NN/LM Regional Medical Library Contracts Awarded
[Editor's Note: This is a reprint of an announcement published on the NLM® Web site on April 29, 2011. To be notified of announcements like this subscribe to NLM-Announces e-mail list.]
The National Library of Medicine®, the world's largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health, announces the award of new five-year contracts to eight institutions to serve as Regional Medical Libraries (RMLs) in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM®). The NN/LM consists of the eight competitively selected Regional Medical Libraries, and over 6,000 health sciences and public libraries.
Since its original authorization by Congress in the 1965 Medical Library Assistance Act, the NN/LM has worked to equalize and enhance access to health sciences information throughout the United States. Its mission is to advance the progress of medicine and improve the public health by providing health professionals and the general public with equal access to biomedical information. The goals of the 2011-2016 contracts are: to develop collaborations among Network members and other organizations to improve access to and sharing of biomedical information resources throughout the nation; to promote awareness of, access to, and use of biomedical information resources for health professionals and the public, with a particular emphasis on contributing to Healthy People 2020; and to develop, promote, and improve electronic access to health information by Network members, health professionals, and organizations providing health information to the public.
The 2011-2016 Regional Medical Libraries are:
- Middle Atlantic Region
University of Pittsburgh
Health Sciences Library System
Pittsburgh, PA
States Served: DE, NJ, NY, PA - Southeastern/Atlantic Region
University of Maryland at Baltimore
Health Sciences and Human Services Library
Baltimore, MD
States Served: AL, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA,WV,
the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands - Greater Midwest Region
The University of Illinois at Chicago
Library of the Health Sciences
Chicago, IL
States Served: IA, IL, IN, KY, MI, MN, ND, OH, SD, WI - Midcontinental Region
University of Utah
Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library
Salt Lake City, UT
States Served: CO, KS, MO, NE, UT, WY - South Central Region
Houston Academy of Medicine
Texas Medical Center Library
Houston, TX
States Served: AR, LA, NM, OK, TX - Pacific Northwest Region
University of Washington
Health Sciences Libraries and Information Center
Seattle, WA
States Served: AK, ID, MT, OR, WA - Pacific Southwest Region
University of California, Los Angeles
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library
Los Angeles, CA
States Served: AZ, CA, HI, NV, and
U.S. Territories in the Pacific Basin - New England Region
University of Massachusetts Medical School
The Lamar Soutter Library
Worcester, MA
States Served: CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT
The University of Utah has been awarded the National Library of Medicine Training Center (NTC) for the entire Network. The University of Washington will continue as the Outreach Evaluation Resource Center (OERC) and as the Web Services Technology Operations Center (Web-STOC).
Role of the Regional Medical Libraries
The RMLs and NN/LM member libraries are vital to NLM outreach efforts to health professionals and consumers to increase awareness, facilitate access, and provide training in the use of many NLM Web-based information services. These include: MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of more than 20 million citations to biomedical journal articles; MedlinePlus®, a consumer health information service, which provides access to full-text information produced by the National Institutes of Health and other authoritative sources; and ClinicalTrials.gov, which provides current information about clinical research studies.
The Regional Medical Libraries will continue their efforts to reach underserved health professionals in rural and inner city areas, the public health workforce, and special populations. NN/LM members will work with a variety of intermediaries, including health care providers, public health professionals, public librarians, educators, community organizations, community colleges, health advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, and self-help groups, to reach members of the public.
The Regional Medical Libraries also exhibit and demonstrate NLM products and services at national, regional, state, and local health professional and consumer-oriented meetings; provide training and consultations; coordinate the basic Network services such as interlibrary loan; and work to improve the supporting infrastructure for health sciences libraries.
Although NN/LM programs have historically been implemented on a regional basis, the new contracts will continue to provide opportunities for cross-regional and national collaborations.
NN/LM Regional Medical Library Contracts Awarded. NLM Tech Bull. 2011 May-Jun;(380):e4.
