In This Issue:

• Home
  
  
• Director's CorNER
  
  
• Ill Advised
  
  
• Inside Outreach
  
  
• PubMed Particulars
  
  
• Tech Time
  
  
• Tres Chic
  
  
• Announcements
  
  
• Links
  
  

On February 6-7, the National Library of Medicine sponsored an RML Director's mid-year meeting at the New York Academy of Medicine, one of the other RML sites. The agenda included presentations on a number of priority issues including: Outreach Evaluation for Public Health and Public Library Outreach Initiatives, a report on Tirbal Connecitions Projects, a presentation of MEDLINEplus Go Local, and a discussion of the impact of electronic publishing on the future of ILL.

In March 2002, the RMLs attended a meeting at the National Libray of Medicine. One of the agenda items was a discussion of developing more appropriate methods of connecting with public libraries in each region. A second was a similar discussion only targeted towards the public health workforce. At the MLA RML directors meeting in May 2003, these items were identified as priorities for the next three years remaining of the RML contracts. As follow-up, two task forces, one for public health and one for pubic librarians were established to move these agenda items forward. The task forces worked throughout the summer and fall and reported on their findings at the February meeting just held in New York. Copies of their reports are available through the RML website. You may find them helpful in thiking about future project for our region.

The Tribal Connections Project started as a pilot project by the Pacific Northwest Region to provide outreach to Native Americans in that part of the country. A second phase expanded the project into the Pacific Southwest Region in partnership with Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library, the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library and the Savitt Medical Library in Reno. The project has now expanded to include the Four Corners region, primarily in New Mexico/Navajo Nation. This is a great example of cross regional collaboration involving several RMLs and Resource Libraries.

MEDLINEplus GoLocalis a pilot project started at the University of North Carolina Medical Library that inks local health services/resources to MEDLINEplus. A user can bowse web sites of local health care services, programs and proviers across North Carolina, directly linked to MEDLINEplus. This project serves as a model for other states.

The danagerous strategy of electronic journal publishers to retrict ILL's and the impact on the RML network was a lively topic of discussion. Included in the discussion were questions concerning the max cost, add on fees, national licensing agreements, Loansome Doc referrals, etc. The discussion will continue in May at the upcoming RML director's meeting. In the meantime, the RMLs will make educating our users and library staff about the complexity of these issues a priority for the rest of this contract period.

In that vein, the NER RML is working in conjunction with NELINET and the Boston Library Consortium to offer a symposium/call to action event scheduled for June 2nd at the Wyndam Hotel in Southboro, MA. (tentaive location). We are in the process of identifying speakers and the structure for the event. We will keep you informed as more details are known. For now, mark your calendar and plan to attend.

As you can see from this brief report, the RMLs are working hard to address its priority areas of outreach and resource sharing. To hear more information about NLM and the RMLs, I encourage you to attend the NLM Update at MLA if you will be going to San Diego. And as always, we will continue to report on these issues.

Elaine Martin, Director