title: Ebola outbreak response: the role of information resources and the National Library of Medicine.
abstract: The US National Library of Medicine (NLM) offers Internet-based, no-cost resources useful for responding to the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak. Resources for health professionals, planners, responders, and researchers include PubMed, Disaster Lit, the Web page "Ebola Outbreak 2014: Information Resources," and the Virus Variation database of sequences for Ebolavirus. In cooperation with participating publishers, NLM offers free access to full-text articles from over 650 biomedical journals and 4000 online reference books through the Emergency Access Initiative. At the start of a prolonged disaster event or disease outbreak, the documents and information of most immediate use may not be in the peer-reviewed biomedical journal literature. To maintain current awareness may require using any of the following: news outlets; social media; preliminary online data, maps, and situation reports; and documents published by nongovernmental organizations, international associations, and government agencies. Similar to the pattern of interest shown in the news and social media, use of NLM Ebola-related resources is also increasing since the start of the outbreak was first reported in March 2014.
authors.affiliation: Disaster Information Management Research Center,Specialized Information Services Division,National Library of Medicine,Bethesda,Maryland.
authors.forename: Cynthia B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Love
authors.affiliation: Disaster Information Management Research Center,Specialized Information Services Division,National Library of Medicine,Bethesda,Maryland.
authors.forename: Stacey J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Arnesen
authors.affiliation: and the National Library of Medicine,Specialized Information Services,Bethesda,Maryland.
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Phillips
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004630:Emergencies; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D016239:MEDLINE / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009317:National Library of Medicine (U.S.) / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States
keywords: Internet