Index Medicus (IM) is a curated subset of MEDLINE, which is a bibliographic database of life science and biomedical science information, principally scientific journal articles. From 1879 to 2004, "Index Medicus" was a comprehensive bibliographic index of such articles in the form of a print index or (in later years) its onscreen equivalent. It was begun by John Shaw Billings, head of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office, United States Army. This library later evolved into the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM). In the 1960s, the NLM began the indexing work by creating MEDLARS, a bibliographic database, which became MEDLINE. "Index Medicus" thus became the print presentation of the MEDLINE database's content, which users accessed usually by visiting a library which subscribed to "Index Medicus" (for example, a university scientist at the university library). It continued in this role through the 1980s and 1990s, while various electronic presentations of MEDLINE's content also evolved, first with proprietary online services (accessed mostly at libraries) and later with CD-ROMs, then with Entrez and PubMed. As users gradually migrated from print to online use, "Index Medicus" print subscriptions dwindled. During the 1990s, the dissemination of home internet connections, the launch of the Web and web browsers, and the launch of PubMed greatly accelerated the shift of online access to MEDLINE from something one did at the library to something one did anywhere. This dissemination, along with the superior usability of search compared with use of a print index in serving the user's purpose (which is to distill relevant subsets of information from a vast superset), caused the use of MEDLINE's print output, "Index Medicus", to drop precipitously. In 2004, print publication ceased. Today, "Index Medicus" and "Abridged Index Medicus" still exist conceptually as content curation services that curate MEDLINE content into search subsets or database views (in other words, subsets of MEDLINE records from some journals but not others). This filters search results with a view toward excluding poor-quality articles (such as by excluding junk journals), which is often helpful depending on the needs of the user. QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. What is IM short for?
2. What is IM an acronym for?
3. What is meant by IM?
Q2:
1. What is Index Medicus?
2. What is the purpose of Index Medicus?
3. What does IM do?
Q3:
1. When did IM begin?
2. When did Index Medicus begin?
3. In what year did Index Medicus begin?
Q4:
1. When did IM cease operation?
2. When did Index Medicus end?
3. What was the last year of Index Medicus?
Q5:
1. What was a variable of the decline of Index Medicus?
2. What was one variable of IM's decline?
3. What was a factor in the downfall of Index Medicus?
Q6:
1. Was the internet a factor in the downfall of Index Medicus?
2. Did the internet factor into IM's decline?
3. Was the internet one of the reasons that IM fell out of favor?
Q7:
1. Is it still possible to use IM?
2. Does IM remain functional?
3. Can Index Medicus still be used?
Q8:
1. Are badly written articles preferred on Index Medicus?
2. Does Index Medicus encourage poorly written articles?
3. Are poor quality articles prioritized on Index Medicus?
Q9:
1. What is excluded on IM?
2. What does IM exclude?
3. What is not permitted on Index Medicus?
Q10:
1. Who started Index Medicus?
2. Who was Index Medicus founded by?
3. Who was the founder of Index Medicus?
Q11:
1. Was John Shaw Billings in the military?
2. Did John Shaw Billings serve in the military?
3. Was John Shaw Billings a member of the military
Q12:
1. What branch of the military did John Shaw Billings serve in?
2. Which branch of the military was John Shaw Billings a member of?
3. Where in the US Military did John Shaw Billings serve?
Q13:
1. What was John Shaw Billings the leader of?
2. What was John Shaw Billings in charge of?
3. What did John Shaw Billings head up?
Q14:
1. What was the Library of the Surgeon General's Office transformed into?
2. What did the Library of the Surgeon General's Office become later on?
3. What was a later version of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office?
Q15:
1. What did the United States National Library of Medicine start doing in the 60s?
2. During the 1960s, what did the United States National Library of Medicine begin doing?
3. What did the United States National Library of Medicine take on during the 1960s?
Q16:
1. How could one access the Index Medicus?
2. How was the Index Medicus generally accessed?
3. What was the most common way of accessing the Index Medicus?
Q17:
1. How long was the IM accessed in libraries?
2. For how long was the IM used by visiting a library?
3. How long did one access the IM by going to a library that subscribed to it?
Q18:
1. How could one access the Index Medicus after the 1990s?
2. After the 90s, how could the IM be accessed?
3. What was one post-90s way of getting into the IM?
Q19:
1. Could the Index Medicus be accessed through DVDs or CDs?
2. Could DVDs and CDs be used to access the Index Medicus?
3. Was it possible to browse the IM through a DVD or a CD?
Q20:
1. How could one access IM after CD-ROMs?
2. What were two access points for IM that came after CDs?
3. After CDs how else could Index Medicus be accessed?
