United States National Library of Medicine

The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM; German National Library of Medicine ) in Bethesda (Maryland) is the world's largest medical library. Its inventory includes more than seven million volumes and includes books, journals, technical reports, manuscripts, microfilms, photographs and images.

Since 1879, the NLM publishes the Index Medicus, the last printed edition was published in December 2004. Since 1966 there is an electronic version of Index Medicus, the medical bibliographic database MEDLINE, which is freely accessible via PubMed.

The library was founded in 1836 as the Library of the Surgeon General's Office of the General Staff physician ( Surgeon General of the United States Army ). It is located since 1962 on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.

1967, " Toxicology and Environmental Health Program" ( TEHIP ) was established as part of the NLM. It is concerned with the development of databases and software systems for the electronic archiving and search in the medical literature and the files of governmental and non -governmental organizations. TEHIP has developed various information systems that can be used free of charge via the Internet. Among the " Toxicology Data Network " ( TOXNET ), " TOXMAP ", " Tox Town", " Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders " ( WISER ), " Toxmystery " and the product database " Household Products Database ".

The NLM is home to the National Center for Biotechnology Information ( NCBI), whose database of biology on the Entrez Gene and " PubMed " is freely accessible. In addition, the NLM operates the world's largest clinical trial database ClinicalTrials.gov.

Head of the NLM since 1984 Donald AB Lindberg of physicians.