Federal Library of Medicine
The Federal Library of Medicine (Martino: Biblioteca Federal de Medicina, Alexandrian: Bibliothèque Fédérale de Médecine, BFM) is the national medical library of Nouvelle Alexandrie. It is located in Cárdenas, the capital of Nouvelle Alexandrie. It is one of the fifteen centers of the National Health Institute and provides an extensive collection of books, journals, technical reports, manuscripts, microfilms, photographs, and images of medical and related sciences.
Despite its physical location in the heart of Vida Science Park, the bulk of traffic for BFM is generated digitally through its open-access free website and public databanks.
History
The BFM was established in 1692 AN through the unification of the previous Aldurian National Medical Library and the Wechua Library of Medicine. It consolidated previous disparate collections of medical research and information into a dedicated facility in Cárdenas' Vida Science Park. It has since then accumulated over 8 million documents on medicine and related sciences.
In 1708 AN, BFM launched the openly accessible free database BibSalud to provide a digital repository of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. It has continued development of the database and its software over the decades, introducing comprehensive search functions in 1720 AN; the free registration service MiBib for academics and researchers in 1722 AN; a feature known as BibVista that allows comments by authors and researchers in 1728 AN; and the introduction of an AI search tool, SalAI, in 1746 AN.
In 1718 AN, BFM opened the Federal Biotechnology Library (Martino: Biblioteca Federal de Biotecnología, Alexandrian: Bibliothèque Fédérale de Biotechnologie, BFB), a database relevant to biotechnology and biomedicine, in conjunction with the National Centre for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. Major databases include those on Nucleotides, Proteins, Genes, and Genomes - although the National Human Genome Database is kept at the Federal Center for the Human Genome. In 1730 AN, BFB introduced an analysis tool known as the 'Bioinformatic Search Tool' that aids in comparing of primary biological sequence information. This has aided massively in research into proteomics and genetics.
In 1736 AN, BFM established the Toxicology Data Network in conjunction with the Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and Toxicology, a toxicology database that consolidated information and literature on toxicological research as far back 1650 AN. This has massively aided in the cataloguing and identification of hazardous substances for both human exposure, industrial safety and environmental protection.
The Frontera Program in 1738 AN allocated about NAX€150 million to the BFM to modernise and upgrade its facility, which led to the creation of new data clusters to boost redundancy, as well as an extensive digitalisation program to reduce reliance on physical media.
Informational Sources
From its founding in 1692 AN, the BFM has published the monthly Medical Index, a monthly guides to articles. This was replaced by the digital BibSalud in 1708 AN, however the more than ten million article references and abstracts published in the Index is offered freely by BibSalud.
BibSalud
BibSalud (a portmanteau for 'Biblioteca de Salud') is the main database for BLM, offering open-access and free information from articles from academic journals, books, and manuscripts covering medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and health care. It also covers much of the literature in biology and biochemistry. Initially, information was offered only from post-Proclamation sources, but in 1738 AN the database was enhanced through the addition of Aldurian and Wechua information, as well as Alexandrian and Caputian sources dating back as far as 1500 AN.
MiBibSalud is a free-registration service for researchers and academics to link and make available full-text local journal holdings. It also provides tools such as search and reference saving; search filtering; automatic updates by e-mail; and public profiling for professionals.
BibVista (a portmanteau for 'Biblio Vistas') is a limited-access public commenting service, providing authors to update and expand publications by adding new data, relevant publications, or alternative interpretations. It also allows for notifications of corrections and retractions to publications.
SalAI (a portmanteau for 'Salud AI') is an AI-assisted research tool that provides AI search, literature analysis, and AI-assisted summarising. It was introduced in 1746 AN through collaboration with the National Center for High-Performance Computing, and has since provided researchers and authors in delivering research overviews and summarized key findings for academic reference.
Federal Biotechnology Library
The BFB is a national database offering open-access and free information from articles from academic journals, books, and manuscripts covering biotechnology, biomedicine, and bioinformatics. The BFB offers four dedicated databases:
- Nucleotide Database
- Protein Database
- Genome Database
- Gene Database
It also includes a database known as the Sequencing Database that provides a public repository for DNA sequencing data generated by high-throughput sequencing.
The BFB utilises a search tool known as HBI (Martino: Herramienta de Búsqueda Bioinformática), which uses an algorithm to compare nucleotide and protein sequences. It uses heuristic methods to compare input queries with the BFB databases. It has four modes:
- HBIn, which compares nucleotide sequences.
- HBIp, which compares protein sequences.
- HBIx, which compares translated nucleotide sequences against protein sequences.
- HBIt, which compares protein sequences against translated nucleotide sequences.
Toxicology Data Network
The Toxicology Data Network (Martino: Red de Datos Toxicológicos, RDT) is a toxicology database that focuses on potential hazardous chemicals, with information on human exposure, industrial hygiene, emergency handling procedures, environmental impact, regulatory requirements, and related area. It is composed of a variety of databases that covered chemicals and drugs, environmental health, occupational health and safety, poisoning, risk assessment and regulations, and toxicology. It is composed of:
- Hazardous Substances Databank, which provides toxicology data for over 5,000 hazardous chemicals.
- BibTox (a portmanteau for 'Biblioteca de Toxicología'), which provides references on biochemical, pharmacological, physiological, and toxicological effects of medicine and other chemicals.
- IDQuím (a portmanteau for ID Química), which provides references of over 400,000 chemicals, including names, synonyms, and structures.
- MAPATOX (a portmanteau for 'Mapa Toxicológico), a geographic information system that aids in visualising and detecting toxicological data and remediation processes in Nouvelle Alexandrie.
- Comparative Toxcogenomics Databank, a public databank and search tool that curates scientific data describing relationships between chemicals, medicine, genes/proteins, diseases, taxa, and phenotypes.
Research
Aside from the compilation and curation of medical literature, the BFM provides extramural grants to support research in medical information science and to promote the use of IT and telecommunications technology in medical institutions. In 1740 AN, this funding stood at an annual NAX€45 million.
Intramural funding for research stands at an annual €140 million, and promotes the curating of public databases, conducting research in computational biology, development of software tools for analysing molecular and genomic data, and disseminating biomedical information.
Organisation
The BFM is overseen by the National Health Institute. It is led by a Director, who is appointed by the NHI and approved by the Department of Social Security and National Solidarity. The library is further divided into multiple departments, with two service departments and five library divisions:
- Director
- Deputy Director for Policy and Public Affairs
- Office of Administration
- Administrative Management Branch
- Financial Management Branch
- Office of Administration
- Deputy Director for Operations and Innovation
- Office of Systems
- Applications Branch
- Medical Language Branch
- Systems Technology Branch
- Office of Strategic Planning
- Office of Systems
- Scientific Director
- Intramural Research Division
- Computational Health Research Branch
- Computational Biology Branch
- Extramural Programs Division
- Grants Management Office
- Program Office
- User Services Division
- Health Research Information Branch
- Curation Branch
- Public Engagement Branch
- Health Data Standards Branch
- Federal Biotechnology Library
- Information Engineering Branch
- Information Resources Branch
- Biomedical Communications Branch
- Applied Clinical Informatics Branch
- Scientific Computing Branch
- Intramural Research Division
- Deputy Director for Policy and Public Affairs
The BFM also has two advisory bodies that are composed of national and international experts:
- Scientific Advisory Council
- Ethics & Information Technology Council
