Contact:
Jennifer Choi
Office of Public Affairs
NYU Medical Center
(212) 404-3555
Jennifer.Choi@nyumc.org

NYU Medical Center’s Ehrman Medical Library Receives
New Contract from the National Library of Medicine

New York, NY, June 5, 2006 -- NYU Medical Center’s Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library has been selected by the National Library of Medicine to become a Regional Medical Library (RML) in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. The program, part of the National Institutes of Health, aims to improve public health by providing health professionals with equal access to biomedical information and by increasing the public’s access to health information.

This five-year, $7.3 million contract designates NYU Medical Center as the host institution for the National Network’s Middle Atlantic Region—which includes Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. It marks the first time in the Network’s 35-year history that the Middle Atlantic Region's contract will be held by an academic medical center.

"We are so proud to have received this honor", says Karen Brewer, Ph.D., Chair of Ehrman Medical Library. "This contract will enable us to work with our librarian colleagues to empower the citizens of our four state region with the knowledge available to them from the wealth of authoritative medical information provided by the programs of the National Library of Medicine."

As one of eight RMLs nationwide, Ehrman Medical Library will offer training to health professionals, librarians, and the public on the National Library of Medicine’s many web-based information sources, such as the Medline/PubMed database of more than 16 million biomedical journal articles, the MedlinePlus consumer health information service, and the ClinicalTrials.gov list of current clinical research studies. The Library will also be conducting community outreach to increase awareness of these resources among underserved populations, the public health workforce, and health professionals in rural and inner city areas. In addition, it will collaborate with the National Network’s 5,700 other members to improve the supporting infrastructure for health sciences libraries, provide leadership and training, coordinate basic network services such as interlibrary loans, and award up to $1.9 million in subcontracts and other funding to a variety of health information outreach programs conducted in partnership with community-based organizations, including public libraries.

NYU Medical Center’s approach is innovative in a number of ways. It stresses strategic planning, including the development of program priorities by a governing board. The plan also emphasizes outreach and communication throughout every level of the program, so that Middle Atlantic Region members are active participants and well-informed of their benefits, opportunities, and responsibilities. The effort will renew focus on building health sciences librarian skills in innovative areas such as adult education, evaluation, the use of technology in health information access, and leadership. Its goal is to develop permanent, integrated relationships within the region between academic health sciences and hospital libraries and their communities that are based on those populations’ health information needs.

To learn more about Ehrman Medical Library, please visit http://library.med.nyu.edu/. Additional information about the National Network of Libraries of Medicine can be found online at http://nnlm.gov.

Grant number: N01-LM-6-3501; HHSN27620063501C

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