[afro-nets] Elsevier Foundation announces grants for innovative libraries

["Leela McCullough" <leela@healthnet.org>]

Elsevier Foundation Announces Grants for Innovative Libraries and New Scholars

Awardees set example for innovation in developing countries and the academic workplace

New York, 13 February 2008 The Elsevier Foundation has announced today that it has committed a total of $594,000 in grants to thirteen institutions from around the world in support of initiatives that promote the work of libraries and scholars in science, technology and medicine. The recipient programs were selected from over 150 applicants worldwide for their innovation and potential for impact in the developing world and the academic workplace.

Six of these grants have been awarded under the Elsevier Foundation's program for Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries, which helps libraries build their capacity to use scientific, technical and medical information to promote health and economic advancement in the developing world.  This year's awardees include institutions working in Africa, Latin America and Asia to improve access to scientific information, develop information resources, and train librarians and researchers on how to use and deploy information for patient care, health research, HIV/AIDS, disaster preparedness, and agricultural development.

The Elsevier Foundation provides grants to institutions around the world, with a focus on support for the world's libraries and for scholars in the early stages of their careers.  Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than 50 grants worth over a million dollars to non-profit organizations working in these fields. Through gift-matching, the Foundation also supports the efforts of Elsevier employees to play a positive role in their local and global communities. The Elsevier Foundation is funded by the Elsevier, a leading global publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services.

For more information please visit www.elsevierfoundation.org or contact:

Category 1: Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries

University of Pennsylvania Libraries
Information/Library Needs Assessment for Medical Research and Health Care Delivery Initiatives in Botswana

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries will conduct a comprehensive assessment of library and information services to support medical education and improve HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment in Botswana, a country with the second highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world. Successful HIV/AIDS initiatives implemented in Botswana often serve as a model for similar programs elsewhere in the world. Funded by the Elsevier Foundation grant, this comprehensive study of the role of libraries in providing access to critical information will help identify ways libraries can contribute to improved outcomes for HIV/AIDS patients in the developing world. This program is part of the University of Pennsylvania's established partnership with the Government of Botswana, as part of the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS partnership led by the Gates Foundation and the Government of Botswana.

University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Strengthening Usage Skills in Access to Online Resources in the
Niger Delta Universities of Nigeria

The Elsevier Foundation grant will establish the capacity to deliver ongoing training on access to online resources in the Niger delta region of Nigeria, and will serve all four major universities in this densely populated region. The use of online library resources at the universities is currently very low due largely to the lack of training and awareness of the availability of online resources among librarians, faculty, and students. Under the proposal, the universities would establish and equip a permanent Elsevier E-Library Training Room, and fund the launch of a series of training programs targeted at the wider university community.  The program has the potential to serve as a model for other countries and regions.  The Training Room and course program would be maintained in subsequent years by the University of Port Harcourt, which has in the past benefited from support of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, which includes the Carnegie and MacArthur Foundations.

Regional Disaster Information Center for Latin America & the Caribbean (CRID), Pan American Health Organization, National Library of Medicine
Creation of a Latin American Virtual Library on Health and Disasters

An Elsevier Foundation grant will help improve the use and deployment of scientific, technical and medical information relevant to disaster relief and reduction in Central America and the Andean countries, the region with one of the highest incidence of natural disasters in the world.

The project will build on CRID's efforts to develop a "Latin American Virtual Library on Health and Disasters", with the goal of improving national and local capacity to manage and use health and disaster information. The Elsevier Foundation grant will build the capacity of librarians to anticipate information needs during a disaster, deploy technologies for identifying and disseminating disaster information, and participate more effectively in disaster-preparation and policy.  The project has the potential to further demonstrate that the effective use and distribution of scientific technical and medical information in anticipation of and during disasters, has significant potential to save lives.

FARM-Africa (Food and Agriculture Research Management)
Training and Advisory Unit Co-ordination and Digitisation Project

The Elsevier Foundation grant will extend the use of scientific, technical and medical information in East and South Africa to support agricultural development in the region.  The grant will fund an audit  of a large array of agricultural science and technology resources developed or acquired by FARM-Africa, a well-regarded organization, which has been leading initiatives in support of community forest management, smallholder farmers, and pastoralist development for the past 20 years. The long-term goal of the project is to compile and digitize extensive but geographically dispersed resources into a much more accessible web-based portal for use by farmers, NGOs, governments and the private sector across the region.

Vietnam Development Information Center
Capacity-building for Vietnamese Science and Technology University
Librarians in Reference and Information Services

A grant from the Elsevier Foundation will fund a locally managed program to develop currently underserviced and underutilized reference services at science and technology universities. The project aims to use traditional training techniques and accepted materials to train librarians in reference services, and enable them to extend that knowledge to others at their home institutions.

Medical Library Association "Librarians without Borders"
E-library training initiative

An Elsevier Foundation grant will extend an existing program of workshops and curriculum development on the use of online resources aimed at researchers, clinicians, government officials and librarians in developing countries of Asia and Africa.  It will also provide for the further development and deployment of an email training course that provides a cost efficient channel for delivering training and can be extended to participants in countries where distance and resource constraints prevent users and trainers from attending workshops.  The grant will facilitate development of a user survey which will serve as a benchmarking tool to identify future training priorities.  The Medical Library Association/ Librarians without Borders SM program conducted eight four-day workshops on the use of the HINARI program (Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative) in Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nigeria and Tanzania, resulting in significant increase in usage. The HINARI program, set up by World Health Organization together with major publishers, enables developing countries to gain access to one of the world's largest collections of biomedical and health literature.

--
Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services

AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology
30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
Tel: +1-617-926-9400    Fax: +1-617-926-1212
Email: lmccullough@aed.org
Web: http://www.healthnet.org