In keeping with the ever increasing need for biomedical information in India, the National Informatics Centre entered with an agreement with the National Library of Medicine (NLM), USA in 1987. This agreement was aimed at obtaining easy and ready access to the facilities of the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS) of NLM. NIC acts as a nodal agency for computerized MEDLARS services in India. It is one of the world's largest computer-based bibliographic systems comprising of over 28 databases. It covers subjects such as medicine/biomedicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine and pre-clinical sciences in 3,000 serials written in 70 different languages from over 160 countries.
To enable faster access and speedier retrieval of information, NIC established a data network link with NLM's system through NICNET.
Relevant citations with author, title, journal and abstract are provided. If the number of citations retrieved is more than 20 then the abstracts are restricted to 20 citations from the recent two years. For the rest, only the author, title and source are provided. Abstracts of specific citations are provided on request.
Any medical person requiring information can contact the MEDLARS Centre at New Delhi from NIC offices located in all the state capitals & district headquarters.