National Library of Medicine (NLM) Resources
NLM is the largest medical library in the world and is located in Bethesda, Maryland, on the grounds of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NLM's program areas serve public health and medical professionals, scientists, librarians, and the public. The resources below have been carefully selected from the Library's Web site for users of the Community Health Status Indicators Project (CHSI).
ClinicalTrials.gov - a registry of over 55,000 federally and privately supported clinical trials conducted in the United States and around the world, including population, prevention, and community studies supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) - a network of health science libraries and information centers throughout the United States consisting of eight Regional Medical Libraries (major institutions under contract with the National Library of Medicine), more than 159 Resource Libraries (primarily at medical schools), and some 4,762 Primary Access Libraries (primarily at hospitals). The mission of the NNLM is to advance the progress of medicine and improve the public health by providing all U.S. health professionals equal access to biomedical information and by improving the public's access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health. The NN/LM encourages health information partnerships between public libraries, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, and local health or community-based organizations.
NLM Gateway - a "one-stop shop" for searching across multiple NLM databases and resources designed for the Internet user who may not be familiar with NLM or where to start in searching through the Library's vast resources.
PubMed - the National Library of Medicine's online database of bibliographic citations from over 5,200 medical and public health journals dating from the 1940's to the present.
PubMed Central - a free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal articles at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), developed and managed by NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the National Library of Medicine (NLM).
- search PubMed for community health status indicators.
National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) - a network of health science libraries and information centers throughout the United States consisting of eight Regional Medical Libraries (major institutions under contract with the National Library of Medicine), more than 159 Resource Libraries (primarily at medical schools), and some 4,762 Primary Access Libraries (primarily at hospitals). The mission of the NNLM is to advance the progress of medicine and improve the public health by providing all U.S. health professionals equal access to biomedical information and by improving the public's access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health. The NN/LM encourages health information partnerships between public libraries, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, and local health or community-based organizations.
NLM Gateway - a "one-stop shop" for searching across multiple NLM databases and resources designed for the Internet user who may not be familiar with NLM or where to start in searching through the Library's vast resources.
PubMed - the National Library of Medicine's online database of bibliographic citations from over 5,200 medical and public health journals dating from the 1940's to the present.
PubMed Central - a free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal articles at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), developed and managed by NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the National Library of Medicine (NLM).
- search PubMed for community health status indicators.
MedlinePlus - the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) free, up-to-date, consumer health Web site. Hundreds of links to trusted sources of health information have been selected to help consumers understand more about healthy living and patients understand more about their health conditions and diseases. Available in both English and Spanish, MedlinePlus is organized into:
- Health Topics
- Drug and Supplements
- Interactive Tutorials
- Current News
- Medical Encyclopedia
- Directories for finding doctors, dentists, and hospitals
For links to local state and community resources, MedlinePlus has a special section called GoLocal described below.
MedlinePlus GoLocal - a special component of MedlinePlus developed through partnerships with local libraries to link citizens to health and social services within their geographic areas. GoLocal can be searched through interactive state maps at the county level; by Providers, Facilities or Services within a state or specific locale; by state or local services for Disease and Health Issues; or links to MedlinePlus for specific health topics and information described above.
NIH MedlinePlus Magazine - a free quarterly guide for patients and family members to current health information from experts and research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. government's central focal point for biomedical research funding.
Tox Mystery - the National Library of Medicine's Interactive Children's Game designed for kids ages 7 to 10. With lively animations, surprising sound effects and lots of positive reinforcement, ToxMystery provides a fun, game-like experience, while teaching important lessons about potential environmental health hazards.
Tox Town - an interactive graphic guide that introduces environmental health concerns such as drinking water and air quality and descriptions of over 30 toxic chemicals that might be encountered in everyday life. Tox Town has 5 imaginary neighborhoods - City, Farm, Town, U.S.-Mexico Border, and Port. Each neighborhood has a list of locations featured in that specific neighborhood, e.g., School and Hospital are located in City. Tox Town uses sounds, animation, and other special features to convey connections between chemicals, the environment, and the public's health. Designed for high school and college students, there are special resources for teachers and classroom activities. Tox Town has a Spanish-language version.
MedlinePlus GoLocal - a special component of MedlinePlus developed through partnerships with local libraries to link citizens to health and social services within their geographic areas. GoLocal can be searched through interactive state maps at the county level; by Providers, Facilities or Services within a state or specific locale; by state or local services for Disease and Health Issues; or links to MedlinePlus for specific health topics and information described above.
NIH MedlinePlus Magazine - a free quarterly guide for patients and family members to current health information from experts and research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. government's central focal point for biomedical research funding.
Tox Mystery - the National Library of Medicine's Interactive Children's Game designed for kids ages 7 to 10. With lively animations, surprising sound effects and lots of positive reinforcement, ToxMystery provides a fun, game-like experience, while teaching important lessons about potential environmental health hazards.
Tox Town - an interactive graphic guide that introduces environmental health concerns such as drinking water and air quality and descriptions of over 30 toxic chemicals that might be encountered in everyday life. Tox Town has 5 imaginary neighborhoods - City, Farm, Town, U.S.-Mexico Border, and Port. Each neighborhood has a list of locations featured in that specific neighborhood, e.g., School and Hospital are located in City. Tox Town uses sounds, animation, and other special features to convey connections between chemicals, the environment, and the public's health. Designed for high school and college students, there are special resources for teachers and classroom activities. Tox Town has a Spanish-language version.
Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC)
- a new program based at NLM to help prepare, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the adverse health effects of disasters in conjunction with Federal, State, local government, private organizations, and local communities. DIMRC will focus its efforts on providing disaster health information resources and informatics research that will be directly beneficial for public health officials, healthcare providers, special populations, and the public.
Enviro-health Links - links to Internet resources on toxicology and environmental health issues of recent special interest selected from both NLM and outside sources.
Environmental Health and Toxicology - a portal that links to important and unique information and data resources including: Toxnet, a cluster of databases covering toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health and related areas; ToxSeek,a meta-search and clustering engine; Tox Town, an interactive guide to potentially toxic substances and environmental health issues in everyday places.
Healthy People 2010 Information Access Project (HP2010 IAP) - a Web resource developed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) with help from subject experts and public health librarians that provides special pre-formulated PubMed searches for selected HP2010 objectives.The purpose of HP2010 IAP is to make it easier for the public health workforce to quickly find current information from published and evidence-based literature for achieving HP2010 public health objectives.
HSRProj (Health Services Research Projects in Progress) - descriptions of current, ongoing research projects supported via grants and contracts awarded by major public and private funding agencies and foundations; includes demographic characteristics of the study population, sources of project data, and study design and methodology.
HSRR (Health Services/Sciences Research Resources) - a searchable database of descriptions of research datasets, instruments/indices and software used in public health, health services research, and the behavioral sciences. The purpose of HSRR is to help researchers identify what datasets already exist on particular topics, available questionnaires and instruments used in data collection, and software used to collect, analyze, and manipulate data. A special subset of these records has been identified as being useful for conducting Public Health Systems Research (PHSR) - defined as research on public health organization, delivery, and workforce.
HSTAT (Health Services/Technology Assessment Text) - a searchable collection of evidence-based guidelines, including the Guide to Community Preventive Services, Prevention Enhancement and Treatment Improvement Protocols from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), recent reports from the U.S. Surgeon General's Office, and similar resources.
MEDLINE/PubMed Search and Health Disparities & Minority Health Information Resources - a collection of links to tools and resources on Health Disparities & Minority Health including a pre-formulated PubMed search on health disparities, NLM's Strategic Plan for Addressing Health Disparities, and important information and resources from selected Associations, Foundations, Research Centers, and Grants.
Outreach to Special Populations - NLM's Office of Outreach to Special Populations improves access to toxicology and environmental health information to underserved communities, health-related disaster information in Central America, HIV/AIDS information resources by community-based organizations, and health information for all minorities and underserved populations.
Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce (PIAPHW or PHPartners) - a thirteen membership collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries that works together to provide an easy way for public health workers to quickly "find and use information effectively to improve and protect the public's health." The PHPartners Web site covers:
Enviro-health Links - links to Internet resources on toxicology and environmental health issues of recent special interest selected from both NLM and outside sources.
Environmental Health and Toxicology - a portal that links to important and unique information and data resources including: Toxnet, a cluster of databases covering toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health and related areas; ToxSeek,a meta-search and clustering engine; Tox Town, an interactive guide to potentially toxic substances and environmental health issues in everyday places.
Healthy People 2010 Information Access Project (HP2010 IAP) - a Web resource developed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) with help from subject experts and public health librarians that provides special pre-formulated PubMed searches for selected HP2010 objectives.The purpose of HP2010 IAP is to make it easier for the public health workforce to quickly find current information from published and evidence-based literature for achieving HP2010 public health objectives.
HSRProj (Health Services Research Projects in Progress) - descriptions of current, ongoing research projects supported via grants and contracts awarded by major public and private funding agencies and foundations; includes demographic characteristics of the study population, sources of project data, and study design and methodology.
HSRR (Health Services/Sciences Research Resources) - a searchable database of descriptions of research datasets, instruments/indices and software used in public health, health services research, and the behavioral sciences. The purpose of HSRR is to help researchers identify what datasets already exist on particular topics, available questionnaires and instruments used in data collection, and software used to collect, analyze, and manipulate data. A special subset of these records has been identified as being useful for conducting Public Health Systems Research (PHSR) - defined as research on public health organization, delivery, and workforce.
HSTAT (Health Services/Technology Assessment Text) - a searchable collection of evidence-based guidelines, including the Guide to Community Preventive Services, Prevention Enhancement and Treatment Improvement Protocols from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), recent reports from the U.S. Surgeon General's Office, and similar resources.
MEDLINE/PubMed Search and Health Disparities & Minority Health Information Resources - a collection of links to tools and resources on Health Disparities & Minority Health including a pre-formulated PubMed search on health disparities, NLM's Strategic Plan for Addressing Health Disparities, and important information and resources from selected Associations, Foundations, Research Centers, and Grants.
Outreach to Special Populations - NLM's Office of Outreach to Special Populations improves access to toxicology and environmental health information to underserved communities, health-related disaster information in Central America, HIV/AIDS information resources by community-based organizations, and health information for all minorities and underserved populations.
Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce (PIAPHW or PHPartners) - a thirteen membership collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries that works together to provide an easy way for public health workers to quickly "find and use information effectively to improve and protect the public's health." The PHPartners Web site covers:
- Literature and Guidelines
- Health Data Tools and Statistics
- Grants and Funding
- Education and Training, including a Public Health Information and Data Tutorial & Training Manual
- Legislative and Policy Links
- Conferences and Meetings
- Job and Career Resources
- Special Topical Pages, e.g., Bioterrorism
- Other Specialized Collections, e.g., Resource Guide to Public Health Preparedness - a gateway to freely available expert guidelines, factsheets, websites, research reports, articles, and other tools aimed at the public health community; all resources in the Guide are cataloged and may be searched by keyword or browsed by topic.
Toxmap - a Geographic Information System (GIS) that uses maps of the United States to show locations where companies are releasing specific toxic chemicals, how the amount of chemical releases has changed over time, links to authoritative, scientific literature about the health effects and risks associated with these chemicals, and the ability to create custom nationwide or local area maps that show where chemicals are released into the air, water, and ground.
Getting the Most from SIS's Environmental Health and Toxicology Resources - NLM's Specialized Information Services (SIS) Division is responsible for information resources and services in toxicology, environmental health, chemistry, HIV/AIDS, and specialized topics in minority health. This page links to skill kits, searching guides, quick tours, tutorials, and training materials that introduce the science of toxicology and help direct users to the right database and improve skills in using SIS environmental and toxicology resources.
NLM Training Manuals - manuals and instruction used in NLM-sponsored training classes for PubMed, the NLM Gateway & ClinicalTrials.gov, Toxnet, the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), and introductory lectures to molecular biology resources.
Outreach Evaluation Resource Center (OERC) - developed under a contract with NLM, the OERC's mission is to help librarians and health educators and others target and measure health information outreach effectiveness. Measuring the Difference, a primer for planning and evaluating health information programs, and its three supplements can be downloaded from the OERC Web site. Links to other evaluation resources are provided as well.
PubMed Tutorial and Online Training - an interactive training program that requires two hours to fully complete but one which can also be accessed in modules or via its index for quick instruction; animated quick tours are generally three to five minutes in length and highlight commonly used PubMed features.
Science Primer - a basic introduction to the science underlying the fundamental molecular and genetic processes that control health and disease and the information technologies being developed at NLM's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) for scientific discovery. Defining and understanding the role of genetic factors in disease can help to better evaluate the role non-genetic factors-such as behavior, diet, lifestyle, and physical activity-have on disease.
NLM Training Manuals - manuals and instruction used in NLM-sponsored training classes for PubMed, the NLM Gateway & ClinicalTrials.gov, Toxnet, the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), and introductory lectures to molecular biology resources.
Outreach Evaluation Resource Center (OERC) - developed under a contract with NLM, the OERC's mission is to help librarians and health educators and others target and measure health information outreach effectiveness. Measuring the Difference, a primer for planning and evaluating health information programs, and its three supplements can be downloaded from the OERC Web site. Links to other evaluation resources are provided as well.
PubMed Tutorial and Online Training - an interactive training program that requires two hours to fully complete but one which can also be accessed in modules or via its index for quick instruction; animated quick tours are generally three to five minutes in length and highlight commonly used PubMed features.
Science Primer - a basic introduction to the science underlying the fundamental molecular and genetic processes that control health and disease and the information technologies being developed at NLM's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) for scientific discovery. Defining and understanding the role of genetic factors in disease can help to better evaluate the role non-genetic factors-such as behavior, diet, lifestyle, and physical activity-have on disease.