AOU-CE & NEO SUPPLEMENT

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This award will operate a Regional Medical Library (RML) for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Region 6 (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington) at the University of Washington. In the rural and frontier counties of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, health professionals, emergency first responders, and librarians are challenged by limited staff and resources, sparse populations, and long travel distances to reach those in need - especially seniors, children, and underserved communities. Even an event of modest size, whether it be an influenza outbreak, wildfire, or network power outage, can quickly overwhelm a community. To overcome these barriers, the RML has taken a unique approach to build a stronger member network providing health and data information access in the community. In May 2016, the RML will launch "Be Boundless," an innovative regional medical library program which strengthens regional collaboration with network members, state or regional organizations, and provides educational program and funding opportunities to improve access to quality online health information resources to priority groups such as: health professionals, seniors, K-12, public health workforce, libraries, and minority and rural communities. The major aims of this program are: (1) to restructure and strengthen the governance in Region 6 to include regional leaders who will assist the RML in pushing resources and awareness about the program into the community; (2) to teach health professionals and librarians more about their roles in providing equitable access to high quality health information by promoting NLM programs and services; (3) to work with regional partners to bring NLM resources to interprofessional healthcare teams, including physicians, nurses, allied health professions, and community researchers; (4) to continually engage libraries to ensure that communities have access to quality and culturally appropriate health information; (5) to partner with existing organizations to provide training workshops on: accessing and sharing biomedical big data; using clinical data to solve primary care health questions; data visualization; (6) to expand the network membership model to include data organizations; and (7) to support collaboration with state or regional organizations by funding awards that improve access to quality online health information resources with a focus on underserved and priority communities. The result will allow sharing of knowledge, expertise, and resources to maximize investment of National Library of Medicine resources and expertise to the region in order to improve health outcomes in the Pacific Northwest.