https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12451 Sat, 18 Apr 2026 15:40:52 GMT 2026-04-18T15:40:52Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12474 Knowledge and Utilization of the United States National Library of Medicine's Biomedical Information Products and Services Among African Health Sciences Librarians Kanyengo, Christine Wamunyima; Ajuwon, Grace Ada; Kamau, Nancy; Horta, Cristina; Anne, Abdrahamane The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) has the largest collection of biomedical information products and services in the world. Little is known of the extent to which librarians in sub-Saharan Africa are aware of and use these resources. The study's aim was to assess knowledge and frequency of use of NLM's biomedical information products and services among African librarians. Forty-three of the 50 delegates at the 11th biannual Congress of the Association of Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) participated in the study. The findings showed that participants' knowledge of NLM information products and services was low and that there is a need for increased awareness and training in the use of NLM's information products and services in order for users on the African continent to effectively benefit from them. Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12474 2011-07-29T00:00:00Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12473 Development of a training manual on information literacy for health science students in Africa Chikonzo, Agnes The past three decades have witnessed an explosion in the volume of published medical and health information [1]. Advances in telecommunication technology in the last two decades have led to the development of computer networks that allow access to vast amount of information and services [2]). The amount of electronic health information available to users now is greater than ever and keeps growing on a daily basis. The Internet, a global system of connection between millions of computers that allows almost instant access to and dissemination of information has greatly and dramatically changed the means by which information is generated, processed and retrieved. With the advent of the Internet, bibliographies, databases, reference and consumer health information resources, Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) resources and journals with full text articles have become more accessible, allowing the academic scientific community, medical professionals, students and consumers to be up to date in a previously unthinkable manner regarding the speed and efficiency of accessing and obtaining information [3]. The Internet has now become a key source of health information to students, teachers, other professionals and the general public. The availability of this new and potentially vast source of information also improves strategies for medical decision-making [4] as well as teaching and learning. Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12473 2009-10-01T00:00:00Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12471 Network of African Medical Librarians presentation at MEPI Symposium 2012 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia The role of the Network of African Medical Librarians (NAML) in Medical Education, Research and Training Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12471 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12470 Prof. Johnstone Kumwenda: University of Malawi, UNIMA, Internal medicine Our MEPI project is concerned with training our health staff on how to deal with HIV associated malignancies. We have three main aims and the first aim is to train a few scientists in how to carry out HIV associated malignancy surveillance. For this task we are training two people at a Masters’ of Public Health level at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. We chose two nurses to do an MPH at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. When they finish we hope they will help us to map out the HIV associated malignancies in Malawi. Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12470 2012-09-24T00:00:00Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12469 Dr. Miliard Derbew: Addis Ababa University (AAU), Department of Surgery The biggest challenges, when you live in a country where there is a lot of problems usually the resources needed to solve the problems will be very great, very much increased. The challenge is we have a lot of problems in front of us and we have limited resources, and since we are living in a country of, a big nation, 80 million, and now we have 23 medical schools and focusing on four medical schools only in Ethiopia out of 23 is a challenge because you know you can’t improve the health standard of the country just by changing a few schools, but you have to bring on board most of the schools. So this is one challenge because we cannot reach the other schools. Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12469 2012-09-24T00:00:00Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12468 Dr. Oathokwa Nkomazana: Associate Program Director at the University of Botswana School of Medicine. Oathokwa Nkomazana is my name and I come from Botswana. I work in the University of Botswana School of Medicine. I trained as an ophthalmologist but also in Public Health. Our MEPI project came in the second year of existence as a medical school, so we were really brand new. I think the MEPI just allowed us to do what we had planned to do anyway, but do it quicker and maybe in some ways even do it better because there were resources to ensure that we could do it better. And so we used the money to develop the curriculum, we used the money to develop and strengthen the infrastructure, especially the information technology infrastructure. We used the money for faculty development and also to establish what we call the health systems research unit, which we hope will evolve to a center. Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12468 2012-09-24T00:00:00Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12467 Prof. James Gita Hakim: MEPI Principal Investigator Professor of Medicine at the Department of Medicine, University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe The MEPI program in Zimbabwe started at exactly the same time as the other twelve MEPI programs, which was in October 2010. We had of course planned a comprehensive program while writing the competing application for the award. We had written what we thought was meritorious. When it was announced that we had won the grant, the immediate task was to translate all the activities that we had planned into practice. That is not always easy, especially with a program as complex as the MEPI program. Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12467 2012-09-18T00:00:00Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12466 Dr. Emilia Noormahomed: MEPI Principal Investigator, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique Our MEPI initiative has four main goals. One to increase the number and the quality of training of residents so that they will be the future faculty members for the three public universities in Mozambique and the others that will come later. The second goal is to develop the infrastructure for the research because we see that we are behind in the research. We don’t do much research in Mozambique due to diverse reasons. The third goal is to develop the infrastructure for bioinformatics. Since we are a country with a lack of human resources, and in fact MEPI came to overcome, to help overcome this issue. We are based in Maputo and until five years ago we were the only medical school in the country. Now there are two more public universities. But they face, they don’t have enough human resources for teaching. So with this bioinformatic infrastructure we’ll be able to support teaching through telemedicine, through video conferences. Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12466 2012-09-25T00:00:00Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12465 David Olufem Olaleye: MEPI Principal Investigator, Lecturer, University of Ibadan, Nigeria The biggest challenge is actually, you know, getting everyone on board. Getting all the stakeholders on board. Getting my colleagues to understand the conceptsthat we tryto put forward. This for me is understandable. I do not see it as a problem and I don’t want to see it as a problem, because these are the proposal concepts that a few of us responded to the RFA based on the initiative, which I every time said at every opportunity that this is a great initiative, coming from the US government through the NIH to empower the African institutions to restructure and enhance the medical education program in the continent. So we responded, and we responded based on our background coming from our involvement in the PEFA program. Some of us have been involved in the HIV programs, responding to the problem of HIV in the country, for well over 25 years. And people came in and they integrated this into a structured training program. Sat, 01 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12465 2012-09-01T00:00:00Z https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12464 Prof. Yakub Mulla: MEPI Principal Investigator; Dean of Postgraduate Studies, University of Zambia, Zambia Mulla, Prof. Yakub Zambia is a country that attained independence in 1964. Two years later, in ‘66, the new medical school began, and population of Zambia has increased now from 4 million to 13 million. One of the failures of government has been the failure to increase the number of training, the training capacity for medical students. And for 45 years, even though it was initially in the health, strategic health plan to increase the number of spaces and to increase the training capacity for training medical graduates, there was no government drive to take up that initiative. I personally, as Dean of the School of Medicine over time had an opportunity to speak to three previous Ministers of Health, and I discussed with them whether it was possible for government to start a new medical school in Ndola. And I tried to convince them and make a point. But none of those ministers, including some of them that were doctors, could take up that initiative. In the last government just as MEPI came in, the new Minister of Health was an engineer. He was very energetic, young and over a conference on AIDs in Namibia, I had an opportunity to speak to him over a cup of tea and I told him of the health strategic plan and how we should have had a new medical school many years earlier, and that for 45 years government had not had a plan to start a new medical school. Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://library.adhl.africa/handle/123456789/12464 2012-08-28T00:00:00Z