Delivering medical information to the desktop: the UIC GRATEFUL-MED-via-the-Internet experience

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) provides the campus community, including the main campus and three regional sites, with a local MEDLINE option through a GRATEFUL MED fixed-fee licensing agreement with the National Library of Medicine. Searching is available via the Internet. A password server and customized GRATEFUL MED clients were built in order to adapt this off-the-shelf product to match the look and feel of other UIC campus-wide Internet resources. Installation, documentation, and training issues affecting the success of the project are discussed.