English: This 1999 photograph depicted the National Library of Medicine (NLM), located on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. It is the world’s largest medical library, collecting materials, and providing information and research services in all areas of biomedicine and health care.

The NLM’s MedlinePlus™ online database, can help consumers find information on health topics of all kinds, including diseases, wellness, hospitals, physicians, and pharmaceuticals. NLM also coordinates the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, which provides health care professionals and the public equal access to biomedical and health care information resources.

In the field of public health, the NLM provides access to the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, a public health portal web site. ClinicalTrials.gov offers information for patients and health care workers about clinical research studies. The addresses to both web sites and much more are available through the NLM’s web site, which is linked below.

The medical cataloging descriptors known as the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database, was developed by NLM. It is available for downloading, and use through the NLM site. MeSH is updated weekly by its staff of subject matter experts.