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User Services and Collection Division (USCD)

The Bibliographic Services Division (BSD), a part of Library Operations at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), fosters expanded access of health information to health professionals and the general public by creating MEDLINE®, the NLM premiere citation database to biomedical literature references.

The Office of the Chief supports:

The Division is composed of two Sections:

  • Index Section - creates and maintains the MEDLINE database containing citations to current articles from over 5,200 of the world's biomedical journals; coordinates the data review, indexing, and commentary content; and conducts research leading to more efficient forms of indexing and metadata application.
  • MEDLARS Management Section (MMS) - responsible for coordinating the overall development and management activities for terminology products such as the Unified Medical Language Service (UMLS), the Value Set Authority Center (VSAC), SNOMED CT, RxNorm, and the Common Data Element Repository; creates and maintains the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) vocabulary and associated MeSH tools; provides serials support for MEDLINE, PMC, Genbank and Author Manuscript titles; and provides chemical and drug information for NLM products, such as DailyMed.

Selected BSD Resources:

MEDLINE Journals and the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee

MEDLINE Policies

MEDLINE Statistics

Last Reviewed: November 13, 2023