The National Library of Medicine recently launched a new website that offers application programming interface tools aimed at allowing developers and the public to access the library's most popular databases and search engines, Federal Computer Week reports.
APIs are designed to facilitate interaction between different applications within a computer's operating system.
With the API tools, users will be able to access information from sites such as ClinicalTrials.gov and Medline Plus.
Todd Park -- the chief technology officer at HHS -- said that the goal of the website is to:
- Assist software developers in constructing applications that use data from NLM;
- Highlight open government objectives by allowing more access to federal data; and
- Promote the development of new applications for easing data access through mobile devices and Web platforms (Lipowicz, Federal Computer Week, 9/24).