The mission of the Biomedical Libraries is to provide health and life sciences information resources and services that advance research and scholarship, education, and patient-care activities of Dartmouth Medical School (DMS), the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), the Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (IHPCP), and Dartmouth College.

The Biomedical Libraries' core priorities are:

• information: providing health and life sciences information that advances research and scholarship, education, and patient-care,
• education: developing and implementing programs to train and educate faculty, staff, and students in the skills needed to effectively find, evaluate, and manage health and life sciences information, and
• communication: partnering with our clients, being familiar with their needs, and providing and promoting resources and services that meet those needs.

The Libraries consist of the Dana Biomedical Library on the Medical School's Hanover campus and the Matthews-Fuller Health Sciences Library (MFHSL) at DHMC, and feature public computers, scanners, and printers; wireless network access; individual and small group study space; and a computer classroom (at MFHSL).

The Libraries have a significant digital presence via the web at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/biomed/. Clients of the Biomedical Libraries also have use of the extensive resources and services of all of Dartmouth's libraries ( http://library.dartmouth.edu/ ).

The Libraries provide an extensive array of information resources, including printed and digital books and journals, databases, clinical decision support tools, indexes, computer programs, and audiovisual materials. The Biomedical Libraries spent $1.62 million on information resources in FY2007. The print collections of the Biomedical Libraries contain approximately 94,000 physical book volumes and 166,000 serial volumes. Digital collections are extensive. About 3,800 digital biomedical journals are available via the Biomedical Libraries Web. Many databases, clinical decision support tools, full-text information resources, and digital books are also available. Some of the notable digital resources licensed by the Libraries include full-text clinical information in UpToDate, MD Consult, and Books@Ovid; indexes of the medical and scientific literatures such as PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, CSA PsycINFO, and Web of Science; evidence-based medicine resources such as Clinical Evidence and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews; and full-text collections of journal literature in multiple academic disciplines such as the Elsevier Science Direct, Lexis Nexis, and EBSCOhost research databases.

The Biomedical Libraries' staff is expert and approachable, and consists of 29 FTE, including 13 librarians and other professionals (see the Libraries' organization chart). The staff actively partner with clients to offer a full range of services to help them become skilled in finding, interpreting, managing, and applying information. Services include in-depth research support, comprehensive education programs, and delivery of information and literature directly to users' computers. There is a Librarian Liaison Program, under which librarians are assigned to various departments to foster direct and effective communication about services, information resources, and other library matters.

In addition to service to DHMC, several members of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Alliance of hospitals ( http://www.dhalliance.org/ ) contract with the Biomedical Libraries for information services--the Central Vermont Medical Center (Barre, Vermont), the Cooley Dickinson Hospital (Northampton, Massachusetts), the New London Hospital (New London, New Hampshire), and the Weeks Medical Center (Lancaster, New Hampshire).

For more information, contact:
William Garrity, Director
Biomedical Libraries
William.Garrity@Dartmouth.EDU
603/650-1662