The National Library of Medicine has reappointed the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library as Regional Medical Library for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Southwest Region (NN/LM PSR). The new contract covers June 1, 2006, through April 30, 2011. (see the May announcement by NLM. )

We look forward, in partnership with you, our Network colleagues, to continuing to provide programs and services which support the mission and goals of the NN/LM program .

Guiding Principles

The following principles will guide our efforts for the next five years:

• We will leverage technology, cultural, and linguistic competence in a vast and
  diverse region.
• We will leverage strengths of other RMLs.
• We will develop skills of the marketplace and of community engagement in the region.
• We will involve more of those we serve in planning and evaluation of our services.

New Regional Objectives

In addition to objectives it developed in the past, NLM included some new objectives for the 2006-2011 contract for both Network and Outreach programs. These new objectives focus on emergency preparedness, historical and unique materials, EFTS, proposal preparation, and e-licensing.

The National Emergency Preparedness Plan is an interregional effort to support NLM with the development and implementation of a national plan to be used in emergencies or disasters. A critical component of this plan is the development of local plans which include strategies for providing document delivery services when a node or nodes of the Network are down or inaccessible. These strategies build upon creating a hierarchy of libraries across the regions to form a natural chain of support in case of emergency. Priorities for 2006–2011 include:

1. Cooperate with other regions and the National Network Office to develop the written National Emergency Preparedness Plan and keep it up-to-date.
2. With the cooperation of PSR Resource Libraries and the PSR Regional Advisory Committee, develop a Regional Emergency Preparedness Plan to manage locally containable emergencies.

Historical and Unique Materials is an interregional program designed to support Goal 1 of NLM’s long range plan for 2000 – 2005. This program recognizes that there are historical and unique collections throughout the country and provides the foundation to develop systems and services to both protect and provide access to these collections. Priorities for 2006–2011 include:

1. Collaborate with other regions and with NLM to develop a plan to identify historical and unique collections throughout the country.
2. Promote this program through the Pacific Southwest Region and gather support for it from Network members.
3. Facilitate the collection of data about historical and unique collections in the Pacific Southwest Region.

We made great strides with EFTS in the 2001-2006 contract. Priorities for 2006–2011 include:

1. Increase Resource Library participation to 100%.
2. Increase Primary Access Library participation to 60%.

Proposal preparation assistance will be provided to Network members as well as community-based, faith-based and other organizations representative of special populations in order to increase the submission of successful proposals, thereby increasing outreach to special populations. Priorities for 2006–2011 include:

1. Increase regional awareness of this service.
2. Provide resources, consultation, and training in support of proposal preparation.

The E-Licensing program is designed to help Network members negotiate licensing agreements for electronic resources, in particular, electronic full-text journals. With PubMed/Medline, users are able to identify appropriate literature to solve a health information problem, but the click-through to full-text may be a barrier. The E-Licensing program will benefit from interregional collaboration, as appropriate, to gain better price breaks for Network members. Priorities for 2006–2011 include:

1. Encourage Network members to negotiate interlibrary loan capability into their license agreements; this capability should not be limited to mailing a paper copy made from an electronic version.
2. Provide tools and training to help Network members negotiate optimal licensing agreements.
3. Identify and work with regional consortia, as well as interregional consortia, to negotiate successful license agreements at a fair price.

With our Outreach program, the new objective Collaborating with Network Members and Other Organizations increases the visibility of the NN/LM to achieve goals of outreach to health professionals and the public. PSR will reach out to public libraries and community-based organizations that represent minority or other underserved populations. Priorities for 2006–2011 include:

1. Recruit at least three to five community based organizations (CBOs) to join the Network each year.
2. Work with Network members to include CBOs in subcontracts.
3. Promote the Public Libraries and Community Partners web site.
4. Provide at least four training sessions to CBOs yearly.
5. Provide training to at least eight public libraries each year.

Our target outreach audiences for the 2006-2011 contract period include:

1. Health professionals who serve special populations or subject disciplines identified as NLM priority initiatives, e.g., HIV/AIDS, public health.
2. Unaffiliated health professionals and health professionals in inner cities and rural areas.
3. Local and state public health departments, emphasizing public health field nurses.
4. Organizations that serve as primary care safety nets for low income and uninsured populations.
5. Community colleges that train minority health practitioners, particularly in border areas.
6. AIDS organizations and other minority-serving institutions and community-based organizations, especially those in inner cities and rural areas.
7. First responders and emergency preparedness groups, e.g., local fire department workers and EMTs.
8. Regional minorities, with a focus on the Spanish-speaking population, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans.
9. Senior citizens throughout the region.
10. Low income and other at-risk populations.

We will continue to move in the direction of evaluating the NN/LM PSR program, and the efforts of our subcontractors based on outcomes. Look for more opportunities for training in this area in this and future contract years.

Subcontract Funding

To continue leveraging our outreach efforts in the region, we have allocated a substantial amount of our budget to funding outreach subcontracts. For Year 1 (June 1, 2006 – April 30, 2007) we will be funding five Express Outreach Awards (up to $6,000 each), a major award to a regional Resource Library, a collaborative outreach project award ($10,000), five Connectivity awards (up to $1,000 each), a Library Improvement Award (up to $1,000) and a Go Local award ($25,000). Visit our funding page to get more information about funding opportunities currently available.

Advisory Mechanisms

We will continue to rely on our Resource Library Directors and our Regional Advisory Committee, which will be appointed in Year 1, for advice and support. These groups will meet at least annually. We will also be consulting with the NN/LM Outreach Evalution Resource Center (OERC) to develop a more comprehensive evaluation plan for our program. Last, but as important, we will continue to welcome your input on what you need to enhance health information access by your customers and community and how various NN/LM and NLM programs and services can serve to meet that need.

Membership Renewal

Finally, YOU are what drive our programs and services. YOUR success in providing health information to the region is the measure of our success! We urge you to update your membership in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. Complete instructions for renewal are included in a companion article.

We look forward to working with you in the next five years!