The National Library of Medicine (NLM) maintains PubMed Central, an archive of free electronic journal content deposited there by publishers under various conditions ranging from completely open access to time-embargoed materials. Now the Library has devised and released a new feature which will allow users of smaller devices such as tablets and hand-helds to access and read PMC content in a more convenient format. The program is ‘browser-agnostic’ and although designed for small-screen units, can work effectively with laptop and desktop machines. Key-driven screen features allow the reader to go forward, backward, enlarge illustrations from thumbnails, etc. Not every item in the PMC collection will be accessible via PubReader. Only those represented by full HTML coding can be retrieved. ‘Flat’ images such as PDF file formats cannot be recovered with this version of the product.
NLM encourages users of PMC to experiment with PubReader and to share advice and comments on their experience with product developers.