Coming Soon: New Regional Medical Libraries Designations 2021-2026

Posted by Miles Dietz-Castel on March 19th, 2021 Posted in: Blog

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Last June, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) published the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the 2021-2026 Regional Medical Libraries (RMLs), the central component of the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM).  Health sciences libraries submitted proposal applications in September.  An official announcement from the NLM regarding the new RMLs is forthcoming. The start date for the new Cooperative Agreement is May 1, 2021.

The RMLs carry out regional and national programs in support of the mission to provide U.S. researchers, health professionals, public health workforce, educators, and the public with equal access to biomedical and health information resources and data.  The emphasis of the RML program is to bring quality health, public health, and biomedical information resources within reach of the public and all health and public health professionals.

Among other objectives, each RML is expected to:

• Develop approaches to promote awareness of, improve access to, and enable use of NLM’s resources and data,
• Develop and support a diverse workforce to access information resources and data, and support data-driven research,
• Provide community-driven innovative approaches and interventions for biomedical and health information access and use.

 For the 2021-2026 cooperative agreement period, seven Regional areas are defined:

Region 1: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. 

Region 2: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Region 3: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Region 4: Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

Region 5: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States in the Pacific.

Region 6: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Region 7: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

NNLM Offices and Centers serve the NNLM program and are defined as:

The NNLM Web Services Office will develop and maintain reliable Web services for NNLM public and internal needs.

The NNLM Training Office will plan, create, share, deliver, coordinate, and evaluate an instructional program and educational materials based on key NLM products and services for a variety of audiences. NTO will assess and ensure a standard of high-quality for NNLM instructors and instructional content.

The NNLM Public Health Coordination Office will enhance the public’s health by expanding NNLM’s engagement with the diverse public health workforce through access to licensed literature,  coordinating training on NLM resources, and facilitating partnerships with public health institutions.

The NLM Evaluation Center will collaborate with RML, Office, and Center (ROC) staff to develop strategies and standardized approaches for evaluating outreach and education services

For more information, please refer to the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) Organizational Handbook, https://nnlm.gov/national/guides/network-national-library-medicine-nnlm-organizational-handbook.