A New Contract Begins
The University of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Sciences Library was awarded an $11.2 million, five year contract by the National Library of Medicine to serve as the Regional Medical Library for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region. The contract will run from May 1, 2006-April 30, 2011.
The mission of the NN/LM is to advance the progress of medicine and improve the public’s health by: 1.) providing all U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information; and 2.) improving the public’s access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health.
The goals of program for the next five years are:
- To develop collaborations among network members and other organizations to improve access to and sharing of biomedical information resources throughout the nation;
- To develop, promote, improve electronic access to and use of biomedical information resources for health professionals and the public, with particular emphasis on contributing to Health People 2010 goal of eliminating health disparities;
- To develop, promote and improve electronic access to health information by network members, health professionals and organizations providing health information to the public.
Our plan to achieve these goals is to continue to grow the network. With a broader base of network members we can improve the access to and the sharing of materials. To this end, we will recruit libraries and community and faith agencies that provide health information and outreach to their communities. We will expand the number of resource libraries in the region to 31 with the addition of Florida State University College of Medicine, Charlotte Edwards Maguire Medical Library. We will ensure efficient document delivery by promoting DOCLINE, EFTS, and electronic delivery as well as monitor the effects of e-licenses on document delivery. Also, we will identify historical and unique collections so archivists and others will have more access to these unique materials.
A new objective in this contract is the implementation of a regional and promotion of a national emergency preparedness plan. To this end we are recruiting a task force composed of a Network member from each state. The task force will gather information on what plans exist in the state, devise or recommend procedures on how Network members notify the RML when disasters or emergencies occur, and recommend what information or resources the RML should make available for use by Network members.
Our communications program involves a redesigned website that will be rolled out in mid-June, as well as, maintaining and improving communications with network members by using RSS, blogs, and emerging technology. Another way we plan to involve more network members is through our new regional advisory committees (RAC) structure. Four RAC committees will be populated with network members to assist with program development, assessment, evaluation and feedback. The four committees are Outreach to Health Professionals, Consumer Health Outreach, Technology and Network Access. A RAC nomination form is available on our website at http://nnlm.gov/sea/about/rac.html.
We also want to build on the outreach work we have done in the past and initiate new projects that support the elimination of health disparities in our region. We will develop, implement and evaluate targeted outreach programs within the region to bring biomedical information resources within easy reach of U.S. health professionals and the public. We plan to offer funding for projects that target health professionals groups such as unaffiliated health professionals, the public health workforce, those working in unserved or underserved clinics and hospitals in the inner city or rural areas, those serving minority or at risk populations; or those working in community health centers serving minority, at risk or specific populations.
In consumer health we plan to target minority or at risk populations, low-literacy, senior and adolescents, among other citizen populations, so they may meet their health information needs. Training, connections, identifying and addressing information resources to address health disparities, and development of age and reading level appropriate materials will figure prominently in the subcontracting plan.
Training will be provided to health professionals, librarians, consumers, Historically Black College and Universities, and community and faith agencies that address health disparities or target lower socioeconomic or specific populations. We plan to train groups such as veterans, seniors, gays & lesbians, teens, as well as, train peer tutors. Our education plan includes classes on NLM systems, technology, public health, evidence based medicine, providing outreach, health information literacy, minority health concerns and resources for public librarians. Some new classes proposed are consumer genetics, patient informatics, complementary and alternative medicine, and cultural competency, among others.
Throughout the five years we will offer funding opportunities to our network members. These include: larger subcontracts and smaller express awards for information access or connections projects, technology or health information awareness conferences, library improvement projects, outreach planning, library technology improvement, and exhibiting. Avail yourself of these awards to make a difference in your community. See http://nnlm.gov/sea/funding/ for our current opportunities.
We hope you will consider working with us in the coming years. Consider serving on a RAC committee, applying for funding, providing training in your community or providing speedy document delivery to another network library. Working together we can make a difference and hopefully improve the nation’s health through the provision of quality health information services.
