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NLM Legislative Chronology

Photo of US Senate Chamber, courtesy of US Senate collection

August 3, 1956 An amendment to Title III of the Public Health Service Act, the National Library of Medicine Act, places the Armed Forces Medical Library under the PHS, and renames it the National Library of Medicine (Public Law 84-941).

October 22, 1965 The Medical Library Assistance Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-291) is signed into law, authorizing NLM's extramural programs of grant assistance to help expand and improve the nation's medical library and health communications resources, technology, and professional staff for service to the health community.

August 3, 1968 Public Law 90-456 authorizes the designation of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications.

November 4, 1988 Public Law 100-607 authorizes the establishment of the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the NLM.

June 10, 1993 Public Law 103-43 authorizes the establishment of the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) at NLM and a grant program for educational technologies.

November 21, 1997 The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act (Public Law 105-115) calls for the creation of the centralized, consumer-friendly online listing of clinical trials of drugs for serious and life-threatening conditions that would become ClinicalTrials.gov.

September 27, 2007 The Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act (Public Law 110-85) expands ClinicalTrials.gov to serve as a public registry of applicable clinical trials of drugs, biological products, and devices and to include summary trial results information, including adverse events.