Health sciences libraries in Kuwait: a study of their resources, facilities, and services

The purpose of this study was to examine the current status of health sciences libraries in Kuwait in terms of their staff, collections, facilities, use of information technology, information services, and cooperation. Seventeen libraries participated in the study. Results show that the majority of health sciences libraries were established during the 1980s. Their collections are relatively small. The majority of their staff is nonprofessional. The majority of libraries provide only basic information services. Cooperation among libraries is limited. Survey results also indicate that a significant number of health sciences libraries are not automated. Some recommendations for the improvement of existing resources, facilities, and services are made.

Database resources of the National Center for Biotechnology Information

In addition to maintaining the GenBank® nucleic acid sequence database, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) provides data analysis and retrieval resources that operate on the data in GenBank and a variety of other biological data made available through NCBI’s Web site. NCBI data retrieval resources include Entrez, PubMed, LocusLink and the Taxonomy Browser. Data analysis resources include BLAST, Electronic PCR, OrfFinder, RefSeq, UniGene, HomoloGene, Database of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (dbSNP), Human Genome Sequencing, Human MapViewer, GeneMap’99, Human–Mouse Homology Map, Cancer Chromosome Aberration Project (CCAP), Entrez Genomes, Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COGs) database, Retroviral Genotyping Tools, Cancer Genome Anatomy Project (CGAP), SAGEmap, Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), Online Mendelian Inheri­tance in Man (OMIM), the Molecular Modeling Database (MMDB) and the Conserved Domain Database (CDD). Augmenting many of the Web applications are custom implementations of the BLAST program optimized to search specialized data sets. All of the resources can be accessed through the NCBI home page at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.