Cunningham fellowship changes?

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:     [MLAICS-L] Cunningham fellowship changes?
Date:     Fri, 28 Oct 2005 11:50:01 +0200
From:     Lise Nørregaard Christensen / Aalborg Sygehus
Reply-To:     Lise Nørregaard Christensen / Aalborg Sygehus
To:     MLAICS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU



As a former Cunningham Fellow (1984/85) I have also been considering to comment on these changes.

The positive side of it is that more people could benefit.

But I totally agree with Ursula Poland that it would be hard to adjust to the US environment (even for people coming from "Western" countries) in such a short time.

The short fellowship would be of value only to persons who knew beforehand that they wanted to study *one *specific procedure or wanted to visit *one *specific library.

Otherwise the experience would be very superficial.

Getting an impression of medical librarianship in several types of libraries, the differences East-coast/West-coast, the number of personal contacts for forming future networks etc.etc. would be very limited.

As to the stories about former CFs who preferred to spend their time on shopping or complained of "seeing the same things in all libraries" can (and should) be avoided by better planning - and adjusting plans en route - by hosts in collaboration with the fellow.

The fellowship is 3 months at present. That should be sufficient to get some in-depth experience if you don't visit too many places.

The problems for the CF getting leave of abscence should be solvable. One must expect that the applicant is willling to find ways to manage this problem in order to get the chance of learning so much that can be of value to their library and their personal career.

The MLA Annual meeting can be a very overwhelming experience, especially, I imagine, if you have only stayed in the US for 1 month.

Many of the CF-applicants (especially from the 3rd world) may also be interested in getting inspiration and good ideas in some of the more "humble" medical libraries and they will not be so interested in the "high-tech" and very sofisticated papers at the annual meeting if they have only been in the country for 1 month.

I have often expressed how grateful I am that I had the wonderful experience to be a CF.

For 6 months I had a variety of impressions, the possiblity to work in and to see so many different types of libraries. The many interesting people I met, the opportunity to get to know some of the best of American culture. This fellowship truly gave me a much more nuanced impression of the United States and I have tried to work as an "ambassador" for MLA in the Scandinavian and European setting. And I learned so much that I have been able to use in my "own" library.

There are several shorter fellowships and possibilities for exchange via Sister-libraries.

But The Cunningham Fellowship is such an outstanding and very special experience and I would deeply regret if other librarians from abroad would not have an opportunity to benefit from it.

Lise N. Christensen

Medical Library

Aalborg Hospital

DK-9000 Aalborg

Denmark

tel. +45 99323405

e-mail: lnc@aas.nja.dk