The National Library of Medicine of the United States celebrates its 175th anniversary this year.  This library, the largest biomedical library in the world, has a proud and rich history serving the health community and the public, especially since its transfer to the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland in 1956. It holds 17 million publications in 150 languages, and has an important collection of ancient and modern historical books as well as original publications of Vesalius and other founders of biomedicine. Its modern document collections illustrate the progress of the medical sciences. These collections include laboratory notes from many scientists whose work forms the foundation of the modern life sciences. The library also provides many services for health research and the public including databases and services such a MedLine and BLAST.            The National Library of Medicine constantly strives to fulfill the information needs of its customers, whether scientists or the public at large. For example, as the Hispanic population of the Unites States has increased in recent years, the library has made larger and larger amounts of data available in Spanish to fulfill the health information needs of this population. Library programs train professionals in library science and biomedical informatics and link biomedical libraries of 18 academic centers throughout the United States. The library funds competitive grants for training at the library, organizing short instruction courses about library science and informatics, and writing books on health related matters including the history of medicine and public health.             The National Library of Medicine is managed and maintained by an outstanding and farsighted group of professionals and dedicated support staff. Their focus on serving and reaching both the biomedical community and the public at large has been crucial to its development into a world icon of biomedical sciences, information technology and the humanities.