We attended the final plenary session, known as the Joseph Leiter NLM/MLA Lectureship presented by Kent Smith on "Law, Leaders, and Legends of the Modern NLM" on Wednesday. Kent gave a historical account of four major pieces of legislation; spanning the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Act of 1956 through to the creation of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Even though the topic was quite dry, Kent did a very entertaining job of covering the history. All of the key players were introduced and the presentation included their photos. The legendary people included Michael De Bakey, Senator Lister Hill and Senator Claude Petter. Many of the major reports, press releases and descriptions of the actions taken to lobby were detailed. So much has been achieved through the established of the NLM and the National Centre for Biotechnology. The rest of the world has a great deal to be greatful for these achivements, as where would we be without free resources, such as PubMed and NLM Human Genome Resources?
Lisa Kruesi & Mary Peterson
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