Librarians without Borders^®

'Train the Trainers'
CE Reports

Honolulu, HI
Washington, DC
Lisbon, Portugal
Istanbul, Turkey
London, United Kingdom
Tallahassee, FL

Honolulu, HI

Date: May 15-19, 2009
Location: Honolulu, HI
MLA CE 303 - 'HINARI Training the Trainers'
Instructor: Lenny Rhine, e-library training coordinator

Particulars of Workshop:

The 4-hour course was held in conjunction with the 2009 Medical Library Association (MLA) meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, May 20th, 2009.
It had 18 participants consisting of health librarians from the USA and Canada; individuals received 4 CE credits from MLA.
The participants primarily were from institutions that have linkages with HINARI eligible organizations and consequently...
The objectives were to train these individuals to:
1. teach graduate students or visitors from HINARI eligible institutions
2. conduct workshops at partner institutions
3. become facilitators for HINARI distance learning courses
As a group, these individuals had significant knowledge of searching skills and the nuances of PubMed
The course material emphasized:
HINARI overview - general environment, background, eligibility/registration process, do's and don'ts
HINARI: the basics using the 'Short Course' - searching skills, HINARI website, Partner Publishers' websites, HINARI/PubMed, MY NCBI
Training materials overview
Funding options
Questions and answers session - teaching environment, potential participants, logistics of workshops, travel considerations, etc.

Note: the course included 'hands on' activities but considerably less than at a regular HINARI workshop.

Uniqueness of the Workshop

The 'hands on' activities of this course focused on the unique details of HINARI and HINARI/PubMed. (e.g. HINARI and Free Full Text tabs)
The Internet access was industrialized country level and, consequently, there were no bandwidth or electricity issues.
The participants' skill level was high as many of these individuals have experience teaching in health libraries (although different material).
Regarding the instruction, the most difficult aspect was knowing the level of detail necessary for the participants. At times, more detail was requested. Ditto for the 'hands on' activities.
The discussion of funding options, teaching environment, logistics of workshop, training opportunities, etc. was unique since this workshop was geared toward potential trainers from industrialized countries. The communication was lively with considerable input from those participants who have been involved in international projects.
The participants also contributed suggestions for the training material - see below

By-products of 'Train the Trainers' Workshop

The networking component cannot be underestimated. Many of the 18 students have had international experiences and were excited to be able to communicate about current and potential projects. All the participants were 'on the same page' regarding international librarianship/outreach. This was a lively group especially during the questions and answers session.
The participants noted typos in the training material and also made content suggestions (particularly on developing an Evidence Based Medicine module). One suggested adding 'AIDS' to the 'find journals by subject category' drop down menu.
A number of potential activities were discussed:
1. a participant will conduct training during an upcoming visit to several universities in Moldova
2. another will work with vet med doctors from her institution who volunteer in Afghanistan
3. two bilingual participants are interested in assisting in developing and facilitating a self-paced 'short course' in Spanish
4. another would like to schedule a 4-day HINARI course for Ethiopian physicians linked to a University of Toronto program
5. a CDC librarian who has conducted a HINARI overview during a month long training program now will request four hours to teach a formal short course for eligible students
A final byproduct is that, while at MLA, I was able to discuss EndNote PubMed options with a Thompson technical support person and also attend the NLM update and learn about forthcoming changes in PubMed that are to be launched in late summer 2009.

Conclusions

In December 2006 during the initial planning for the Librarians Without Borders grant, Barbara Aronson suggested that I conduct this type of training. This took 2 ½ years and always was in the back of my mind. The potential impact of this course is high and I plan to a follow-up with all the participants—to see what training activities were conducted.

A similar course is scheduled for the ICML/Brisbane in August 2009.

Hawaii photos

Washington, DC

Date: May 26, 2010
Location: George Washington University, Washington, DC
Instructor: Lenny Rhine, e-library training coordinator

Medical Library Association CE 303 was conducted at GWU in conjunction with the MLA National Meeting. It was geared toward individuals from industrialized countries whose institutions have linkages with HINARI eligible organizations. The goal of this course was to give the participants the knowledge needed to teach the basics of HINARI. These individuals will be able to train visitors or post-graduate students from HINARI eligible institutions, conduct workshops at their partner organizations or make presentations to interested groups at their institution.

22 individuals attended including Petros Miskir (Medical Library Director, University of Addis Ababa) and Deseo Ketshogileng (Medical Librarian, University of Botswana - not HINARI eligible) plus several individuals who have been at HINARI eligible institutions (Alexandra Gomes - Eritrea, Xan Goodman - Uganda)

Petros made a brief presentation that was quite useful from his perspective as a user. He made several suggestions that were forwarded to HINARI staff. Another useful suggestion was rewording the ‘Search… through PubMed’ to ‘PubMed @ HINARI’ and/or adding the PubMed icon. This is similar to the 2009 workshop where participants made several useful suggestions particularly about the development of the evidence-based practice module. Another similarity to 2009 was the level networking done by the participants as everyone is enthusiastic about international librarianship.

Additionally at MLA, I communicated with several individuals from the previous course and we were able to continue the momentum of that group. Of the 19 participants in 2009, 8 had conducted some HINARI related activity during the past year. I also made contact with Claire Twose, Johns Hopkins University, and an institution with a steady stream of visitors from HINARI eligible countries.

Submitted by: Lenny Rhine, June 20, 2010

Lisbon, Portugal

Date: June 16, 2010
Location: Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
Instructor: Lenny Rhine, e-library training coordinator

A ‘Train the Trainers’ one day course was conducted at the EAHIL Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. It was geared toward individuals from industrialized countries whose institutions have linkages with HINARI eligible organizations. The goal of this course was the same - to give the participants the knowledge needed to teach the basics of HINARI. These individuals will be able to train visitors or post-graduate students from HINARI eligible institutions, conduct workshops at their partner organizations or make presentations to interested groups at their institution.

The course included an overview of HINARI and its environment, the basics of the Short Course, funding options, a brief summary of Internet-based health information and an overview of the training material. BabelMeSH was added as this was of interest to and potentially of use for almost all the participants.

Gaby Caro, HINARI/Geneva, was the co-trainer. The course was dedicated to Vimbai Hingwe who had died in a car accident two weeks ago. He was the principal HINARI trainer for ITOCA (Information and Training Centre in Africa) and his training ability, energy and enthusiasm will be difficult to replace.

14 individuals attended this workshop. The majority were from Portugal with 3 from Italy, 1 from Mozambique, 1 from France and 1 from the United Kingdom. Approximately ½ the participants were in institutions (universities, hospitals) that had linkages with individuals from HINARI eligible organization. The remaining participants were interested in learning about HINARI and how they possibly could participate. Flatiel Vilanculos, the WHO Country Office/Mozambique periodically conducts HINARI training and was able to discuss the environment in the eligible countries. Flatiel did note that an undersea cable has reached Mozambique and increased the bandwidth for the country.

During the course, there was considerable networking including some valuable contacts for Gaby. Two of the participants suggested options for further promoting the ‘train the trainers’ idea in Europe and I will follow up on this.

Lisbon, Portugal photos

Istanbul, Turkey

Date: July 5, 2011
Location: Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey
Instructors: Lenny Rhine, e-library training coordinator and Gaby Caro, World Health Organization/Geneva

Eighteen participants attended the 'Train the Trainers' Course during the EAHIL conference, including individuals from Finland, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada and Australia. The workshop also included some participants from lower income but non-eligible countries (United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Poland). The logistics for the workshop were very well coordinated by the staff of Koc University. The venue and Internet connection were on the level that would not be matched in a HINARI eligible country.

The course was geared toward individuals from HINARI eligible institutions – to become more knowledgeable about the program, numerous resources and training materials. The objective was for these individuals to learn the skills to participate in HINARI related activities either at their institutions or partner organizations in eligible countries. Possible outcomes include:

Train visitors/graduate students from HINARI eligible countries
Conduct a training course at a HINARI eligible institution
Be a facilitator for a HINARI distance learning course
Assist with developing training material
Make presentations to interested groups - faculty, students, colleagues, health NGOs, visitors from eligible institutions
Accompany faculty or students - to outreach activities at institutions in HINARI eligible countries

This type of training has been successful at the previous five workshops conducted at meetings in industrialized countries and the online version of this course. We anticipate similar positive outcomes from those trained at this workshop.

The workshop consisted of the following components:

Review the basics of HINARI and emphasize what baseline skills users need
Discuss local environment for HINARI course and trainers’ needs (question and answer section)
Review possible types of HINARI training that you can conduct
Discuss possible funding sources
Review HINARI training resources Health Resources on the Internet (Module 1.3) and BabelMeSH (Module 4.6)

The instructors and participants were pleased with the outcome of the course. Besides covering the basics of HINARI, there was considerable discussion and brain storming between the participants and trainers. Some of the individuals had ‘ready-made’ linkages at their institutions while others (particularly those from Finland and Norway) were thinking of broader projects possibly involving their countries’ international aid agencies. An individual from the UK discussed the possibility of being funded by the Volunteer Service Organization for six months to conduct training in several French universities in Africa.

One drawback was that some of the exercises from the HINARI Short Course were elementary for most of the users. These were instructive on the type of training that could be conducted.

The positive outcome of the workshop was reflected in the results of the survey. For ten questions, the responses were sixteen for ‘agree’ and two for ‘somewhat agree’.

London, United Kingdom

Date: July 8, 2011
Location: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

On July 8, a presentation and discussion was conducted (by Lenny Rhine) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The goal of these activities is to facilitate training and communication with post-graduate students and recently graduated students from HINARI eligible countries. It was organized with the assistance of Jane Falconer, Information Services Librarian at the LSHTM.

Twelve individuals attended the presentation and most were Ph.D. students from HINARI eligible countries. Unfortunately, the numerous Masters students had graduated the previous June. Since many of the interested faculty members were either on holiday or work at various regional distance learning centers, the presentation was videoed. Hopefully, many will view the video that is on the LSHTM website.

The ensuing discussion with Ms. Falconer plus the coordinator of the clinical trials Master’s program was quite productive. We reviewed methods for reaching recently graduated students and also those who will be participating in upcoming programs. The latter group includes both individuals who will attend courses in London (either degree or certificate courses) and those registered as distance learning students. The estimate of the number of degree course programs from HINARI eligible students is 500 per year.

Also attended (by Lenny Rhine and Gaby Caro) was the Research4Life (R4L) Partner Publishers meeting in London on July 14th. R4L is the name for the three related program for health (HINARI), agriculture (AGORA) and environmental research (OARE). This gathering was held at the British Medical Association because that is where the original HINARI program was launched ten years ago. This is the annual meeting to review the activities and discuss policy changes suggested by the programs’ staff with the partner publishers. Key points that were discussed and accepted were the strategic plan through 2020, criteria for new partners, acceptance of aRDi as a partner and tweaking/raising of the various parameters used for country eligibility.

Date: July 15, 2011
Location: British Medical Association

Lenny Rhine and Gaby Caro also attended the Research4Life (R4L) Partner Publishers meeting in London on July 14th. R4L is the name for the three related program for health (HINARI), agriculture (AGORA) and environmental research (OARE). This gathering was held at the British Medical Association because that is where the original HINARI program was launched ten years ago. This is the annual meeting to review the activities and discuss policy changes suggested by the programs’ staff with the partner publishers. Key points that were discussed and accepted were the strategic plan through 2020, criteria for new partners, acceptance of aRDi as a partner and tweaking/raising of the various parameters used for country eligibility.

On July 15, key participants were involved in a series of team meetings including the Training Team meeting. Key points discussed at the Training Team meeting (that impact on the LWB activities) were:

discussion of training survey prototype used for 2011 meeting; suggestions for 2012 version and expansion of respondents to include a greater % of training done at numerous R4L institutions.
development of an interactive version of the three programs’ short courses that are accessible from the Information Training and Outreach Center for Africa’s Moodle server and, for HINARI, the MLA Moodle server; discussion of expanding language options.
need for upgrading numerous modules for all R4l programs when the new interface is launched in late 2012.
use of the new Customer Relations Management system to inform new and old institutional contacts about the various training materials and general updates (relates to a discussion at Communications Team that there is a need for a marketing group).
priorities for new training modules

A meeting between Lenny Rhine and Steve Glover (one of the principal HINARI trainers) resulted in contact with Sarah Lewis-Newton, Library Manager, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. In an ensuing phone conversation, there was a discussion about training various groups (again current and recent graduates) from HINARI eligible countries. We anticipate that this will be done during the upcoming academic year,

Tallahassee, Florida

Date: July 21, 2011
Location: Florida State University

While in London Lenny Rhine was contacted by a University of Florida International Center staff person about training ten Iraqi Fulbright Scholars who are residing at Florida State University for two months. We quickly developed a brief training program that was conducted on 21 st at the UF Marston Science Library training room. Special thanks to Amy Buhler for her assistance.

The workshop highlighted HINARI resources, HINARI PubMed and MY NCBI. While some of the participants were not in R4L disciplines, all of them found useful resources within the program (including three computer science professors). This was particularly true for the physicist, biologist and environmental science professors as there are a significant number of basic and applied sciences e-journals and other resources within HINARI.

There was considerable discussion about access to HINARI in Iraq and institution user names and passwords. All the participants’ institutions were registered but most did not know their access code. After this discussion, Gaby Caro at HINARI/Geneva was contacted and all the participants now have their institutional ID and the name of the contact to receive the password. Alaa Harif, one of the computer science professors, is working with the Geneva office to identify current contacts for the registered institutions. This is critical because Iraq’s ‘Special Band 2’ status will change in 2012 and the individual institutions will need to pay $1000 per year to continue access.

This discussion reinforces the need to better promote HINARI at registered institutions and have in-country contacts to assist with updating contact information for individual institutions.

Photos of July 2011 Training Activities

Librarians without Borders®

'Train the Trainers' CE Reports