NJHA Library & Links
Medical Libraries Network Reduces Document Delivery Costs
The N.J. medical library community engages in an extensive and sophisticated voluntary cooperative arrangement for sending and receiving medical literature. Started in 1980, this cooperative now includes 76 N.J. hospital libraries in the New Jersey Health Sciences Network and 435 libraries that are part of the 15-year-old regional Basic Health Sciences Network, extending from Delaware to Maine.
Both networks, initiated via the
Health Sciences Library Association of N.J. and two N.Y. groups, boast a collective savings of more than $3.5 million last year alone. Both networks use the National Library of Medicine's
DOCLINE® and
SERHOLD electronic systems that enable instantaneous searching of members' holdings and transmission of document requests.
When one considers the cost of obtaining an article via commercial document delivery or a vendor's electronic subscription, these networks continue to fill a vital role for containing costs and contributing to the quality of clinical care, continuing medical education and research.
For further information or network membership requirements contact Patricia Regenberg, library manager of AHS-Overlook Hospital and chairperson of the HSLANJ Networking and Interlibrary Loan Committee, at 908-522-2119 or NJHA's Michelle Volesko Brewer 609-275-4230,
webadmin@njha.com.