Medical Librarians Month – Making a Difference in Swaziland

Janet Schnall’s experience as an Invited Lecturer to a newly open nursing school in Swaziland and a return trip to teach  students and faculty preparing to open a medical school is next in our stories about librarians making a difference. By Janet Schnall, MS, AHIP Information Management Librarian University of Washington Seattle, WA Have I as a librarian changed lives? I believe YES! Last year as University of Washington Health Sciences Library liaison to the UW School of Nursing I received an email from a former UW PhD nursing student, Gloria Nam, whom I had previously assisted with her dissertation, asking for book donations for a new nursing school opening in Swaziland. Dr. Nam, PhD, MSN, FNP, RN was to become the Head of Department of Nursing Science and Dean of Student Affairs at Swaziland Christian University (SCU). Although I did not have nursing texts to donate, I did inform Dr. Nam about HINARI, the World Health Organization program that enables low and middle income countries to gain access to a large collection of health-related journals, eBooks and databases, such as PubMed. Shortly after, I was asked to come for several weeks as Invited Lecturer to this newly opened nursing school in Swaziland to introduce online health information resources to the faculty and students, train them on the HINARI World Health Organization program, and assist the new librarian in establishing a health sciences library at the University. Swaziland is a resource-poor country ...
Source: Dragonfly - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Funding News from Network Members News From NN/LM PNR Source Type: news