Established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1968, the Lister Hill Center is a research and development division of the National Library of Medicine.  Seeking to improve access to high quality biomedical information for individuals around the world, the Lister Hill Center conducts and supports research and development in the dissemination of high quality imagery, medical language processing, high-speed access to biomedical information, intelligent database systems development, multimedia visualization, knowledge management, data mining and machine-assisted indexing.

At the Lister Hill Visitor Center, visitors can begin a tour of the National Library of Medicine where they can use virtual reality exhibits, experience biomedical research, and learn to conduct online searches in MEDLINE.

The nearest NIH Shuttle Stop is at the entrance to the building.