Six excellent applications were received in response to the 2012/13 Request for Proposals: Express Outreach/Training/Technology Awards; five of which were funded for a period of 12 months, beginning May 1, 2012. Funding amounts are all approximately $12,000. The projects strive to improve access to health information for health professionals and health consumers and to promote the awareness and use of products and services available from the NLM and the NN/LM. Target groups include K-12 instructors and students, health sciences librarians partnering with researchers, public libraries desiring emergency preparedness mini-conferences, community college health services and students, and clinical faculty involved with a Patient-Centered Family Health Clinic model of care. (more…)

On December 16, 2011, in celebration of the end of NLM’s 175th anniversary, Clifford Lynch, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, gave the presentation Biomedical Libraries in the Next Decades: Open, Diffuse, and Very Personal, at the National Library of Medicine. Overriding themes of his presentation included the implications surrounding the convergence of the increasingly data intensive nature of the biological sciences with traditional journal publications, and the possibilities for large scale computational scholarship. Another key topic was how developments in the broader economic, social, and regulatory climate will affect the evolution of medical knowledgebases. He emphasized the importance to the life sciences community of having an institution such as NLM, as a focal point for aggregating the staggering amount of information and data generated in the life sciences. There’s nothing analogous to NLM in other areas of scholarship. (more…)

by Naomi C. Broering, MLS, MA, AHIP
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, San Diego, CA

I highly recommend viewing this inspiring and provocative presentation about the future role of medical libraries. In addition to the summary submitted by Alan Carr, NN/LM PSR, I wish to note my personal observations. (more…)

Introduction

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) recently announced MedlinePlus Connect (http://medlineplus.gov/connect), a free service that allows electronic health records (EHR) systems to link patients and consumers to MedlinePlus (http://medlineplus.gov), NLM’s authoritative up-to-date health information resource for patients, families and health care providers. MedlinePlus provides information about conditions and disorders, medications, and health and wellness. (more…)

“Meaningful use” is a phrase that is gaining national momentum as national healthcare reform moves forward. But what is meaningful use, anyway? No, it’s not evidence based health care, although there is a logical tone to that analogy. Instead, meaningful use refers to using electronic health records (EHRs) to achieve improvements in health care. (more…)