Ghanaian Scholars Address Global Health Challenges with Library Resources

Submitted by Gurpreet K. Rana

In February 2011, under the auspices of the Ghana-Michigan PARTNER Program Fellowship, University of Michigan welcomed 14 scholars from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for a four-month study and research stay. The objective of the fellowship program is to strengthen the interdisciplinary research capacity in Ghana to address global health challenges and include “long-term, comprehensive training of post-doctoral scientists who will become future leaders of interdisciplinary global health research in Ghana”.   (Source: Global REACH, University of Michigan Medical School)

           

 A major component of the PARTNER fellows’ research activities was based upon the successful use of library services and research databases. To provide a foundation in research methods and information skills and to address the scholars’ goals in developing creative solutions for global health, I had the chance to create an integrated instruction program, focusing on literature searching and subject-specific information resources. It was a privilege to provide hands-on computer classroom sessions and lectures, small groups instruction for subject-specific teams, and individual consultations.   The four subject-specific research teams that the scholars were divided into were: Gender and Health; Innovative Technologies in Global Health; Genetic and Epidemiological Study of Breast Cancer; and Occupational and Environmental Health.   I particularly appreciated the scholars’ subject knowledgebase and eagerness to further their information-seeking skills. 

           

The Ghanaian scholars’ arrival was marked by “the” snowstorm of Winter 2011.  These intrepid scholars, most of whom had never seen snow, put any possible culture shock aside to deal with temperature shock! On their first day of instruction at the Taubman Health Sciences Library, most did not remove coats, gloves or scarves.   My statement: “Would you believe me if I told you it gets up to 35 degrees Celsius in the summer?” was met with disbelieving laughter.  (It was 14 degrees F that day).  

One of the fellows exclaimed:  “Don’t say anything funny because if you do, I’ll get tears in my eyes and they will freeze on my face!”  And so began a wonderful relationship with 14 remarkable individuals…..

           

 

Members of the Ghana-Michigan PARTNER Program Fellowship program with instructors and mentors.

My experience with the PARTNER fellows is one I am not soon to forget.  I cannot fully express in a few sentences how the PARTNER fellows, for whom I created instruction sessions, left after actually teaching me.  Their excitement and gratitude in learning information-seeking skills and finding new research materials to investigate made me consider once again how very fortunate we are in our own information environments and the degree of information inequity that scholars in developing countries experience everyday as they conduct vital research.  The PARTNER fellows’ generosity of spirit, openness, and intentions to change “their world” through education is inspiring and provides another reminder of “why we do what we do” as information professionals. 

Gurpreet K. Rana

Taubman Health Sciences Library

University of Michigan 

Email: preet@umich.edu

Batter Up and Get Ready to Hit a Home Run at MLA 2012 with ICS!

Submitted by Alicia Livinski

At MLA 2012, the International Cooperation Section (ICS) is the leading sponsor for a great session on librarians working outside of the library or box. We will also co-sponsor with the Public Health/Health Administration (PH/HA) and Relevant Issues Sections another interesting and timely session on the sustainability of global health library projects. http://www.mlanet.org/am/am2012/index.html

ICS will lead the session - Stepping out of the Box: Librarians Working in Unconventional Roles and Places in Support of Global Health. This will be a contributed papers session. The main focus will be to highlight the various roles that librarians are fulfilling on global health–focused programs and projects. The focus is global health; however, this encompasses anything international (e.g., collaboration, programs, partnerships etc.) that may not be focused on global health per se. Please consider the work you are doing, and if it is global health, public health or health-related submit an abstract for review!

The other session ICS will be co-leading is Going the Distance: Keeping Your Global Health Projects Alive. This will also be a contributed papers session. We hope to during this session to focus on the sustainability of global health library projects. More and more institutions are developing global health programs and including libraries. But in today's budget climate, continuing to find funding for expensive global projects can sometimes prove difficult. This session could include personal success stories as well as detailed strategies from libraries that have developed, maintained, and continued to grow their global health library presence.   

The deadline for submission is November 2, 2011.

Instructions for submitting an abstract are online at - http://www.mlanet.org/am/am2012/sect_prog/index.html.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Alicia Livinski (Alicia.Livinski@nih.gov).

I hope many ICS members will consider submitting abstracts for 2012!

Alicia Livinski
Library Bethesda
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Email: livinska@mail.nih.gov

Project DINE

Submitted by Brian P. Bunnett

What are the distinguishing characteristics of a librarian?  I’ve often ruminated on this topic and have come up with a preliminary list.  First, they like to read.  Although they themselves are not always well organized they are good organizers, viz., of meetings, conferences, or of data.  And speaking of conferences, they, like their scientist colleagues, are avid attendees at professional meetings and conferences, which accounts, by the way, for the canvas reg bags they are always seen carrying.  They are likely to be more introverted than otherwise, although there are notable exceptions.  They incline naturally towards sharing and cooperation.  And, of course, they love to eat.  These characteristics are most often seen in combination rather than isolation.  This accounts, for example, for their desire not just to consume but to also read about food, not just to organize a meeting but to organize one in which food plays a prominent role.

The above helps explain the enthusiasm for Project DINE (Dinner In New England).  At the MLA in Minneapolis last May, it came to light that another chapter holds its business meeting at a restaurant.  This news, this revelation, spread quickly through the ICS.  Soon we were all asking ourselves the same question – why don’t we do something like that?  I talked the situation over with our Chair-Elect, Alicia Livinski, and we decided to stage a sort of rehearsal of this dinner at the MLA in Seattle in 2012.  This would lead up to the real thing - a full-fledged dinner business meeting at a restaurant with actual waiters, menus, and adult beverages – at our 2013 meeting in Boston, thus Dinner In New England.

We need some volunteers to serve on the Project DINE Task Force.  These members will be entrusted with a mission that is unprecedented in the history of the section – I know this is true because I just finished reading this history (see my blurb, elsewhere in this newsletter, entitled “Volunteer Sought to Update Section History”). This mission is to find an appropriate restaurant in Seattle in which to hold our rehearsal dinner and then, based on this experience, explore what will be involved in holding the real thing in Boston in 2013. 

In an informal poll I conducted in late August a slight majority of the respondents favored having our 2012 business meeting at its usual time (indecently early in the morning) and usual place (the conference hotel). Our rehearsal dinner will be an occasion for us to socialize and otherwise whoop it up but no section business will take place.  Our 2013 business meeting, it is hoped, will be held in the evening at a private room in a restaurant, perhaps with corporate sponsors subsidizing the wingding.

Contact me if you are interested in serving on the Project DINE Task Force (bbunnett@salud.unm.edu).

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

MLA 2013 Conference Theme

Submitted by Alicia Livinski

MLA 2013 will be a joint meeting with the 11th International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML), the 7th International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS), and the 6^th International Clinical Librarian Conference (ICLC). 

The general meeting theme for 2013 is: "One Health: Information in an Interdependent World". One Health encompasses human, animal, public and environmental health, climate change, food safety/production, and international health policy. 
The National Program Committee (NPC) is also working with 4 general meeting topics:

1. "One Health: Trustworthy and Authoritative Publicly Available Information",

2. "New Methods of Publishing",

3. "Global Data Sharing to Advance Science", and

4. "Environmental Aspects of Global Health".

Alicia Livinski
Library Bethesda
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Email: livinska@mail.nih.gov

Volunteer Sought to Update Section History

Submitted by Brian P. Bunnett

The following link will take you to a brief history of the International Cooperation Section written by T. Mark Hodges for the MLA Centennial in 1999:  http://www.mlanet.org/archive/history/unit-history/international.html.  

I encourage section members to read this history and am certain they will find it to be well written and entertaining.  The description of the pre-history of the section and of its slow evolution into the ICS is especially revealing. The ICS did not become an official MLA section until 1991. This year marks our 20^th anniversary and the occasion should be commemorated by an updating of our section history. I am asking an enterprising member to take on this task, which will win for him or her the gratitude of his or her section colleagues.  Contact me if you are interested (bbunnett@salud.unm.edu).

Brian P. Bunnett

ICS Chair
University of New Mexico
Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center
Email: bbunnett@salud.unm.edu