FAQs

The NCD Medical Library is a 100% virtual library, servicing all 13 hospitals in the Northern California Division.

All clinicians and staff working within the Northern California Division can utilize the Library’s services. Due to recent restructuring, we are unable to provide services to those outside of the Northern California Division.

No. There is no physical library or print collection. All services are provided by remote Library staff.

Library services are typically available 8:30 am - 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays).

Use the Ask the Librarian form or send us an email at ncdmedlibrary@dignityhealth.org

The Library provides support for patient care, quality initiatives, hospital policy/procedure updates, and continuing professional education.
Services include:
  • Expert literature searches by Master’s degree-trained librarians
  • Training and education on evidence-based practice and library resources
  • Assistance in locating and retrieving full-text articles

The Library typically responds within 24-48 hours (during service hours only).

Turnaround times for specific services:

  • Article requests – Within 48-72 hours for non-urgent requests
  • Requests for 10+ Articles - turnaround times may vary depending on size of request
    • For requests for more than 10 articles, we ask users to first check Dignity Health's online subscriptions and/or free public databases, where articles are immediately available to you. If an article is not from one of Dignity Health's online journal subscriptions or not publicly available, we are happy to order it for you via interlibrary loan.
  • Literature searches
    • Non-patient care – 1-2 weeks
    • Patient care – 3-5 days
    • Urgent patient care – 1 day

Visit the Library Resource page to access PubMed@NCD and other literature search databases, plus clinical journals and textbooks.

Library resources must be viewed on the Dignity Health network for full-text access. Visit the Remote Access page for instructions on how to access some resources off-site.

UpToDate requires all off-site users to re-verify their affiliation with Dignity Health once every 90 days. To re-verify, log in to UpToDate while on any computer connected to the Dignity Health network. UpToDate’s terms of use prohibit sharing your user ID and password, so you need to personally re-verify. See this tip sheet for more information on registering for and renewing your access.

We do not offer this service. Please search our list of availble e-books.