Job Exchange Program with the Korean Medical Library Association

Submitted by Brian P. Bunnett

The ICS Job Exchange Task Force – comprised of Preet Rana, Beth Whipple, Fred Pond, Charlie Greenberg, and Brian Bunnett – is in the final stages of its project to design an exchange program between the Medical Library Association and the Korean Medical Library Association (KMLA).  There is considerable interest in such an exchange among Korean medical librarians.  The MLA Board, for its part, has also given its provisional approval.  Final approval is expected at the next MLA Board meeting, which will take place in October.  Before that can happen, however, Task Force members must create the criteria that will be used to select individual participants in the program as well the libraries our Korean colleagues will visit.  It is hoped that, once these selection criteria are completed, the program can begin soon thereafter. 

Exchange programs of this type can play an important role in promoting international cooperation, sharing expertise, and learning from colleagues whose libraries are sometimes quite different from our own.  Although the Task Force is concerned, at present, only with an exchange program between the MLA and KMLA, it is not too much to imagine that it might serve as a model that programs with other countries or library associations might follow. 

Brian P. Bunnett
University of New Mexico
Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center
Email: bbunnett@salud.unm.edu