Welcome to Region 5 of the Network of the National Library of Medicine!

Posted by Cathy Burroughs on July 1st, 2021 Posted in: News from NNLM Region 5
Tags: communication, NNLM Region 5

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Hello, I am Cathy Burroughs, Executive Director of the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) Region 5, and I would like to extend a warm welcome to NNLM Region 5 members!  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 serve as the Regional Medical Library (RML) for NNLM Region 5.  This is a *new* region of the NNLM, that reflects a redistributed geography and structure. The RML at the University of Washington now serves members in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States in the Pacific from 2021-2026.

The NNLM Region 5 RML is under the experienced leadership of Tania Bardyn, MLIS, AHIP, Associate Dean for Health Sciences at University Washington, who serves as Principal Investigator (PI) and Director of NNLM Region 5.  Tania and I are fortunate to work with an exceptional RML staff of 4 librarians plus several specialists who deliver and support NNLM services and programs.  We also expect to hire an additional staff member this year to assist with the administration of the larger geography and membership.

An important NNLM Region 5 aim is to increase membership engagement.  We want to reconnect with longtime members, get to know newer members, and stay connected with all of you!  We are planning on hosting virtual listening sessions, meetups at conferences and site visits to locations in Nevada, Hawaii and California in the coming year.  Stay tuned for more information!  Meanwhile we invite you to connect with us in these ways:

• First, Join our NNLM Region 5 Listserv to learn about NNLM education, training and funding opportunities and for curated news and announcements  from NLM and NIH.
• Follow us on social media, where you will find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the NNLM YouTube channel.
• We also have an email account—nnlm@uw.edu— for direct questions to the staff.
• Lastly, we expect the NNLM National Web Services Office to announce our *new* nnlm.gov website in the next few months. (The website is currently under construction during its migration to a new server).

For your convenience, bookmark our Region 5 Informational Brochure which is a compilation of the above links for handy reference.  Be sure to Join our NNLM Region 5 Listserv to learn about important announcements, such as new funding opportunities coming soon!

The RML looks forward to working together with you in the years ahead to address health information needs in your communities; to support a highly trained workforce for biomedical and health information resources and data; to improve health literacy; and to increase health equity through information. Specific goals and aims of our program were introduced in our NNLM Region 5 Virtual Town Hall in June.  If you missed it, please check out the Town Hall recording and Town Hall Q&A!