The following grants have been awarded under the 2007 Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries program. The program provides grants to libraries in the developing countries and their supporting organizations for projects that enhance libraries’ capacity in the fields of science, technology and medicine -- through library training and education; library infrastructure, technology or information services; and digitization and preservation of information.

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

An Elsevier Foundation grant will fund 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. The program draws on the University of Pennsylvania Libraries to contribute expertise to an established partnership between the University and the Government of Botswana, part of the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS partnership led by the Gates Foundation and the Government of Botswana. Because Botswana is regarded as a testing ground for policy and practice in this area, this grant has the potential to be ground-breaking in identifying ways libraries can contribute to improved outcomes for HIV/AIDS patients in the developing world.

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

An Elsevier Foundation grant will establish the capacity in the Niger delta region of Nigeria to deliver ongoing training on access to online resources, and will serve all four of the major universities in the densely populated Niger Delta region. There is currently very low use of online library resources at the universities due largely to the lack of training and awareness of the availability of online resources among librarians, faculty, and graduate 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 librarians responsible for the health sciences, agriculture, pharmacy and science; academic staff; graduate students, and the wider university community. It has the potential to serve as a very concrete and replicable 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 benefited from past support from the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, which includes the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations.

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

An Elsevier Foundation grant will improve the use and deployment of scientific, technical and medical information for disaster relief and reduction. The project will reinforce the efforts and initiatives taken by CRID in Central America and in the Andean countries to develop a “Latin American Virtual Library on Health and Disasters” to compile and share information on disasters, thus strengthening national and local capacity to manage and use health and disaster information. The grant will create a network of six centers in Central America and the Andean countries, which have among the highest incidence of disasters of any region of the world with major consequences for human life and economic development. The Elsevier Foundation grant will build the capacity of librarians to anticipate information needs during a disaster, deploy technologies for finding and disseminating disaster information, and participate more effectively in disaster-preparation and policy. It will also align standards and information management methodologies to allow for more extensive and efficient information sharing on disasters. The project has the potential to further demonstrate that the effective use and distribution of scientific technical and medical information, especially health information, in anticipation of and during disasters, has significant potential to save lives.

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

The Elsevier Foundation grant will extend the use of scientific, technical and medical information in East and South Africa in ways that will have a concrete impact on agricultural development. The grant will fund 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 with a 20 year track record in the region in support of community forest management, smallholder farmers, and pastoralist development.. 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. The FARM-Africa website is already well visited for such a site in this region, so adding this new content has the potential to greatly increase access to important content across the region.

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

A grant from the Elsevier Foundation will fund a highly focused and locally managed program to develop reference services at science and technology universities. References services are poor at these institutions and the library profession in Vietnam is viewed as an administrative function, rather than as value-adding and proactive. The project aims to use traditional training techniques and accepted materials to train librarians thoroughly in reference services and serve as seed professionals to spread knowledge to other librarians in their home institutions. The program provides essential training to address a basic need, which has the potential to have an important impact on science and technology in Vietnam.

E-library training initiative
Medical Library Association – “Librarians without Borders”

The grant will extend for one year an existing program of workshops and curriculum development on the use of online resources, including Hinari, Agora and Oare, aimed at researchers, clinicians, government officials, and librarians in developing countries in Asia and Africa. It will also provide for the further development and deployment of an email training course that provides a less expensive channel for delivering training and that is scaleable to participants in other countries where distance and resource constraints prevent users and trainers from attending workshops. The grant will facilitate the development of a ‘users survey’ that will assist in establishing future training priorities. The Medical Library Association/ Librarians without BordersSM program conducted eight 4-day workshops on the use of HINARI in Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nigeria and Tanzania, resulting in significant increases in usage.