LINGUIST List 3.586

Fri 17 Jul 1992

FYI: World English; NSF Database Activities Program

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , World English
2. Alexa T. McCray, NSF Database Activities Program

The announcement sent out last week about the new association for
World Englishes has an incorrect e-mail address. The correct address
is: EJCLNENGFAC.INDSTATE.EDU

The National Science Foundation through its Directorate for Biological,
Behavioral, and Social Sciences supports a cross-disciplinary program for
research in the design, development, implementation, and use of information
resources. A copy of the announcement for this program, "Database Activities
in Biological, Behavioral, and Social Sciences", can be obtained by writing or
phoning Dr. Frank Hartel at NSF:

 National Science Foundation
 1800 G Street, N.W. Rm 312
 Washington, D.C. 20550
 202 357-9880

Discussions between the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the NSF have
indicated that basic research associated with NLM's Unified Medical Language
System (UMLS) is within the scope of the research that could be supported
under this NSF program activity.

The UMLS project is a long-term effort to develop increasingly intelligent
automated systems to help users retrieve information from biomedical databases
such as bibliographic databases, clinical record systems, factual databanks and
biomedical knowledge bases. The UMLS project seeks to answer research
questions that involve the optimal methods for integrated access to information
in multiple, generally disparate, computerized information sources. It is
assumed that diversity will continue to exist, and that therefore methods and
techniques need to be developed that will compensate for the dissimilar
vocabularies, coding and access schemes used by different systems. The ultimate
goal is to identify and implement innovative methods that will mediate between
users' requests for information and the potentially multiple sources that
contain information relevant to those requests.

Research and development on the UMLS project was formally initiated in 1986
and has involved collaborative work with several research groups at major U.S.
universities. As one result of this activity, three knowledge sources, a
Metathesaurus of biomedical concepts and their interrelationships, a Semantic
Network of high level semantic categories, and an Information Sources Map,
have been developed and distributed to interested researchers for
experimentation and evaluation.

Those who are interested should contact Dr. Milton Corn for further
information:

 Associate Director
 Division of Extramural Programs
 National Library of Medicine
 Bethesda, Maryland 20894
 Phone: 301 496-4621
 FAX: 301 402-0421
 Internet: cornlhc.nlm.gov

Proposals, however, will be submitted directly to the NSF at the address given
above.