books, journals, manuscripts, images, and multimedia; genomic, chemical, toxicological, and environmental data; drug information; clinical trials data; health data standards; software; and consumer health information
Size
27.8 million (2015)
Criteria for collection
Acquiring, organizing, and preserving the world's scholarly biomedical literature
Since 1879, the National Library of Medicine has published the Index Medicus, a monthly guide to articles, in nearly five thousand selected journals. The last issue of Index Medicus was printed in December 2004, but this information is offered in the freely accessible PubMed, among the more than fifteen million MEDLINE journal article references and abstracts going back to the 1960s and 1.5 million references going back to the 1950s.[7]
The Toxicology and Environmental Health Program was established at the National Library of Medicine in 1967 and is charged with developing computer databases compiled from the medical literature and from the files of governmental and nongovernmental organizations.[12] The program has implemented several information systems for chemical emergency response and public education, such as the Toxicology Data Network, TOXMAP, Tox Town, Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders, Toxmystery, and the Household Products Database. These resources are accessible without charge on the internet.[citation needed]
The United States National Library of Medicine Radiation Emergency Management System[13] provides:
Guidance for health care providers, primarily physicians, about clinical diagnosis and treatment of radiation injury during radiological and nuclear emergencies
Just-in-time, evidence-based, usable information with sufficient background and context to make complex issues understandable to those without formal radiation medicine expertise
Web-based information that may be downloaded in advance, so that it would be available during an emergency if the Internet were not accessible
The Extramural Division provides grants to support research in medical information science and to support planning and development of computer and communications systems in medical institutions. Research, publications, and exhibitions on the history of medicine and the life sciences also are supported by the History of Medicine Division. In April 2008 the current exhibition Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health was launched.[citation needed]
National Center for Biotechnology Information division[edit]
National Center for Biotechnology Information is an intramural division within National Library of Medicine that creates public databases in molecular biology, conducts research in computational biology, develops software tools for analyzing molecular and genomic data, and disseminates biomedical information, all for the better understanding of processes affecting human health and disease.[citation needed]
^DeBakey ME (1991). "The National Library of Medicine. Evolution of a premier information center". JAMA. 266 (9): 1252–58. doi:10.1001/jama.266.9.1252. PMID1870251.
Schullian, Dorothy; Rogers, Frank (January 1958). "The National Library of Medicine. I". The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy. 28 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1086/618482. JSTOR4304714. PMID19938388. S2CID37983204. NLM 0135203.
Schullian, Dorothy; Rogers, Frank (April 1958). "The National Library of Medicine. II". The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy. 28 (2): 95–121. doi:10.1086/618521. JSTOR4304753. PMID19938389. S2CID8301098. NLM 0135203.
Past, present, and future of biomedical information. Bethesda, Maryland: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine. 1987. NLM 8708723. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
