Assessing Medical Library Needs for an Eritrean Future
Elsevier Foundation awards the GWU Medical Center Training project a $50,000 grant
Talent and drive are abundant in Eritrea, but poor infrastructure—low bandwidth, few computers, books or trained librarians—prevent students, researchers, doctors and nurses from getting the information they need. The result is a widespread desire for information to support education and clinical care. In 2009, the Elsevier Foundation awarded the GWU Medical Center Training project a $50,000 grant to assess how Eritrea's health libraries can create a state-of-the art medical library and support graduate medical program to rebuild the growing ranks of medical professionals in Eritrea. GWU's recommendations address training, bandwidth, textbook shortages, distance learning as well as maximizing national collaboration, establishing international library networks and developing world partnerships.
Throughout the project, GWU shared best practice with the MLA Libraries Without Borders project and the UPenn/UBotswana information needs assessment, two key Elsevier Foundation Library projects. GWU also worked closely with ITOCA, the Information Training and Outreach Centre for Africa and the National Library of Medicine International Programs Office to deliver training.
During the intensive interview phase, Eritrean government ministers pledged support for professional health education. The GWU team strongly recommended merging the individual medical and health sciences programs into one National Health Sciences Library to serve as a centralized learning resource center with a clinical skills center, videoconferencing facilities, distance and continuing education capabilities and instructional design support. The library would not only serve the immediate needs of health care professionals and students in the capital but act as a central wheel of a hub of smaller libraries serving the rest of the country.
All in all, the GWU team has created an exportable model for developing countries which are looking to analyze their medical information needs to create sustainable clinical information systems.
