The mission of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM®) is to advance the progress of medicine and improve the public health by providing all U.S. health professionals equal access to biomedical information and by improving the public's access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health. The Program is coordinated by the National Library of Medicine and carried out through a nationwide network of health science libraries, public Libraries, and information centers.

Under contract with NLM, Regional Medical Libraries continue their efforts strengthen the Network to reach under served health professionals in rural and inner city areas, public health professionals, and special populations. NN/LM members work with a variety of intermediaries, including health care providers, public health professionals, public librarians, educators, community organizations, health advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, and self-help groups, to reach members of the public.

The Regional Medical Library for the New England Region is the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. The New England Region of 516 members includes 16 Resource Libraries, over 360 hospital and academic libraries, and over 100 public libraries.

The Regional Medical Libraries administer and coordinate services in the network's eight geographical regions. Program areas include Network Services, Outreach, Training, Consumer Health, Information Technology and Policy, and Exhibiting.

One Regional Medical Library, the New York Academy of Medicine, serves as the National Training Center and Clearinghouse for the nation, providing training on NLM systems throughout the U.S.

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1. The existing network structure will continue to be enhanced to include multi-type libraries, especially public libraries and community college libraries that support health-related collections;

2. Health professionals, consumers, public librarians, and other representatives from the user groups served by NER will be involved in the planning and advisory components of the Regional Network;

3. A decentralized approach to planning, utilizing committees and working groups, involving as many network members as possible, from all levels of the Regional Network will be employed;

4. A well-designed, multi-faceted approach to creating meaningful linkages between unaffiliated health professionals, consumers, community-based organizations, public health departments and libraries will be developed;

5. Subcontracts and awards for outreach projects with health sciences libraries partnered with public health departments, public libraries and community-based organizations will be implemented in order to distribute funding and accomplish mission-goals objectives throughout the region;

6. Electronic methods of document delivery and other information services will be encouraged in order to demonstrate the benefits of information technology through statewide projects involving small hospital libraries and larger academic libraries using a variety of technologies;

7. The continuing education and training of health care providers, health sciences librarians, and public librarians will be supported by designing and offering a variety of courses that support NLM resources and products.

For more information about specific network programs in the New England Region, call the Regional Medical Library at 1-800-338-7657.

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Please use the Travel Expense Voucher to submit expenses to the New England RML. Please note that if you are completing a Travel Expense Voucher for the first time, you must also submit a completed W9 Form. An online version of the W9 form is located at: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf (PDF).

Please submit all reimbursement requests and refer all reimbursement questions to Javier Crespo (508-856-2223; javier.crespo@umassmed.edu)

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