, the list can be further improved to make it more balanced in subjects and publication countries as well. 2) Interlibrary lending service is recommended to be carried out more between SEAMIC member countries rather than relying solely on SEAMIC Tokyo. 3) It is recommended that PHLOSEA (Periodical Holdings in the Libraries of Southeast Asia) be expanded into a Union List of Serials in Medical and Health-related Subjects to facilitate interlibrary loans. 4) Each country is urged to prepare a bibliography of national bibliographies on medical and health-related topics for possible collation and publication by SEAMIC. 5) Active collaboration is expected of Advisory Committee on Publication in each country. 6) A joint training program by SEAMIC and other agencies, hosted by SEAMIC member countries on a rotational basis is proposed. 7) SEAMIC is requested to explore the possibility of collaboration with other agencies working in this region in all activities possible.

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According to the July 1981 issue of the Interlending Review, here are introduced the recent activities and services of the British Library Lending Division (BLLD), especially its international services. BLLD received 2, 856, 000 requests of lending and photocoping servies in the 1980-81 year, there is found 2.1% reduction in demand comparing with the previous year. That is a small reduction in the cases of British demand, larger for foreign demand. This figure can be seen as an epoch-making event.

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