Library Services

The MRL Librarians are skilled information professionals who support the health-related information needs of the HHS enterprise.

Anne Tarpey, MSIS
Senior Medical & Research Librarian/Team Leader
anne.tarpey@dshs.texas.gov  

Elizabeth de Leon, MLIS
Medical & Research Librarian
elizabeth.deleon@dshs.texas.gov

The MRL book collection has over 5,000 book and e-book titles. Topics include public health, medicine, and business leadership and management. 

• Books are borrowed for four weeks.
• Only Health and Human Services (HHS) employees can borrow library books and e-books.
• Books not owned by the MRL are borrowed from other libraries using the inter-library loan (ILL) service.

The MRL journal collection has over 230 electronic journals and five print journals.

• Journal topics are mainly public health and medicine.
• Only HHS employees may use the MRL journals.

MRL librarians provide two current awareness services to support the research activities of Texas HHS employees:

• Electronic Search Service: Employees involved in ongoing research can request the MRL librarians to do electronic searches on topics of interest, which creates a list of newly published materials.
   
• Tables of Contents Service: MRL librarians will send Table of Contents (TOCs) from journal titles pre-selected by HHS employees to their HHS email addresses. To subscribe, go to the Table of Contents request form.   

The MRL provides free document delivery services for books and journal articles to TX HHS employees.

The document delivery request process:

• HHS employee(s) complete a document delivery request form or email the MRL librarians with the request(s).
• If the MRL doesn't own the requested item(s), an interlibrary loan request to borrow from other libraries is made.
• When the items are ready, the MRL librarians emails, if possible, or ships them to the HHS employee(s) who made the request.

The MRL is a Network of National Library of Medicine (NNLM) member and DOCLINE participant.

The MRL follows the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, US Code). 

When HHS employees need help finding supporting literature, requests are sent to the MRL librarians, who do the searches for them.

The literature search request process:

• HHS employee(s) fill in a literature search request form or emails the literature search request to the MRL librarians.
• A list of book titles and/or journal article citations with or without abstracts is made by the MRL librarians.
• The list is sent to the HHS employee(s) to review.
• HHS employee(s) select titles and/or citations from the list.
• HHS employee(s) email the selected titles/citations back to the MRL librarians.
• The MRL librarians send the selected titles/journal articles to the HHS employee(s).

The Medical and Research Library News is a monthly newsletter on medical and public health websites, reports, journal abstracts, new MRL resources and services, and upcoming events and trainings. Go to join email list to sign up. To read the past three issues of the Medical and Research Library News, go to Medical and Research Library News.

MRL librarians answer reference questions using electronic and print resources. They also refer library users to TX HHS experts and other partners. MRL librarians do not give medical or legal advice.

HHS employees get in-person or virtual MRL tours and resource training sessions. Email the MRL to set up tours and/or trainings.