WEBVTT

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[This tape was duplicated from a 16mm film by Colorlab for the National Library of Medicine]

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[August 2003 NLM call number HF 0239]

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[THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, and WELFARE Public Health Service PRESENTS]

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[THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE]

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[Produced by PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE AUDIOVISUAL FACILITY]

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[Front of the NLM building is shown.]

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[DECEMBER 14, 1961]

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[Narrator:] Dedication day for the new National Library of Medicine building in Bethesda, Maryland.

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The library's Board of Regents and many distinguished guests arrive.

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Doctors from the United States and other nations.

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Ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps.

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Congressmen, senators, military, and civilian leaders.

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[Dr. Worth B. Daniels Chairman, Board of Regents National Library of Medicine]

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[Dr. Daniels:] Today we come together to dedicate

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a great new facility for the greatest medical library in the world,

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the National Library of Medicine.

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[ABRAHAM RIBICOFF Secretary, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare]

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[Dr. Ribicoff:] One hundred and twenty-five years ago as one of his last official acts,

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Dr. Joseph Lovell, Surgeon General of the United States,

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authorized a budget item which called for

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one hundred and fifty dollars for medical books.

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Thus simply and modestly began the amassing of the great collection

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which is today the National Library of Medicine.

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This country owes a great debt to Dr. Lovell

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and the generations of Army officers who followed him,

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for their vision and perseverance.

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[Senator LISTER HILL]

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[Senator Hill:] To you who are the guardians of this knowledge

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which has been accumulated over the centuries,

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and to you whose proud task it will be

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to preserve and enshrine the advances of tomorrow.

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We at this hour

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turn over this magnificent building,

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which will be a repository of ancient truths

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and future discovery.

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[Narrator:] This is an important day in the history of the National Library of Medicine.

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The building is new, but the institution

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and its tradition of service are more than

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125 years old.

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The library is a tribute to those whose foresight

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and years of work led to this realization of an ideal.

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To men such as Robert Fletcher: surgeon, avid cataloger and bibliographer.

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Fielding H. Garrison: doctor of medicine,

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dedicated librarian and historian.

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And Dr. John Shaw Billings.

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Without a doubt the library's greatest debt is to Dr. Billings.

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As a commissioned medical officer during the Civil War,

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he was assigned to the Surgeon General's Office in Washington in 1864.

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Under his charge, the small library of the Surgeon General

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grew from the 1,365 volumes listed in the 1864 catalogue

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to some 117,000 books and 152,000 pamphlets.

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To house the collections, he planned a new building

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that was erected on the mall in Washington.

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In this building the library was opened to the public

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in 1888.

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In 1876, Dr. Billings published a specimen fasciculus

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to illustrate his design for the world-famous

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Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office.

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Typical of his vision was the name he chose for the collection:

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The National Medical Library.

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The monumental task of compiling and publishing

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the Index Catalogue began in 1880

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and continued until a total of three million author-subject references

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had been published by the library in 61 volumes and five series.

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[The camera pans down a shelf holding a set of volumes.]

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Starting in 1950, to keep pace with current acquisitions,

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the Index Catalogue was replaced by a monthly journal index

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and an annual catalogue of books.

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Quinquennial cumulations of the annual catalogue

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are published in several volumes.

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Another contribution of Dr. Billings was the Index Medicus.

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Prepared with the help of Dr. Fletcher,

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this was a monthly bibliographic key to current medical literature.

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Today's Index Medicus lists over 12,000 articles each month

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by author and subject.

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The literature is published in some 30 languages.

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John Shaw Billings' contributions to the world of medical science were immense.

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Certainly one of his greatest legacies was the institution

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given formal statutory base in 1956.

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In that year Senators Hill and Kennedy initiated legislation

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that became the National Library of Medicine Act,

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under which authority the jurisdiction over the library

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was transferred from the military to the Public Health Service.

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In 1961, this reading room had been in use for 73 years.

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The collection of a few hundred volumes had grown to 1,100,000

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books, serials, and pamphlets,

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and was increasing by 80,000 items annually.

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The old red brick building had served its purpose well,

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and far beyond the original requirements.

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[Stacks are shown, along with staff at work in the library.]

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While leave-taking was filled with nostalgia

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and fond memories for the staff and director,

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the feeling soon passed because a new building was waiting.

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A building great in size yet gracious in design,

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with the most carefully planned facilities,

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was opened for service in April 1962.

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Equipped and staffed by the United States government

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for service to all who work in the fields of medical sciences.

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Inside, old friends meet in new surroundings.

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[Users of the library are shown.]

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A welcome sight to scholars and physicians

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is the History of Medicine collection,

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consisting of hundreds of reference volumes

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for the students of medical history,

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and thousands of medical works published before 1801.

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The collection includes many early manuscripts and incunabula.

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Such as the canon of Abyssinia.

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In an Arabic manuscript.

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In a Latin manuscript.

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In a Hebrew edition of 1491.

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And in a Latin edition of 1479.

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It includes the classics of medicine.

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Galen.

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Vesalius.

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Harvey.

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And the multifold works of other men.

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The library's Board of Regents meets behind the scenes

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in the new building.

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Its duties as defined by the National Library of Medicine Act

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are to advise, consult with, and make recommendations to the Surgeon General.

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Thus the agenda of these meetings

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deal with every area of the library's service.

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First, in the tradition of the past,

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is the acquisition and exchange of books and serials,

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which constitute the literature of medicine.

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Over 200 bibliographies and publishers' lists from all nations

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are continually examined and checked for items to be ordered

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for the library in an acquisition program that covers the entire world.

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This results in the arrival of hundreds of items each day.

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The pieces received are sorted,

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checked in,

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and arranged for delivery to various work areas.

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In the catalogue section,

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entry forms and subject headings are selected

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and books are classified.

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Cataloging records are typed on mats for the reproduction of cards.

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Many of the cards are destined for use in the public catalogue,

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under main entry, and subject entry.

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Other copies of the cards will be used for the published catalogue.

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To provide a bridge from the catalogue records

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to the actual volume on the shelves,

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a call number is lettered on each volume.

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The binding section provides for the binding of pamphlets

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and repair of volumes, and arranges for the necessary binding

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of journals and monographs outside the library.

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Another item on the Board of Regents' agenda

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is a continuing study of the mechanization of indexing of journals.

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High-speed automated equipment helps the library's indexers

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provide 150,000 current references annually.

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Daily, about 60 medical journals

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containing some 800 articles

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are delivered to the indexers who compile the information

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to be printed in the Index Medicus.

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To assist in this work, a dictionary file is maintained

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to record the new drug, chemical, medical, and foreign language terms

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that cannot be found in published dictionaries and reference books.

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The indexers assign subject headings

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and translate foreign language titles.

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The assigned subject headings are converted into numerical equivalents.

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Then with perforated tapes and keypunch equipment,

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a million cards a year are punched,

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automatically typed,

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sorted,

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combined,

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collated,

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and matched.

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These cards provide the author and subject listings

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to be photographed for offset reproduction

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in the monthly Index Medicus,

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yearly cumulated Index Medicus,

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and the Bibliography of Medical Reviews.

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But daily the volume of scientific literature is increasing,

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and the total articles to be indexed

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may soon exceed 180,000 annually.

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To meet the challenge of increased volume,

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workflow patterns are rearranged and refined

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as new business machines are acquired.

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Eventually, fully automated systems will provide

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for the storage of information on magnetic tapes

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from which bibliographies can be furnished on demand.

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This application of automation as conceived by the library is known as MEDLARS:

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Medical literature analysis and retrieval system.

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Acquisition, cataloging, and indexing are the means

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to a common objective:

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building the collections and providing the keys necessary

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for their exploitation.

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As the library's collections move into the second million,

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every effort is made to meet the world-wide demand

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for the use of this accumulated knowledge.

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Each year thousands of reference questions are received and answered.

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They come by phone...

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and by mail from every continent.

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Doctors, scientists, and writers

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also bring their questions in person.

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This requires an active reference service.

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Whether the request is routine or unusual,

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the information is supplied when the need is authentic,

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and local sources are limited.

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Information on dental education in Japan

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is selected for a doctor in California.

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Bibliographies are prepared to answer some requests.

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A list of references on narcotic addiction for a physician in Gaza.

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A bibliography on planning a small hospital for a doctor in Africa.

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In some instances, the library strives to anticipate demand

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by preparing comprehensive bibliographies

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which are duplicated and distributed.

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The library's international acquisition program

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and its use of modern methods to extend the record

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of its indexing and cataloging operations

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naturally prompt loan requests for source materials.

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The information on its 45 miles of shelves

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is freely available to all workers in the medical sciences

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through their local libraries, including...

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monographs,

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journals,

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theses,

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pamphlets,

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early books,

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manuscript materials,

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and a picture collection

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on medical subjects, portraits, and caricatures.

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All this material is available for use

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by those who come to the library in person.

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It is also available by mail on inter-library loan.

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The requests increase daily,

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and to keep pace with them requires methods

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that are modern, fast, and precise.

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The information requested is photographed

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with mobile cameras located in the stack areas.

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Total requests for material number over 125,000 per year,

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and this means that a new request must be handled

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every minute of every working day.

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Any library may participate.

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The mechanics are simple and efficient.

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In a library in Georgia, a doctor needs certain scientific information.

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The local librarian has determined that some of this material

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is not in her collection and suggests he may wish

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to have it requested from the National Library of Medicine.

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Mailed to the National Library of Medicine,

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the request becomes part of the 500 received daily.

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The requests are sorted and taken to the stack areas,

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where the volumes are kept.

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The material is taken off the shelves

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and carried to nearby photocopying stations.

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The information requested is photographed on film

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with the mobile camera, and a print is made

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in approximately the size of the original.

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In this manner, well over two million pages of photoprints

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are sent to borrowing libraries each year.

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The average order is received, sorted, processed,

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and forwarded within one week.

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A Board of Regents meeting may range from acquisitions to xerography.

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Usually it will include a discussion of recruitment policies,

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personnel, and training programs:

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training programs such as the one for library interns.

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These are some of the recent graduates of American library schools

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who have been selected from among many applicants.

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After a year of rotating assignments and seminar discussions,

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some will remain at the library,

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and some will accept positions in other libraries.

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This is one part of a recruitment program

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that seeks the highest type of employee.

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The library's staff necessarily must be qualified

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in many different types of work.

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The combined knowledge and ability of the staff,

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together with modern methods,

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furthers the vast undertaking

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begun in the distant past.

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All of these people are the mind, the heart,

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and the strength of the library.

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The National Library of Medicine will continue to acquire, maintain,

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and make available the finest and most complete collection

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of medical literature and reference material possible,

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and to serve all who work in the field of medicine.

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[Directed by: Wilmer H. Kimberly  Technical Advisors: M. Ruth MacDonald]

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[THE END M-523]