NLM Legislative Chronology
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August 3, 1956 An amendment to Title III of the Public Health Service Act, the National Library of Medicine Act, placed the Armed Forces Medical Library under the PHS, and renamed it the National Library of Medicine (Public Law 84-941).
October 22, 1965 The Medical Library Assistance Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-291) was signed into law, authorizing NLM's extramural programs of grant assistance to help expand and improve the nation's medical library and health communications resources, technology, and professional staff for service to the health community.
August 3, 1968 Public Law 90-456 authorized the designation of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications.
November 4, 1988 Public Law 100-607 authorized the establishment of the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the NLM.
June 10, 1993 Public Law 103-43 authorized the establishment of the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) at NLM.
November 21, 1997 The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act (Public Law 105-115) called for the creation of the centralized, consumer-friendly online listing of clinical trials that would become ClinicalTrials.gov.