Model for a Transnational Biomedical Library Partnership in the Digital Age

• Main Authors: Pond, Fred C., Garrity, William F., Rolett, Ellis L., Mead, Tom L., Rolett, Virginia V.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: UVM ScholarWorks 2004
• Subjects: Library Partnerships; Transnational cooperation; Health Sciences and Medical Librarianship; Scholarly Communication; Scholarly Publishing; Republic of Karelia
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/libfacpub/81; https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/context/libfacpub/article/1086/viewcontent/dartmouth_paper.pdf

In this paper we describe our experience working with Russian libraries in Petrozavodsk (Republic of Karelia) and St. Petersburg. The Dartmouth Medical School has collaborated with the Faculty of Medicine and teaching hospitals of Petrozavodsk State University since 1992. Between 1992 and 2000, in support of a medical exchange program, Dartmouth donated medical textbooks and journals to the National Library of the Republic of Karelia, created subject bibliographies on a variety of medical conditions, trained librarians in the use of the MEDLINE database, and provided full-text reprints of journal articles to faculty members at Petrozavodsk State University. In 2000, Dartmouth organized a symposium in St. Petersburg on the topic of digital information technology and resources in medicine (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~libnet/medlibnet/mln.html). The symposium brought together representatives from scientific and biomedical libraries and medical faculties based in Petrozavodsk, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the Dartmouth Medical School. The immediate outcome of the meeting was to shift information sharing from print materials to digital resources and electronic document delivery. Since 2000, the hallmarks of the collaboration, from our perspective, have been 1) the promotion of an activist library model that emphasizes education, outreach, and marketing; and 2) a focus on provisioning and effective use of digital information resources. The combination of long-standing personal relationships, collaboration with database providers, and an emphasis on meeting the needs of the Russian libraries and their users has proven to be an effective approach for this ongoing twelve year-old partnership.