Tulane University, New Orleans, LA (February 6, 2015)
In February a one day HINARI workshops was conducted at Tulane University, a U.S. based University that has significant history as public health institution with numerous global health projects. This institutions is similar in breath to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine or Antwerp School of Tropical Medicine
The workshop, titled HINARI Training: Access to Global Health Resources, was hosted by the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. The program planning and local arrangements were ably coordinated by Elaine Hicks, the public health librarian at this institution.
The goal of the training was to develop a group of HINARI users with 21st century information skills who will have a positive impact on evidence-based public health research, policy and clinical decision making. This enable learners to be advocates for information access in LMICs. The course was designed for Individuals from eligible countries who will be returning to their respective institutions and individuals who will have contact with those from eligible countries – either as students or visitors to their US based institutions or during visits to such organizations.
The six hour course covered overviews of all Research4Life programs, HINARI Basic Course, (Searching Skills, HINARI Portal, HINARI/PubMed, PubMed Filters/Search Options) and brief summaries of the HINARI Advanced Course (Evidence-based practice resources, e-books and other/grey literature resources), Authorship Skills, Reference Management Software material and how to conduct a HINARI training course. These sessions also included hands-on exercises and all the material was made available in a Dropbox folder. The participants were given MLA CE course certificates.
The number of participants averaged 35-40 students for the sessions. The participants were a mix of MPH students, several PHD students from eligible countries and four regionally based librarians who could conduct similar training at their institutions. Critical to the success of this workshop will be post-workshop follow-up especially with the librarians. One of the information professionals, a UNC-Chapel Hill library faculty member is planning to conduct some short courses during a trip to Cambodia.