Good news! It looks like this issue is being resolved even as I write.
I never got a reply to my inquiry to POPLINE, but Gary Price did. He
has more clout, I think. : )
The official response from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health is posted on ResourceShelf at
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2008/04/05/popline-database-response-from-d
ean-johns-hopkins-bloomberg-school-of-public-health/.
Bottom line: access is being restored. Immediately, it looks like.
Thanks,
Anne
Librarian
x5247
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
Behalf Of David P. Dillard
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 11:57 AM
To: Net-Gold; Temple University Net-Gold Archive; Temple Gold Discussion
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Subject: [LAW-LIB:55225] DATABASES : MEDICAL: ABORTION : UNITED STATES:
GOVERNMENT : CENSORSHIP: The POPLINE Situation
DATABASES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION :
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
CENSORSHIP:
The POPLINE Situation
Media attention to this development, abortion as a subject term not
being
searchable, is now growing. There are articles about this situation in
the following sources:
Government Bans the Word "Abortion"
Village Voice, NY - 5 hours ago
Type the word in the search engine for Popline, the huge, database that
the federal government bills as "your connection to the world's
reproductive health ...
Word "abortion" disappears from US government-funded search engine
Inquirer, UK - 1 hour ago
The site, Popline, which is administered by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health in Maryland, recently got a grant from USAID,
the
Agency for ...
Johns Hopkins University Criticized for Blocking Abortion Search ...
LifeNews.com
Government Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion' Wired News
Johns Hopkins U. Health Database Blocks Searches for 'Abortion'
Chronicle
of Higher Education (subscription)
all 5 news articles
Government Database Restricting Information On Abortion
The Experiment - Apr 3, 2008
Yesterday I saw a posting on the Progressive Librarian Guild list
stating
that the word abortion was now a stop word on POPLINE, a database of the
...
A is for abortion, but doesn't have the same meaning as it
Feministing, NY - 5 hours ago
As a project of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, POPLINE
receives its funding from USAID. We have the history there. ...
Your Search for "Abortion" Yields Nothing
RH Reality Check, DC - 23 hours ago
It seems the POPLINE database, defined as "the world's largest database
on
reproductive health (emphasis mine), containing citations with abstracts
to ...
Johns Hopkins Bows To USAID Censorship Push
Slashdot - 1 hour ago
An anonymous reader sends us to Wired's Threat Level blog for news that
the federally funded Popline database at Johns Hopkins University, said
to
be the ...
It is not listed in the above result from Google News, but a Google
Alert
indicates that there is also an article in the Chronicle of Higher
Education, so it is not just librarians concerned about this issue any
longer. I also want to personally thank Gary Price for including this
development in ResourceShelf and also I would like to thank all of the
librarians who have posted to lists they are members of regarding this.
So much for the media. It gets very interesting in Google:
Results 1 - 10 of about 607,000 for popline and abortion.
<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-
17%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=popline+and+abortion&btnG=Search>
A shorter URL for the above link:
But this is not about quantity, it is the "quality" of the hits at the
top of this search deck:
Crooks and Liars POPLINE restricts the word Abortion from the ...Yes we
did make a change in POPLINE. We recently made all abortion terms stop
words. As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now.
...
www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/03/popline-restricts-the-word-
abortion-from-the-government-funded-database/
- 17 hours ago - Similar pages
U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion' | Threat Level
...Called Popline, the search site is run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School ... But on Thursday, a search on "abortion" was producing only
the
message "No ...
blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/a-government-fu.html - 19 hours ago -
Similar pages
"Abortion" scrapped as research descriptor on POPLINE (govt-spons
..."Abortion" scrapped as research descriptor on POPLINE (govt-spons.
database)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/
duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3103735
- 9 hours ago - Similar pages
Radio Left :: POPLINE restricts the word Abortion from the ...Radio
Left.
Now in our 6th year driving the right-wing nuts. Internet talk radio for
liberals and Democrats with a liberal blogging community to express ...
blog.radioleft.com/blog/_archives/2008/4/3/3619432.html - 15 hours ago -
Similar pages
Abortion? No such thing Feminist Philosophersentering abortion as a
search term in the POPLINE database now returns zero ... It is now
impossible to get a decent search of POPLINE using abortion as ...
feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/abortion-no-such-thing/ -
9
hours ago - Similar pages
infomusings on LIS, grad school, academia, and other random thingsIf
you
do a subject keyword search in POPLINE for abortion, the result is:. No
records found by latest query. If you do a subject keyword search in
POPLINE ...
blog.infomuse.net/ - Similar pages
Truth Feeds : POPLINE restricts the word ?Abortion? from the ...POPLINE
restricts the word ?Abortion? from the government funded database
BREAKING: Another KBR Rape Case Douglas Feith: Iraq was not a
retaliation
for ...
truthfeeds.com/Daily-News/72160/
POPLINE-restricts-the-word-Abortion-from-the-government-funded-database
- 15 hours ago - Similar pages
The Galloping BeaverThis, despite the fact that Popline has a library
brimming with articles and peer reviewed papers on abortion. Popline has
blocked search access to over ...
thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/ - Similar pages
Popline blocking searches for abortion resources SpinstahPopline
blocking
searches for abortion resources. April 4, 2008 by Alison. Popline, which
I
previously hadnt heard of, bills itself as Your connection to ...
ramblingon.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/
popline-blocking-searches-for-abortion-resources/
- 3 hours ago - Similar pages
Why is a Government-Funded Reproductive Health Database Blocking
...Today
through medical librarian channels, I got word that entering abortion as
a
search term in the POPLINE database now returns zero results because of
a
...
womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/.../ - Similar pages
POPLINE Keyword Guide -- Main Index ABORTIONPOPLINE Keyword Guide --
Main
Index << ABDOMINAL CRAMPS | ABORTION ... ABORTION. Scope Note: Removal
of
a fetus from the uterus by any of a number of ...
db.jhuccp.org/ICS-WPD/POPWEB/Thesaurus/tr7.htm - 5k - Cached - Similar
pages
POPLINE Keyword Guide -- Main Index ABORTION, SPONTANEOUSPOPLINE Keyword
Guide -- Main Index. << ABORTION, HABITUAL | ABORTION, SPONTANEOUS |
ABSTINENCE >>. Back to: "A". ABORTION, SPONTANEOUS ...
db.jhuccp.org/ICS-WPD/POPWEB/Thesaurus/tr40.htm - 5k - Cached - Similar
pages
More results from db.jhuccp.org
Spontaneous abortion and induced abortion: an adjustment for the
...POPLINE Document Number: 015013. Author(s):. Susser E. Source
citation:
... 2 different ratios have been used to represent the spontaneous
abortion rate in ...
www.popline.org/docs/0568/015013.html - 4k - Cached - Similar pages
Inmagic CS/WebPublisher PRO found 1 recordsNew Basic Search | New
Advanced
Search | POPLINE Document Delivery Policy ... Abstract: In Kenya, where
abortion is permitted only to save a woman's life, ...
www.popline.org/docs/126980 - 28k - Cached - Similar pages
More results from www.popline.org
Your Search for "Abortion" Yields Nothing | Reproductive Health
...POPLINE's explanation is utterly insufficient. Abortion is a medical
term for a legal procedure. Politics has absolutely no place in the
medical database of ...
www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/04/03/your-search-for-abortion-yields-n
othing
- 52k - 23 hours ago - Cached - Similar pages
The Experiment Blog Archive Government Database Restricting
...Yesterday
I saw a posting on the Progressive Librarian Guild list stating that the
word abortion was now a stop word on POPLINE, a database of the ...
www.theexperiment.org/?p=2275 - 19k - Cached - Similar pages
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT : DATABASES : DEMOGRAPHY: ISSUES ...Librarian
Guild list stating that the word abortion was now a stop word* on
POPLINE,
a database of the Worlds reproductive health literature This ...
groups.google.com/group/Educator-Gold/browse_thread/thread/987f7f83c8e1e
2ca
- 51k - 19 hours ago - Cached - Similar pages
We read banned books, and other stuff tooPOPLINE has recently decided to
make all abortion words stop words. This means that someone searching
the
POPLINE database for abortion or abortions or ...
bclaifc.wordpress.com/ - 45k - Cached - Similar pages
ResourceShelf The POPLINE StoryBtw, you can still find entries (nearly
25000) that deal with abortion issues ... being used with the POPLINE
database we have found it a challenge to use. ...
www.resourceshelf.com/2008/04/04/the-popline-story - 33k - 20 hours ago
-
Cached - Similar pages
Antibiotic prophylaxis for medical and surgical first-trimester ...of
both
strategies for first-trimester abortion. We will conduct. computerized
searches of PubMed, EMBASE, POPLINE,. 2. Antibiotic prophylaxis for
medical ...
doi.wiley.com/10.1002/14651858.CD005217 - Similar pages
In addition to the other records mostly about the gag on searches of
abortion, there is this record above:
Spontaneous abortion and induced abortion: an adjustment for the
...POPLINE Document Number: 015013. Author(s):. Susser E. Source
citation:
... 2 different ratios have been used to represent the spontaneous
abortion rate in ...
www.popline.org/docs/0568/015013.html - 4k - Cached - Similar pages
This is an actual document in the POPLINE database about abortion that
is
indexed by Google. This may indicate along with the high posting of
results in Google for POPLINE and abortion, that while POPLINE has not
been letting users search the subject term abortion in POPLINE, Google
has
absolutely no problem letting Google users know where to find abortion
in
the POPLINE database.
The Google link for this listing takes the user to this POPLINE record:
Title: Spontaneous abortion and induced abortion: an adjustment for the
presence of induced abortion when estimating the rate of spontaneous
abortion from cross-sectional studies.
POPLINE Document Number: 015013
Author(s):
Susser E
Source citation:
American Journal of Epidemiology, 1983 Mar;117(3):305-8.
Abstract:
High rates of induced abortion in a population may distort currently
employed measures of the rate of spontaneous abortion. 2 different
ratios
have been used to represent the spontaneous abortion rate in
cross-sectional studies of populations with high rates of induced
abortion. The numerator in both is the number of spontaneous abortions,
while the denominator of 1 is the number of spontaneous abortions plus
the
number of births after 28 weeks. The denominator of the other adds the
number of induced abortions to this sum. Variations in the frequency and
patterns of induced abortions influence both measures. Inflation of the
1st ratio will be greatest in a population where women undergo induced
abortion of late gestations but abort spontaneously at early gestations,
while the 2nd ratio will be most seriously diminished when women elect
induced abortion at early gestations but abort spontaneously at a late
stage. The simplified estimate of the "true" rate (STR) of spontaneous
abortion is a simple and convenient statistic that offers a good
estimate.
The numerator of the STR is the number of spontaneous abortions while
the
denominator is the sum of the number of spontaneous abortions, the
number
of live and stillbirths after 28 weeks, and 1/2 the number of induced
abortions. The simplified estimate generally yields a result close to
the
"true" spontaneous abortion rate, because induced abortions are
concentrated during the same period of gestation as spontaneous
abortions;
as a result, on average induced abortions represent pregnancies that
survived approximately 1/2 the risk for spontaneous abortion that a live
birth survived. The simplified equation can be modified if discrepancies
are found on applying the full procedure for estimating the true rate.
Keywords:
Abortion
Abortion, Spontaneous
Abortion Rate
Vital Statistics
Estimation Technics
Data Analysis
Fertility Control, Postconception
Family Planning
Pregnancy Complications
Diseases
Population Statistics
Research Methodology
Index page
------------------------------
There is also an interesting development with the POPLINE database.
Somebody emailed me and told me that they were able to get a result from
the POPLINE database from a search of the full word abortion. I tried
the
same search upon reading the message but got the same error message at
that time, a couple of hours or so ago, that we all have been getting.
I
therefore discounted that message as nothing more than a transient
glitch
in the POPLINE blocking system. Now however I am getting a search
result
for a search of the word abortion. Twenty minutes or so ago, before I
started this message the result was 187 records. I just tried again and
the result is now over 500 records so this may be an indication that the
records are being rebuilt into the system as indexed by subject under
that
search term, abortion. The bottom line is that the concern expressed by
so many librarians and now followed by so many in other fields including
journalists in various publications may have caused the folks at John
Hopkins to abort the gag on the search of abortion. This result, if
that
is a correct interpretation of these observations, was achieved without
any newspaper, television or other mass media sources reporting this
development as far as I am aware of.
[Just tried the search again before sending this message and the result
total for the same search is now 1094 records.]
I hope you all have a great weekend.
==============================================
Previous Net-Gold Posts Regarding POPLINE
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
DATABASES :
DEMOGRAPHY: ISSUES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION:
Government Database Restricting Information On Abortion
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22980>
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
DATABASES :
DEMOGRAPHY: ISSUES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION :
CENSORSHIP:
U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22981>
I also sent this additional message to the DIG_REF list
Subject: Re: [DIG_REF] UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT : DATABASES :
DEMOGRAPHY:
ISSUES : MEDICAL: ABORTION : CENSORSHIP: Government Database Restricting
Information On Abortion
From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@TEMPLE.EDU>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 22:33:17 -0400
<http://digref.org/archive/Current/msg02142.html>
Also of possible interest.
COMPUTER: OPERATING SYSTEMS:
Microsoft Will Extend Life of Windows XP--Again
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22986>
SEARCH ENGINES: GOOGLE ALTERNATIVES:
Article / MORE SEARCH ENGINE RESOURCES
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22990>
UNITED STATES :
POLLS:
Poll: 81 Percent Think US on Wrong Track
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22987>
FOOD DRINK NUTRITION DIET: DRINK: COFFEE :
MEDICAL: CONDITIONS: ALZHEIMER'S:
A Coffee a Day Helps Keep the Dementia Away
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22983>
Again, a great weekend to all.
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@temple.edu
Net-Gold
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General Internet & Print Resources
<http://guides.temple.edu/general-internet>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/20309>
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html>
Educator-Gold
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Educator-Gold/>
K12ADMINLIFE
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/K12AdminLIFE/>
Nina Dillard's Photographs on Net-Gold
<http://tinyurl.com/36qd2o>
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