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National Library of Medicine (U.S.). Office of the Director, Donald A.B. Lindberg Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS C 627

Abstract

Donald A.B. Lindberg (1933-) is a scientist who served as the Director of the National Library of Medicine between 1984-2015. Dr. Lindberg pioneered applying computer technology to health care at the University of Missouri and has made notable contributions to information and computer activities in medical diagnosis, artificial intelligence, and educational and outreach programs.

Dates

  • 1954-2017

Extent

379.55 Linear Feet (303 boxes + 5 volumes)

Creator

Physical Location

Materials stored onsite. History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine

Language of Materials

Collection materials primarily in English

Access Restrictions

Collection contains restricted material. Contact the Reference Staff for information regarding access.

Copyright and Re-use Information

Donor's copyrights were transferred to the public domain. Archival collections often contain mixed copyrights; while NLM is the owner of the physical items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. It is the user's responsibility to research and understand any applicable copyright and re-publication rights not allowed by fair use. NLM does not grant permissions to publish.

Privacy Information

Archives and manuscript collections may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in any collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications for which the National Library of Medicine assumes no responsibility.

Biographical Note

Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D. (1933-) is a scientist who served as the Director of the National Library of Medicine from 1984-2015 and who pioneered applying computer technology to health care at the University of Missouri. Dr. Lindberg was raised in Brooklyn, NY, graduated Magna cum Laude from Amherst College in 1954, and received his M.D. degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University in 1958.

Before his appointment as NLM Director, Dr. Lindberg was Professor of Information Science and Professor of Pathology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. In addition to an eminent career in pathology, Dr. Lindberg has made notable contributions to information and computer activities in medical diagnosis, artificial intelligence, and educational programs. From 1992-1995, he served in a concurrent position as founding Director of the White House High Performance Computing and Communications Program. In 1996, he was named by the HHS Secretary to be the U.S. Coordinator for the G-7 Global Healthcare Applications Project.

Dr. Lindberg achieved much during his 33-year career as Director of NLM, both as an administrator and as a scientist. Some of the more significant accomplishments include creating a strategic planning infrastructure which became a model for much of NIH, creation of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), establishment of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and Clinical Trials.gov, and increasing the scope of NLM's mission and services by making trusted consumer health information freely available to the general public and championing NLM products such as MedlinePlus and MEDLINE.

Dr. Lindberg is a leader in the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) initiative to improve health and health care. He was elected the first President of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). Dr. Lindberg is also a founding member of the Health on the Net Foundation, an international organization devoted to guiding patients and providers to sound, reliable health information. As the country's senior statesman for medicine and computers, Dr. Lindberg has been called upon to serve on many boards including the Computer Science and Engineering Board of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Board of Medical Examiners, the Council of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Lindberg is the author of three books: The Computer and Medical Care; Computers in Life Science Research; and The Growth of Medical Information Systems in the United States, several book chapters, and more than 200 articles and reports. He has also served as editor and editorial board member of nine publications including the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Collection Summary

Subject files, reports, correspondence, meeting agendas and minutes, speeches and presentations, published and draft writings, research files, electronic, and audiovisual and photographic materials largely document Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg's professional career as Director of the National Library of Medicine.

Dr. Lindberg's personal life is lightly documented in Series 1, which contains several of Dr. Lindberg's curriculum vitae, some personal correspondence, awards and honors, photographs, and materials pertaining to his nomination and retirement as Director of the National Library of Medicine.

The bulk of the collection pertains to Dr. Lindberg's tenure as Director of the National Library of Medicine and comprises Series 2, with the Chronological Files and the General Files subseries making up the core of the series. The Chronological Files subseries consists primarily of incoming correspondence and some copies of outgoing correspondence. The General Files subseries consists of incoming correspondence, reports, publications, and other related materials pertaining to the organization or subject of each file. General files are organized alphabetically, sometimes by full title and sometimes by acronym, so in some cases multiple files pertaining to a single organization or subject are filed separately according to the different naming conventions. The Staff Action Files subseries consists primarily of incoming correspondence which Dr. Lindberg delegated to various other staff members to resolve; it is organized alphabetically by the surname of the staff member assigned. The Special Projects subseries contains correspondence, reports, publications, and related material pertaining to initiatives within and without the National Library of Medicine in which Dr. Lindberg took special interest or held a leadership role. Notably, the Special Project series contains the bulk of records related to NLM's Clinical Trials website, the establishment of the NCBI, and the NIH Roadmap strategic planning process. The NLM Programs and Activities subseries consists primarily of Dr. Lindberg's files related to a variety of NLM-led initiatives such as AIDS information, biotechnology, exhibits, long-range strategic planning, MEDLARS and MEDLINE, and outreach. The Presentations, Talks, Speeches, and Interviews subseries consists primarily of transcripts of Dr. Lindberg's talks and presentations with accompanying reference material, slides, and a small amount of audio recordings.

A relatively small set of records pertaining to Dr. Lindberg's tenure and research as Professor of Information Science and Professor of Pathology at the University of Missouri-Columbia comprises Series 3. The series notably contains reports and research out of the Health Services Research Center/Health Care Technology Center (HSRC/HCTC), of which Dr. Lindberg served as director. Dr. Lindberg's collection of pathology slides as well as slides accompanying his research and talks are also contained in this series. The series also contains Dr. Lindberg's personal collection of published information science literature dating between the 1960s and 1980s.

Most of the records relating to Dr. Lindberg's research in artificial intelligence in medicine can be found in Series 4. Notable among these are records relating to the AI/Rheum, a knowledge-based computer consultant system that Dr. Lindberg helped develop during the 1980s which used artificial intelligence techniques to assist with rheumatology diagnoses.

Dr. Lindberg's writings are found in Series 5. The majority are reprints of Dr. Lindberg's published articles. One subseries contains manuscripts and drafts and other material related to the books that Dr. Lindberg authored. Records relating to the various other professional organizations that Dr. Lindberg participated in outside of his official titles, notably the American Medical Informatics Association and the G-7 Global Healthcare Applications Project, comprises Series 6.

Abstract

Donald A.B. Lindberg (1933-) is a scientist who served as the Director of the National Library of Medicine between 1984-2015. Dr. Lindberg pioneered applying computer technology to health care at the University of Missouri and has made notable contributions to information and computer activities in medical diagnosis, artificial intelligence, and educational and outreach programs.

Physical Location

Materials stored onsite. History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine

Provenance

Transfer, NLM Office of the Director, Acc. 2014-018, 2016-021, 2017-020.

General

Processed by
Megan O'Hern
Encoded by
Megan O'Hern
Processing completed
Jan. 2019

Processing Information

The National Library of Medicine (U.S.). Office of the Director, Donald A.B. Lindberg Papers were lightly weeded and rehoused the materials into modern enclosures by the Director's staff before receipt from the donor; much of the original boxes and folders were retained. Archival staff re-foldered and re-boxed materials in limited situations. In the course of final processing several categories of material were weeded from the original accession and discarded by the processing archivist: duplicate copies of articles and reprints, personnel and other sensitive internal NLM records, and non-pertinent patient records.

Title
Finding Aid to the National Library of Medicine (U.S.). Office of the Director, Donald A.B. Lindberg Papers, 1954-2017
Status
Unverified Partial Draft
Author
Megan O'Hern
Date
Jan. 2019
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latn
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English
Edition statement
1.0

Collecting Area Details

Part of the Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection Collecting Area

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