National Library of Medicine

National Library of Medicine, located in Bethesda, Md., the central source of medical data in the U.S. Founded in 1836, the library houses an enormous collection of information in medicine, health sciences, dentistry, public health, nursing, and biomedical research. It maintains subscriptions to 25,000 journals and serials. In l956 the library became a part of the National Institute of Health of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now Health and Human Services).