Our Mission
The purposes of the Association are to encourage library organization and development throughout the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to coordinate library service throughout parts of the Province, to create friendly and helpful cooperation between libraries.
Who we are
The Newfoundland and Labrador Health Libraries Association is a nonprofit association of people who work in hospital and other health-related libraries and resource centres throughout the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Our goal is to share expertise and resources in order to provide the best possible service to our users.
An elected Executive governs the Association. The Executive includes a President, Vice-President/President-Elect, and Secretary/Treasurer. The Vice-President/ President-Elect automatically becomes President the following year. The Secretary/Treasurer position is traditionally held by one person but may be split between two people.
The NLHLA is an affiliated chapter of the Canadian Health Libraries Association.
What we do
- Network to meet colleagues with similar needs and interests
- Learn from one another how to handle problems
- Find out about new products, resources, and services
- Share resources to maximize what is available to users while cutting costs
- Initiate and coordinate projects to improve library services and information access in the health care field in Newfoundland
- Organize and participate in the annual NLHLA Annual General Meeting and Workshop
History
The Newfoundland and Labrador Health Libraries Association was created in 1979, initiated by Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Health Sciences Library. The Health Sciences Library was considered by many hospital libraries to be the resource for library needs, and there was a need to communicate its policies and procedures. As well, many of the hospital libraries were staffed by personnel with no knowledge of libraries and there was a pressing need to provide some basic library skills. When founded the NLHLA affiliated with the CHLA, but lapsed its affiliation in the 1980s. In 1992 the Association voted to renew it’s affiliation with the CHLA. In 1995 the NLHLA, with only some 10 active members, successfully hosted the first CHLA conference in Newfoundland, and followed up by hosting the CHLA conference again in 2004.