The Director's corner:

Welcome to the Health Sciences Library (HSL) of New York Medical College!  Our mission is:  To advance education, research and scholarship by meeting the information needs of the New York Medical College community through the delivery of high quality resources, media, services and facilities.  Our vision is:  Connecting the NYMC community with information and ideas for improved health. 

Last year, staff completed a three year strategic plan http://library.nymc.edu/Information/gob10112.cfm.  Since 1992, staff has done annual goal-setting, this year we launched our own three year plan which will build on the College's new strategic initiatives in Building a Future on the Excellence of the Past http://www.nymc.edu/assets/NYMC_strategic_plan.pdf   Our priorities for this academic year include the following:  completing implementation of our new Ex Libris Voyager system expanding our web infrastructure extending our capabilities to support content for mobile devices document delivery digitization course reserves health literacy training academic scholarship online educational content and developing even stronger collections and resources.  Our new liaison plan to academic departments is one example of a new initiative already underway. 

We have accomplished much last year, notably the launch of NYMCat, the name of our new online catalog, but recognize that we must continue to plan.

We reach out to communicate with you:  current users, potential users, alumni, affiliated, unaffiliated, or just interested neighbors.  We now have a Facebook page, What's New blog, and Library course wiki.  We care very much about the quality of our access, services, and resources. We offer reference services via visits, phone, email and live chat. And, we care about you!

Based in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, the Health Sciences Library (HSL) serves more than 5000 faculty, employees, students, residents and fellows of the New York Medical College (NYMC).  The Library supports our constituents regardless of their location.  Our access policy defines user access, but we promote special memberships especially to our alumni.  The Library also provides staff support and scheduling for audiovisual or educational media, poster printing and use of the cardiac patient simulators (aka Harveys).

Our facilities:
The Library consists of 19,000 square feet, provides 225 seats, four small group multipurpose rooms, a 20 person classroom, and two computer labs.  Thanks to the donation of one NYMC alum, one of the computer labs will be renovated by June 2010.  A high-speed broadband fiber connects the Library to the University's network backbone, and wireless routers providing access throughout the campus.  The Library servers support an array of growing databases and resources on and offsite. 

Our access:
The Library's web page (http://library.nymc.edu ) serves as a gateway to access and link to information, resources, services and applications.  The Library's NYMCat catalog serves as the master file to all of our resources.   ILLiad, our online document delivery system, enables requests to be submitted and sent to or from users and other libraries.  Request forms also enable access to educational equipment, services, and room reservations. 

As of June 30, 2009, Library holdings total approximately 208,000, 33,000 unique titles, and 16,312 journal titles, with 14,597 available electronically.  The Reference and Information Services staff are highly skilled in providing education, training and outreach both onsite and to remote affiliated sites.  Liaisons to academic departments are established [link]; these staff members give outreach new meaning for 2009/10. 

The Library participates in various global networks or consortia…more than a dozen overall.  The New York State Library has designated us as a Leader Electronic Doorway Library.   The Library is also a Resource Library in Region 1 of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM).  The Library actively participates in the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) global network and remains a full member of METRO, the New York metropolitan area library planning cooperative.   We invite Loansome Doc users and requests; we honor METRO card access for the public via their local libraries.

Historically, the Library was established in 1885 under pressure from the then current students and alumni with encouragement from the faculty.  It has grown and changed with each move of its parent institution, New York Medical College.  The Library is also a founding member of the HILOW+ library consortia, composed of health sciences libraries in the upper Westchester County and Hudson Valley region of New York State.  The Library continues to support members via a web site address for this group.  As of 2009, the Library participates at various levels in more than a dozen library resource sharing consortia. 

Take some time to explore our resources, especially the links to the left of this page.  Contact us, and by all means, contact me Diana_cunningham@nymc.edu or (914) 594 4208).  I would love to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Diana Cunningham, MLS, MPH, AHIP, Associate Dean and Director