Growing together with African health libraries: partnerships in Health Information's impact and lessons for future partnerships

AbstractPartnerships in Health Information (Phi) was a UK charity which worked with African health librarians, and other information professionals, to improve access to high ‐quality information for health professionals and the public in Africa from 1992 to 2016. This research was initiated by Shane Godbolt and aims to explore the experiences of African librarians and information professionals who visited the UK and who otherwise worked in partnership with Phi, follow ing up on a previous Phi report that had shown significant mutual learning and development benefits for the UK hosts of such visitors. Also, to derive lessons on how visits and partnerships may be improved. In March 2020, a total of 21 people who had participated in partnership activities with Phi w ere invited to take part in an online survey. Thirteen people completed the survey. The results from the survey indicate it was hugely beneficial to visiting information professionals from Africa, for themselves and their services, through capacity building, networking, professional and personal dev elopment and learning tangible skills. Respondents provided several ideas on how partnerships could be improved in the future, including more opportunities for networking, longer‐term evaluation, enlarged programmes and increased funding. We conclude that partnerships based on Phi's long‐term, f lexible approach can be of great benefit and provide insights and recommendations that could help any organisation seeking...
Source: Health Information and Libraries Journal - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research