Join Dr. Patti Brennan, the director of the National Library of Medicine, as she introduces you to the world's largest biomedical library and talks about NLM's exciting future!

[Patricia Brennan, PhD, Director of NLM:]

Hello. I am Dr. Patti Brennan. I am the director of the National Library of Medicine.

As a nurse and an industrial engineer, I have spent my career making sure that information is available to help people make everyday health choices and to support biological and medical discoveries.

At the National Library of Medicine, we provide trusted information to scientists, to society, and to people living every day with healthcare challenges.

For over 200 years, the National Library of Medicine has been a partner in biological discovery, clinical care decision making, and healthcare choices in everyday living.

We began humbly as a small collection of books in the 1800’s and now have grown to massive genomic databanks accessible worldwide everyday by millions of people. As one of the 27 institutes and centers here at the National Institutes of Health, we have three primary missions:

First, we have researchers that develop the tools that translate health data into health information and health action.

Second, we serve society by collecting all of the world’s biological and biomedical literature making it useful to scientists through our PubMed resource and to everyday people through MedlinePlus.

Finally, we have a mission for outreach to make the National Library of Medicine’s resources accessible to everyone through our 7000 points of presence around the United States.

We make sure that the resources of the National Library of Medicine are available through public libraries, through hospital libraries, and in schools and clinics.

Making all of the resources of the National Library of Medicine available to the public requires a very large workforce. We have over 1700 women and men working here. We have librarians, computer scientists, researchers, and biological scientists.

We have individuals who understand clinical care and who understand how to educate the public. We work together to make sure we can deliver 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, trusted health information.

Thank you for visiting us today.

We hope you will join with us as we begin our third century bringing health information to scientists and society, accelerating biomedical discovery, improving healthcare, and ensuring health for all globally.

Last Reviewed: July 10, 2020