CAMBIN (Convent of Academic Medical Libraries in the Netherlands) promotes the efficiency and effectiveness of providing documentary scientific information within academic medicine. CAMBIN meets several times a year and serves as an important link between UKB, the UMCs, and national initiatives in the areas of licensing, open science, and medical education.
Review 2023–2025
In the past period, the focus included:
- Joint advisory work on (bio)medical licenses and renegotiations with major publishers
- Knowledge sharing on new developments such as AI applications and point-of-care tools
- Contributions to open education, including the open textbook Open Internal Medicine (Project Tulip)
- Supporting UMCs in patient care, research, and education
Priorities 2026–2027
1. Content and Licenses
CAMBIN annually inventories ongoing and new licenses within the Health domain and provides input to the UKB Licensing Working Group. In a period of budget cuts, CAMBIN advises UMCs on the costs, usage, and impact of licenses and explores opportunities for joint contracts.
In addition, the joint preservation policy for (printed) collections from 2008 will be reassessed.
2. Research and New Developments
CAMBIN strengthens collaboration between UMC libraries in the field of research support, with particular attention to support for Systematic Reviews.
CAMBIN also monitors developments in AI for searching, screening, and publishing, and provides advice on the added value, costs, privacy, and security of AI tools in collaboration with other UKB working groups.
3. Content for Medical Education
The working group stimulates knowledge exchange on the selection and access to medical information resources for education, with a focus on e-textbooks and open educational materials.
CAMBIN explores its role in stimulating, managing, and jointly developing open medical educational materials and open textbooks, partly in relation to national initiatives such as NPULS.
4. Open Science
CAMBIN contributes to advisory efforts on open science and open access within UKB and the UMCs. In a changing and costly publishing landscape, attention is given to sustainable alternatives such as preprints and Diamond Open Access, in alignment with national strategies and projects.
5. CAMBIN as a Library for the UMCs
A unique aspect of CAMBIN is that its members also fulfill the library function for their respective UMC or academic hospital. This role requires ongoing attention to supporting patient care, research, and education.
Want to know more?
The full elaboration and background information can be found in the CAMBIN Work Plan 2026–2027.(in Dutch: Werkplan CAMBIN 2026-2027).
Members
CAMBIN does not formally have a chair; the coordinating role is taken on by the library of the location hosting the next meeting. The members are the representatives of the eight Academic Medical Libraries in the Netherlands.
Peter Fokkens – Medische Bibliotheek UMC Groningen
Roy Hoitink – Medische bibliotheek UMC Utrecht
Lieuwe Kool – Medische Bibliotheek AMC
Pam Kaspers – Medical Library VU Amsterdam
Ilse Jansma – Walaeus Library UMC Leiden
Adrian Cohen – Medische Bibliotheek Erasmus MC Rotterdam
Esther Tijchon – Medical Sciences Library Radboud University Nijmegen
Fons van den Eeckhout – Randwyck Library Maastricht University / AZ Maastricht
UKB Liaison: Marjolein Nieboer – University of Groningen