NLM Awards 2021-2026 Regional Medical Library Cooperative Agreements

Posted by Cathy Burroughs on April 12th, 2021 Posted in: News From NNLM PNR

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The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has awarded a new five-year cooperative agreement grant to the University of Washington (UW) Health Sciences Library to lead the NNLM Regional Medical Library (RML) Region 5 serving a six-state region including Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States. Region 5 is part of the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM), which will include 7 Regional Medical Libraries (RMLs) as of May 1, 2021.

The core mission of the NNLM is to improve access to the highest level of evidence-based health information, with an emphasis on reaching the most underserved communities. The NLM grant funds the UW RML’s Region 5 program Reaching More People in More Ways to advance data driven health, health equity and health literacy through community-driven outreach that equitably informs U.S. researchers, health professionals, librarians, educators, and the public about the NLM’s products, information services, funding, professional development, and training. The program also provides direct funding (grants) to regional partners to improve access through technology and provide training to equalize and enhance access to health information for everyone – from clinicians to patients and to the general public.

UW has hosted the RML for 5 states in the Pacific Northwest Region (AK, ID, MT, OR, and WA) since the program’s inception in 1968.  The geography of the grant has largely remained unchanged in the last 53 years.

Beginning in May 2021, under the new redistributed geography of this grant, Alaska, Washington, and Oregon will be served by the NNLM Region 5 Regional Medical Library at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library; and Idaho and Montana will be served by the NNLM Region 4 Regional Medical Library at the University of Utah Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library.

Region 5 (RML: University of Washington, Health Sciences Library) includes: 

• Alaska 
• California 
• Hawaii 
• Nevada  
• Oregon 
• Washington 
• U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States in the Pacific 

 

Region 4 (RML: University of Utah, Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library) includes: 

• Arizona  
• Colorado 
• Idaho  
• Montana 
• New Mexico 
• North Dakota 
• South Dakota 
• Utah 
• Wyoming 

 

We appreciate many years of partnership with libraries and organizations in Idaho and Montana and know you will be served well by our colleagues in Region 4!