FAQ - Digital Collections - National Library of Medicine

Are all historical digitized resources available in the NLM Digital Collections?
What type of software was used to build the Digital Collections?
Do the resources have permanent URLs?
Are the resources copyrighted?
Do I need to download any plug-ins to view the resources?

Are all historical digitized resources available in the NLM Digital Collections?

The NLM Digital Collections include Print Materials, Still Images, Films and Videos, and Maps from the History of Medicine Division. You may access additional Digital Collections and resources at Online Exhibitions and Digital Projects.

What type of software was used to build the Digital Collections?

The NLM Digital Collections repository was built using software developed by NLM, open source software, and commercial plug-ins for the front-end access and back-end storage. The software includes:

Fedora Repository Software
Blacklight, a "front-end" for Fedora, developed by the University of Virginia Library
Universal Viewer, a IIIF-compliant Book Viewer
VideoJS, a HTML5 Video Player
Loris, a IIIF-compliant Image Server
OpenSeaDragon, a IIIF-compliant Image Viewer

See Development of a Digital Repository for NLM Digitized Collections and Born-Digital Resources for additional information on the development of functional requirements and the selection of digital repository software for this project.

Do the resources have permanent URLs?

Every resource has a permanent URL which includes the NLM Unique Identifier (NLM UID). The base of the permanent URL is "http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/" and the NLM UI is appended to the end of the URL. For example, the link for the video "Dental health (1945)" is http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101306230. The permanent URLs will always redirect to the URL of the object's Resource Record page.

Are the resources copyrighted?

All content in Digital Collections is freely available to view using the built-in Book Viewer, Image Viewer and Video Player. Unless otherwise indicated, all content is in the public domain. Additional information about copyright and fair use of NLM materials is available at NLM Copyright Information and Historical Collections Copyright Information.

Do I need to download any plug-ins to view the resources?

No, our resources should be viewable through your browser without plug-ins. If accessing legacy software in the collection, you may wish to download DOSBox or other DOS emulator software.