SPEC Kit 330: Library Contribution to Accreditation · 145
Texas A&M University
SACS Reaffirmation of Accreditation. Core Requirement 2.9
Section 2: Core Requirements Requirement 2.9, Page 8
instructional programs targeting unaffiliated health care providers and the public can be found in
the report on Comprehensive Standard 3.8.2, Instruction of Library Use [Comprehensive
Standard 3.8.2, Instruction of Library Use].
External Resource Relationships
The MSL and TAMUL provide access to library and learning resources not owned by the
institution through membership in regional, national and international library organizations and
service networks. These networks facilitate the sharing of biomedical information, provide
access to online databases and library catalogs, provide efficient document delivery request
routing and delivery services for interlibrary loan, and result in competitive pricing for electronic
resources.
National Library of Medicine’s National Network of Libraries of Medicine
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), a unit of the National Institutes of Health, is the
biomedical parallel to the Library of Congress. The NLM maintains a hierarchical network of
libraries across the United States in order to accomplish its outreach mission, to improve the
health and health care of all Americans. NLM has divided the United States into eight regions,
each with a regional library to coordinate activities within their region. These regional libraries
subcontract with large academic health sciences libraries to provide outreach fieldwork and
resources across the region. The MSL serves as one of the resource libraries within the South
Central Region (NN/LM SCR), covering Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New
Mexico. In this role MSL serves as a resource library for a 22 county region in Central Texas.
[MSL Outreach Data Sheet] This outreach fieldwork, which has been part of the MSL mission
and strategic plan for over 30 years, directly supports the TAM HSC service programs. The
annual subcontract amount of about $15,000 covers the costs of MSL library staff to travel
throughout the 22 county region to provide workshops on the use of various NLM biomedical
professional and consumer health databases. These outreach efforts seek to provide in-service
training for health care professionals and to enhance the health information literacy of health care
consumers.
South Central Academic Medical Libraries Consortium
Founded in 1982, the South Central Academic Medical Libraries Consortium (SCAMeL) is a
group of academic medical libraries from the five state region covered by the NN/LM SCR.
MSL is a charter member of this group. The primary purpose of SCAMeL is to expand the
access to biomedical information resources of its members and to support and facilitate the
development and sharing of staff expertise across member libraries. The group has been
particularly successful in achieving lower group pricing for key electronic biomedical resources,
including journals, books and databases. Examples of electronic resources that have been
purchased through SCAMeL include: AccessMedicine (McGraw-Hill) American Psychiatric
Association’s APPI (Psychiatry Online) collection BioMed Central BMJ Journals Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory Protocols Exam Master Faculty of 1000 Mary Ann Liebert Journals
Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database Protein Lounge and the Public Library of Science
[South Central Academic Medical Libraries Consortium—SCAMeL Website].
Other Library Organizations and Consortia
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