NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

The National Library of Medicine was originally established 150 years ago, in 1836, as the Library of the Army Surgeon General's Office. Perhaps the key event in the library's history occurred in 1865, when Dr. John Shaw Billings became director. For the next 30 years he worked tirelessly to expand the library's holdings and open it as a source of biomedical information for all physicians.

Left: Computer model of a DNA molecule. Courtesy of the Division of Computer Research and Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

[Preface from the Director]

The wealth of new medical information issuing from research centers around the world cannot be used to improve our health and cure disease unless it is made available rapidly to the entire health science community. The astonishingly varied services of the National Library of Medicine are indispensible in this task.

Modern computer and communications technologies today routinely assist in providing vitally needed medical information. Systems now being developed by the Library will expand such information dissemination capabilities dramatically in the years to come.

I believe that the National Library of Medicine -- with its past accomplishments, present services, and future promise -- is an institution in which we all can take pride.

Donald A. B. Lindberg, M.D.
Director
National Library of Medicine

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History of Medicine exhibits

NLM HyperDOC / NLM Sesquicentennial / August 1994