NLM® Factoids: Did you know that NLM…?

 

Title: NLM® Factoids: Did you know that NLM®…?

Summary: Interesting facts about the National Library of Medicine®.

More than 1,000 people work at NLM, including librarians, chemists, biologists, mathematicians, computer scientists, attorneys, physicians, nurses, journalists, historians, and others.

I like to find out new and interesting facts. Do you? Do you know what President John F. Kennedy, HDTV, Electronic Health Records, and missing persons have in common? They all relate to my library, the National Library of Medicine.

• While a Senator, John F. Kennedy was one of the congressmen who initiated legislation to establish the NLM. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed that legislation into law.
• To withstand a bomb, the NLM Roof would collapse and seal the underground floors. The roof would preserve medical history from ancient times to the time of the attack.
• High-Definition Television (HDTV) is not new! NLM was one of the first institutions to use HDTV for biomedical imaging:

“High Definition Television (HDTV) is a development area being explored that represents the future for improved electronic image quality” (NLM Programs & Services, 1994).

• Did you know that the NLM is a major contributor to the Electronic Health Records arena, especially in terminology and coding?
• NLM has developed two missing persons Web and mobile applications. One is the Haiti Earthquake People Locator (HEPL) system.
• NLM is a major participant in the NIH Public Access Policy, which provides free access to taxpayer-funded medical research.

These and more interesting facts are available at the NLM Web site. You can find some of them at http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/175/milestones.cfm, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/briefhistory.html, and http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/legislation.html .

 

ACTION: Share interesting facts about your library.

Source Cited:

NLM Programs & Services,  Fiscal Year 1994 [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US);1995 [cited 2011 Jul 20]. Available from:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/manuscripts/nlmarchives/annualreport/1994.pdf (NIH publication; no. 95-256).

Photo Credit: Picture of the National Library of Medicine, National Library of Medicine

 

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August 31, 2011  Tags: Dwight D. Eisenhower, electronic health records, factoids, facts, HDTV, John F. Kennedy, missing persons, NIH Public Access Policy, roof  Posted in: NLM History

One Response to “NLM® Factoids: Did you know that NLM…?”

1. NLM® Factoids: Did you know that the Bational Library of Medicine (NLM)…? « PHX-MedLib: the AHSL-Phoenix Weblog says:

   August 31, 2011 at 3:34 pm

   [...] http://blog.citizen.apps.gov/ReferencePoint/2011/08/31/nlm%C2%AE-factoids-did-you-know-that-nlm%C2%A... Like this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]

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