The National Library of Medicine (NLM), a component of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded 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 authorisation by Congress in the 1965 Medical Library Assistance Act, the NN/LM has worked to equalise and enhance access to health sciences information throughout the United States. It seeks 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 organisations 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 RMLs and NN/LM member libraries are vital to NLM's outreach efforts to health professionals and consumers to increase awareness, facilitate access, and provide training in the use of NLM's many 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 also exhibit and demonstrate NLM's 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 programmes have historically been implemented on a regional basis, the new contracts will continue to provide opportunities for cross-regional and national collaborations.
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