NLM launches Emergency Access Initiative for disaster response

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), in partnership with members of the Professional & Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers announce the availability of free full-text articles from over 200 biomedical journals and over 30 select reference books for libraries and hospitals affected by the earthquake in Haiti. The collection is also intended for healthcare personnel responding to the disaster.

The Emergency Access Initiative collection is a combination of common biomedical journal titles and reference books, and also emergency medicine related titles. The Emergency Access Initiative serves as a temporary collection replacement and/or supplement for libraries affected by disasters that need to continue to serve medical staff and affiliated users. It is also intended for medical personnel responding to the specified disaster.

The literature is being provided as part of the Emergency Access Initiative – a collaborative partnership between NLM, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) and participating publishers to provide free access to full-text articles and select reference books to healthcare professionals and libraries affected by disasters. While the project was established to assist libraries affected by disasters in the United States, NLM and the publishers are activating the Emergency Access Initiative now in light of the medical disaster unfolding in the aftermath of the earthquake.

NLM thanks the participating publishers for their generous support of this initiative: American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Physicians, BMJ, Elsevier, Mary Ann Liebert, Massachusetts Medical Society, Oxford University Press, Springer, University of Chicago Press, Wiley, and Wolters Kluwer.

If you are working with a library or organization involved in relief efforts or impacted by the Haitian earthquake, please let them know of this service.

Emergency Access Initiative: http://eai.nlm.nih.gov

For questions regarding the Emergency Access Initiative, please email custserv@nlm.nih.gov or call 1-888-346-3656 in the United States, or 301-594-5983 internationally. Libraries in the United States can contact their Regional Medical Library for assistance and support at 1-800-338-7657