The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. The collections of the National Library of Medicine include more than seven million books, journals, technical reports, manuscripts, microfilms, photographs, and images on medicine and related sciences, including some of the world's oldest and rarest works. The NLM runs the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) which houses a host of biological databases freely accessible over the Internet through the Entrez search engine and PubMed (described below). The NCBI is probably is most visible part of the NLM. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), which is a branch of the US National Institutes of Health. ... Jump to: navigation, search As of 2004, there are around 500 public and commercial biological databases. ... The Entrez Global Query Cross-Database Search System allows access to databases at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website. ... Jump to: navigation, search The success of the Google search engine was mainly due to its powerful PageRank algorithm and its simple, easy-to-use interface. ...

Since 1879, the NLM has published the Index Medicus, a monthly guide to articles in four thousand journals. Today, this information is offered in the freely accessible PubMed amongst 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. Medline is a comprehensive literature database of life sciences and biomedical information. ... MEDLINE is a comprehensive literature database of life sciences and biomedical information. ...

The Toxicology and Environmental Health Program (TEHIP), established at the NLM in 1967, is charged with developing computer databases compiled from the medical literature and from the files of governmental and nongovernmental organizations. TEHIP has implemented several information systems for chemical emergency response and public education, such as the Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET), Tox Town, and the Household Products Database. These resources are accessible without charge on the Web.

The Extramural Programs 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 and publications in the history of medicine and the life sciences are also supported.

History

The NLM was established in 1836 as the library of the Army Surgeon General's Office. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and its Medical Museum were founded in 1862 as the Army Medical Museum. Throughout their history the Army Medical Library and the Army Medical Museum often shared quarters. From 1866 to 1887, they were housed in Ford's Theatre after production there was stopped after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Fords Theatre in the 19th century Fords Theatre in Washington, D.C. was the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. ... Jump to: navigation, search Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ...

In 1936, the Library collection was transferred from the control of the Department of Defense to the Public Health Service of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and renamed the National Library of Medicine. The Library moved to its current quarters in Bethesda, Maryland, on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in 1962. The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ... The United States Public Health Service was founded first by President John Adams as a loose network of hospitals to support the health of American seamen. ... The United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (also known as HEW) was a cabinet level department of the United States government from 1953 until 1979. ... Panoramic view of downtown Bethesda Bethesda is an urbanized, but unincorporated, area in Montgomery County, Maryland, near Washington, D.C.. It takes its name from a church located there, the Bethesda Presbyterian Church (built 1820), which in turn was named from a passage in the New Testament. ... The National Institutes of Health is an institution of the United States government which focuses on medical research. ...

External link

• Official homepage
• MEDLINE/PubMed
• MedlinePlus.gov
• ClinicalTrials.gov, developed to provide information about clinical research

To discuss medical literature, and participate in an on-line Journal Club, one may do so here:

• JournalReview.org - 'An unbiased forum for review of the medical literature', A Free On-Line Journal Club