The National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database is available from many sources. The two primary ways to access MEDLINE at Dartmouth/DHMC are PubMed and Ovid. Each one has merits and drawbacks. Both are available on the Biomedical Libraries Web under Resources.

Use PubMed

• if you want to learn a MEDLINE interface that will be always available to you, even if you leave Dartmouth.
• when you want quick results with strategies automatically created for you.
• when you are looking for extremely recent citations.
• if you are off-campus and having connection issues.
• when you also want to search for genetics and molecular biology information.

Use Ovid MEDLINE

• when you need to quickly know whether articles will be available at the Dartmouth/DHMC libraries.
• to be guided through selections for a precise search based on Medical Subject Headings, subheadings, and limits.
• to build a search strategy in steps and by trying multiple combinations.
• when you also want to search the nursing literature.

For a more extensive comparison of Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed, click here.