MLA Librarians without Borders® Activities: Update on the E-library Training Initiative

Submitted by Lenny Rhine, FMLA, Gainesville, FL

Since 2007, the Elsevier Foundation has generously funded the E-library Training Initiative of the MLA Librarians without Borders® program. The activities of this initiative primarily focus on conducting training for the HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme and developing and updating training material for this program. Coordinated by Lenny Rhine, FMLA, more than forty-five workshops in twenty-five countries have been conducted. More than twenty new training modules and support tools have been developed.

Recent developments include an online “train the trainers” course for individuals from industrialized countries whose institutions have linkages with HINARI-eligible organizations. This and the basic HINARI short course are accessible via the MLA Mrooms site. Some of the HINARI-related activities conducted by MLA members who have completed the “train the trainers” course include training visitors and graduate students from eligible countries, conducting workshops at the sites of eligible institutions, translating the short course into Spanish, and creating a video of the short course.

Other recent activities of the initiative include the development of the “Evidence-based Resources for HINARI Users” and “E-book Resources for HINARI Users” modules and short courses for two partner programs in agriculture (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture [AGORA]) and environmental research (Online Access to Research in the Environment [OARE]). All the short courses are available via the Moodle server of the Information Training and Outreach Centre for Africa (ITOCA).

In early July, the Elsevier Foundation released a new video on YouTube, “Building a Global Research Culture,” which features a recent workshop for librarians, doctors, and lecturers at the University of Swaziland. This workshop was a collaboration between the MLA Librarians without Borders® program and ITOCA.
The MLA Librarians without Borders® program looks forward to continued support from the Elsevier Foundation.