NNLM Region 5 Membership: Hospitals and Hospital Libraries

Posted by Emily Hamstra on September 23rd, 2025 Posted in: Medical Librarians
Tags: NNLM Membership

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This is first post in a 4-part series highlighting membership in NNLM Region 5.

What is Membership?

Membership in the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) is an opportunity to connect with regional NNLM staff and other member organizations who share in the goal of improving access to health information. Membership is open to all institutions or organizations who share the work of NNLM’s mission. Membership is free and allows member organizations to apply for funding from their NNLM region. All members are listed in the Membership Directory. The membership directory lists all member organizations across the country, and those members are managed regionally.

The NNLM includes 8,816 members across 50 states and U.S. Territories. Of those, 809 organizations are located in NNLM Region 5.

NNLM Region 5’s Hospital and Hospital Library Members

Hospitals and Hospital Libraries are the largest membership group within NNLM Region 5, with 182 member organizations listed as either hospitals or hospital libraries in the members directory. Hospitals and hospital libraries account for 22% of Region 5’s membership.

Since 2021, hospital and hospital library members have participated in NNLM Region 5’s programming or received funding:

• MultiCare (Tacoma, WA) participated in Region 5’s program to show and discuss the documentary film Laboring with Hope
• Hospital librarians Brynn Beals and Basia Delawska-Elliott shared guest blog posts on the Region 5 blog during Medical Librarians Month
• Guam Memorial Hospital received funding ($19,000) for the project Bridging Language Barriers: Chuukese Health Literacy and Translation Initiative at GMH to train bilingual Chuukese-English staff to become certified medical translators
• $3,500 total in Professional Development Awards went to staff at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, Providence St. Joseph, Valley Children’s, PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital
• $3,000 total in Collection Awards were received by City of Hope’s Lee Graff Medical Library, Providence St. Vincent

Many hospitals and hospital library members are active in DOCLINE, the National Library of Medicine’s interlibrary loan routing service. Remember, NNLM Region 5 staff provide support for DOCLINE users (contact DOCLINE @uw.edu), and are available to answer your questions.

Like many members, hospital library staff participate in NNLM’s training opportunities. Webinars and classes hosted by the NNLM are free and open to all. On occasion, NNLM Region 5 has offered access to webinars from the Medical Library Association, and access to these webinars has been popular with hospital librarians.

NNLM Region 5 staff engage with hospital librarians through Medical Library Association (MLA) chapter meetings and events. We are active on MLA chapter listservs to stay informed and share information about the Region 5 program. To further support hospital librarians, we co-hosted the Solo Chat for hospital librarians in 2022-2023.

If you have ideas for NNLM Region 5’s outreach, programming, training, and funding, please leave a comment in the NNLM Region 5’s Suggestion Box.

To update your organization’s membership, contact Emily Hamstra, nnlm@uw.edu.