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NLM Reading Rooms and Services:
Main Reading Room

The National Library of Medicine's Main Reading Room includes an extensive reference collection of over 4,500 key directories, indexes, handbooks and atlases selected by Reference librarians. In addition, a ten-year collection of more than 180 major medical journals is available for self-service access. Current audiovisual materials, including videos, audiocassettes and computer software, are available in the Learning Resource Center. Over 200 abstracts and indexes aid in accessing the contents of the over 82,000 serial titles held at NLM.

Reference librarians are available in the Main Reading Room and assist onsite patrons in using LocatorPlus, the National Library of Medicine's online catalog; MedlinePlus; PubMed; the NLM Gateway; and a variety of commercial electronic database products. Reference librarians can also provide information on print resources available in the NLM collection.

In addition to the Main Reading Room reference collection, visitors to the Library can access books (1914-present), journals and serials (1871-present) and audiovisual materials (1970-present) from the closed stacks by requesting them via LocatorPlus.

The Library revised its security procedures in September 2001, changing the way researchers access the Library. Browse the security procedures at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/security.html

NLM Main Reading Room
Main Reading Room

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Last updated: 28 June 2004
First published: 30 January 2001
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