Mehnert R B
Am J Hosp Pharm. 1986 Dec;43(12):2991-7.
The origins, history, current collections and services, and projected future services of the U.S. National Library of Medicine are described, and the seminal figure in its development is profiled. The library, now located on the campus of the National Institutes of Health, was founded in 1836 as the Library of the Army Surgeon General's Office. The current facility holds more than 3.5 million items and offers innovative information services to health-care professionals worldwide. The leading figure in the library's development was Army physician John Shaw Billings, whose accomplishments included the international expansion and bibliographic organization of the holdings and creation of the Index Medicus and Index-Catalogue. The computerized services offered by the library include the MEDLINE database, which is based on Index Medicus, and pharmacy-related databases. Health-care practitioners can gain access to the library's resources through the Regional Medical Library Network. Among projects under development at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications are microcomputer and optical disk technologies, the preservation of paper collections, and a unified medical language system. The U.S. National Library of Medicine has served the health-care community for 150 years; many services in the area of biomedical communications are available to pharmacists and other practitioners through the library and the Regional Medical Library Network.
本文介绍了美国国立医学图书馆的起源、历史、现有馆藏与服务以及未来的服务规划，并对其发展过程中的关键人物进行了简要介绍。该图书馆现位于国立卫生研究院校园内，始建于1836年，最初是陆军军医总署办公室图书馆。目前的馆舍拥有超过350万件藏品，并为全球医疗保健专业人员提供创新的信息服务。图书馆发展过程中的核心人物是陆军医生约翰·肖·比林斯，他的成就包括馆藏的国际拓展与书目整理、《医学索引》和《索引目录》的创建。图书馆提供的计算机化服务包括基于《医学索引》的MEDLINE数据库以及与药学相关的数据库。医疗保健从业者可通过区域医学图书馆网络获取该图书馆的资源。在利斯特山国家生物医学通信中心正在开展的项目中，包括微型计算机和光盘技术、纸质馆藏的保存以及统一医学语言系统。美国国立医学图书馆已为医疗保健界服务了150年；药剂师和其他从业者可通过该图书馆及区域医学图书馆网络获得生物医学通信领域的许多服务。
