Category : Various Text files
Archive   : NLM-INFO.ZIP
Filename : NLM.TXT

 
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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

January 1994

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the world's largest research
library in a single scientific and professional field. The Library
collects materials exhaustively in all major areas of the health
sciences and to a lesser degree in such areas as chemistry, physics,
botany and zoology. The collections today stand at 5 million
items_books, journals, technical reports, manuscripts, microfilms, and
pictorial materials. Housed within the Library is one of the world's
finest medical history collections of old (pre-1914) and rare medical
texts, manuscripts, and incunabula.

The Library's extensive collections and information services may be used
by health professionals and health-science students. Books and journals
may be consulted in the reading room; they may also be requested on
interlibrary loan. Medical audiovisual materials may be viewed in the
Library's Learning Resource Center and may be borrowed on interlibrary
loan. There is a fee for all interlibrary loan transactions.

NLM serves as a national resource for all U.S. health science libraries.
Lending and other services are provided through a National Network of
Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM_) consisting of 3800 "primary access"
libraries (mostly at hospitals), 125 Resource Libraries (at medical
schools), 8 Regional Libraries (covering all geographic regions of the
U.S.), and the NLM itself as a national resource for the entire Network.
More than 2.5 million interlibrary loan requests are filled each year
within this Network.

The Library occupies two buildings on the National Institutes of Health
campus: the National Library of Medicine building (1962) contains the
collection, reading rooms, and public services; the adjacent 10-story
Lister Hill Center Building (1980) contains NLM's computer facility, an
auditorium, research and development laboratories, the Toxicology
Information Program, and the Extramural Program (grants). The two
buildings total some 432,000 square feet.

MEDLARS_

The Library's computer-based Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval
System (MEDLARS) was established to achieve rapid bibliographic access
to NLM's vast store of biomedical information. Historically, it was a
pioneering effort to use the emerging computer technology of the early
1960s for the production of bibliographic publications and for
conducting individualized searches of the literature for health
professionals. MEDLARS continues to be used for preparing and
photocomposing bibliographic publications. Index Medicus__the monthly
subject/author guide to articles in 3,000 journals_is the most well
known of these but dozens of other specialized medical bibliographies
are produced as well. (A complete list of NLM publications is
available.) Today, through communications networks, MEDLARS search
services are available online to individuals and institutions throughout
the world.

Over the years of its evolution, MEDLARS has come to represent a family
of databases of which the MEDLINE_ database is the most well known.
Essentially Index Medicus online, MEDLINE enables individuals and
organizations with computer terminals to query the NLM computer's store
of journal article references on specific topics. MEDLINE currently
contains seven million references going back to 1966.

Besides MEDLINE, which became operational in 1971, NLM now has some 40
other databases_for cataloging and serials information, toxicological
and chemical data, information on audiovisual materials, and information
on cancer and other specialized areas of health and disease.

All of the MEDLARS databases are available through NLM's online network
of more than 70,000 institutions and individuals in the United States.
They performed some 6 million searches in 1993. User fees are charged
by NLM to recover the full costs of providing access to the system. The
availability of the user-friendly microcomputer-based access software,
GRATEFUL MED_, has resulted in an upsurge of individual health
professionals joining the NLM network. Access to the MEDLINE database
is also available through four commercial networks and on CD-ROM from
several private companies.

Research and Development

The Library's research and development is carried out by the Lister Hill
National Center for Biomedical Communications and the National Center
for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The former, named after the late
Senator from Alabama, explores the uses of computer, communication, and
audiovisual technologies to improve the organization, dissemination, and
utilization of biomedical information. The Center was established in
1968 and reorganized in 1983 to include the functions of NLM's National
Medical Audiovisual Center.

The Lister Hill Center (LHC) played a lead role in developing the
MEDLARS online retrieval system in the late sixties and since then has
conducted a number of valuable communications experiments using NASA
satellites, microwave and cable television, and computer-assisted
instruction. Currently the Center is investigating the potential of
optical videodisc technology for document preservation, storage, and
retrieval. Computer-based "Expert" systems that will make available to
practitioners the knowledge of highly trained specialists have been
devised in several medical fields. Another program seeks to create, in
complete anatomical detail, three-dimensional representations of the
male and female human body. This will result in a very large digital
image library of volumetric data. "The Learning Center," a facility that
makes available for on-site review the latest hardware and software in
health sciences education, has been opened within the Lister Hill
Center.

The Library's newest component, the National Center for Biotechnology
Information, has assumed a leadership role in developing information
services for biotechnology_the task of storing and making accessible the
staggering amounts of data about the human genome resulting from genetic
research at the NIH and laboratories around the nation.

Established by Congress in 1988, NCBI is a recognized leader in basic
research in computational molecular biology. The Center is also
responsible for developing innovative computer solutions for the
management and dissemination of the rapidly growing volume of genome
information. In October, 1992, the NCBI began distributing GenBank_, a
collection of all known DNA sequences.

Toxicology Information Program

The Toxicology Information Program (TIP) was established at NLM in 1967
to provide national access to information on toxicology. The program is
charged with setting up computerized databases of information from the
literature of toxicology and from the files of both governmental and
nongovernmental collaborating organizations.

Among the databases developed by TIP are TOXLINE_ (Toxicology
Information Online) and CHEMLINE_, and CHEMID_. The latter two are
chemical directory files. TIP also implemented the TOXNET_ (Toxicology
Data Network) system of 12 toxicologically oriented data banks,
including the HSDB_ (Hazardous Substances Data Bank), useful in chemical
emergency response and other applications. TIP also supports the
Toxicology Information Response Center_, which provides reference
services to the scientific community.

Grant Programs

The Extramural Programs Division of NLM provides a broad variety of
grants to support research and development activities leading to the
better management, dissemination, and use of biomedical knowledge.
These support activities represent the only Federal assistance programs
focusing on information issues that concern the entire health community.
Grants are available to support research in medical informatics, health
information science, and biotechnology information, as well as for
research training in these areas. Network planning and development
grants support computer and communication systems in medical centers and
health institutions, and the study of new opportunities with high-speed
computer networks in the health sciences. Health science library
resource grants assist in improving information access and services for
health professionals. Research and publications in the history of
medicine and the life sciences are also supported with grants, as are a
variety of scientific publication and communication activities needed by
the health science community.

Statistical Profile of NLM

(September 30, 1993)

Collection (book and nonbook) - 4,969,000

Appropriation (FY 1991) - $103,613,000

Staff (full-time equivalents) - 596

Serial titles received - 22,397

Articles indexed (all databases) - 376,000

Journals indexed (for Index Medicus) - 3,058

Titles cataloged - 21,835

Budget for buying publications - $4,129,000

Circulation requests filled - 401,000
For interlibrary loan - 220,000
For readers - 181,000

Computerized searches (all databases) - 5,964,000

Grant awards (new and renewal) - 109

Amount obligated for grants - $26,459,000


Information for Visitors

Address:
The National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894

Note: NLM is conveniently served by the Metrorail rapid transit system.
The Library is 300 yards south of the Medical Center stop on the "Red
Line."

Telephone: 1-800-272-4787 (health professional inquiries)
(301) 496-6308 (public information)

Hours: Reading Room

Monday and Friday 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Tuesday-Thursday 8:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m.-12.30 p.m.

Summer hours

Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:30 a.m.-12.30 p.m.

History of Medicine

Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Tours: Monday-Friday 1 p.m.

Visitors Center (Lobby of Building 38A_The Lister Hill Center). Call
(301) 496-6308 or write to the Public Information Office to make
arrangements for groups.

Further Information

For more information about any of the programs described in this Fact
Sheet, write to the Public Information Office, National Library of
Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894,
(e-mail [email protected]).


  3 Responses to “Category : Various Text files
Archive   : NLM-INFO.ZIP
Filename : NLM.TXT

  1. Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!

  2. This is so awesome! 😀 I’d be cool if you could download an entire archive of this at once, though.

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