Abstract
Transforming Biomedical informatics and Health Information Access: Don Lindberg and the U.S. National Library of Medicine is a newly published book from IOS Press [1]. It chronicles the extraordinary accomplishments of Donald A.B. Lindberg M.D. his NLM team, and the many external partnerships he encouraged. During 1984–2015, a consequential period in the library’s history, Lindberg and colleagues generated far-ranging effects both in and outside NLM. Dr. Lindberg died in 2019. It was my privilege to serve on his NLM team and co-edit this tribute volume.
Selected portions of the book were first co-published in 2021 as a special issue of Information Services and Use (ISU), Volume 41, Numbers 3–4. Those eleven papers edited by Elliot R. Siegel Ph.D. present stories of ‘Don Lindberg’s Outreach Legacy’ and recount notable examples of his efforts to improve access to health information by everyone, including underserved and disadvantaged minority populations. Thirteen papers that comprise the ‘Informatics’ section of the book, edited by Randolph A. Miller M.D, were co-published as the second special issue in ISU, Volume 42, Number 1. They document the extraordinary transformations in biomedical informatics that Don Lindberg and his teams accomplished. The people behind the transformations were not solely informaticians. Libraries and librarians were often in the forefront, enabling and promoting necessary institutional changes to take hold and flourish.
The third and final special issue published here in ISU, Volume 42, Number 2, contains eight papers describing ‘The Multiple Dimensions of Expanded Access to Health Information’. They were edited by Betsy L. Humphreys M.L.S. and recount how Dr. Lindberg moved NLM to provide free worldwide service to scientists, health professionals, and the public, and his impact on scholarly communication and new roles for librarians. We see the transition of Medline and related NLM databases from an information service primarily for librarians, in which 2.8 million searches were conducted in 1984, to a diverse suite of electronic resources serving millions of users spanning all the health sectors and the public, who conducted billions of free searches in 2015, the year of Dr. Lindberg’s retirement. We witness not only the technical advances that made this transformation possible, but also Lindberg’s astute attention to policy issues and his leadership that garnered the help needed from political supporters and influential advocates. A fourth section of the Lindberg Book contains memoirs from family and friends. It was edited by Robert A. Logan Ph.D., and we include here in this special issue a paper by Dr. Logan that offers an unusual glimpse into Don Lindberg’s home library as reflective of his varied interests, and a window on his character and leadership traits.
Elliot R. Siegel
Editor-in-Chief
Information Services and Use