An
International Workshop
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[ DRAFT Workshop Proceedings ] |
Case Study:
National Library of Medicine
Elliot Siegel,
PhD
Associate Director for Health Information Programs Development
The statutory mission
of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is to collect, organize, disseminate,
and preserve the world's biomedical literature. In 1988 the U.S. Congress
expanded NLM's role by creating the National Center for Biotechnology
Information (NCBI). NCBI is charged with developing databases and software
to facilitate access to a broad array of biotechnology information. Today
NLM provides a wide variety of online information resources that range
from genetic data (e.g. GenBank), to bibliographic descriptions and full
text of the biomedical literature (PubMed/Medline and PubMed Central),
and to consumer health material (e.g. Medlineplus). Over 1 million searches
are performed daily on NLM databases by researchers, health care practitioners,
and the public from around the world. The U.S. Congress, which is responsible
for overseeing NLM's operations and providing funding on an annual basis,
has strongly supported NLM's initiatives to leverage the power of the
Internet and make it resources free to all users. NLM provides access
to copyrighted material either through explicit licensing agreements or
on a fair use basis. NLM's efforts to implement and openly distribute
standards related to bibliographic format, molecular data resources, archiving
full text scientific literature, and exchange of health data have contributed
significantly to removing barriers to information sharing. Recent NIH
policy initiatives to enhance access to the results of NIH funded research
data and associated literature are further facilitating the linking of
these resources in ways that advance scientific discovery. Evaluation
activities are a strong component of NLM's dissemination programs, including
ongoing user feedback.