The National Library of Medicine and Drug Information. Part 2: An Evolving Future
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James E. Knoben, PbarmD, MPH Director, Drug Information Officer, and Special Assistant to the Associate Director, Specialized Information Services Steven J. Pbilllps, MD Former Assistant Director for Research and Education
Jack W. Snyder, MD, PhD Associate Director. Specialized Information Services
Martba R. Srcrur, MS Deputy Associate Director, Specialized Information Services National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Key Words Drug information; National Library of Medicine; Internet Correspondence Address James E. Knoben, PharmD, M P H . National Library of Medicine, 6707 Democracy Blvd., Suite 510,Bethesda, MD 20892-5467 (e-mail: [email protected]). "'The National Library of Medicine and Drug Information. Part I : Present Resources," was published in !he previous issue of the Drug Information journal.
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The National Library of Medicine and Drug Information. Part 2: An Evolving Future* The National Library of Medicine (NLM) began in 1836 as a small collection of books in the office of the Army Surgeon General. Today, the NLM is the world> largest medical library, providing access to its vast collection of seven million items onsite and through the World Wide Web. Historical interest in drug information dates to 1967 when Congress provided finds for a Drug Literature Program at the NLM. Drug information is now dispersed among a number of NLM bibliographicand factual databases that offer an away of clinical, research, and tawicdogical drug data. Target audiences for drug information include consumers, pa-
INTRODUCTION The National Library of Medicine (NLM), the worlds largest medical library, is a leader in the selection, acquisition, organization, and provision of medically-related literature and data. The NLM is perhaps best known for its bibliographic database MEDLINE. In addition, it offers a vast collection of bibliographic and factual databases, an array of historical, audiovisual, and print materials and, organizationally, includes two biomedical/biotechnology information research centers (Table l).Its collections are freely available to users onsite (eg, print and audiovisual materials), or accessible on a global scale through the Internet. Users do not need to register to access the NLMS electronic databases. The NLM has evolved somewhat unevenly over the past 40 years in terms of its focus on drug information. In the mid-1960s a Drug Literature Program was created at the NLM, but it was disbanded within a few years. Since that time, drug information has appeared in various venues and is presently dispersed among several bibliographic and factual databases. Those databases
tients, healthcare practitioners, clinical researchers, and scientists. Drug development and medical publishinghave both acceleratedto such an extent that it is virtually impossiblefor healthcarepractitioners and researchers to keep apprised of cuwent information. h e to wide utilization for posting medically-related data, the Internet is discussed in terms of its impact on medical li
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