Getting involved in international development activities: UK initiatives and hidden benefits

Abstract

Jackie Cheeseborough and Shane Godbolt describe the role that UK health information professionals have in global health and in supporting colleagues from developing countries to continue to develop as a provision. They give an overview of a range of organisations working to improve access to health information in developing countries and in particular Sub-Saharan Africa including Book Aid International, HIFA, INASP, ITOCA, Phi, TALC, THET and Research4Life. Even in a recession, many UK health librarians are choosing to get involved in international development activities in low-resource countries by volunteering, and discovering hidden benefits for their own organisations, and their own continuing professional development.

Growing together with African health libraries: partnerships in Health Information's impact and lessons for future partnerships

“…For most of its existence, Phi relied on at most one part‐time staff member and dedicated volunteers funded by grants and contributions from the Friends of Phi, individuals and organisations. Phi's low‐cost approach to projects and visits was additionally supported financially, and in‐kind, by working collaboratively with other organisations (Cheeseborough & Godbolt, 2015) and taking advantage of existing schemes as described above.…”

“…By 2002, Phi was supporting longer‐term partnerships between health libraries, capacity building visits to the UK for African librarians and establishing a connection with the pan‐African Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA, 2019). A significant grant in 2006 from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust over 6 years allowed Phi to expand its activities to include: building the network of organisations in the UK working to improve access to health information in sub‐Saharan Africa (Cheeseborough & Godbolt, 2015); to provide workshops on evidence based health care and public access to health information (Godbolt et al, 2010); and to increase contact with African librarians through AHILA. In 2008, Phi started working with the pan‐African training organisation, the Information Training and Outreach Centre for Africa (ITOCA, n.d.).…”

Global publication trends in the Health Information and Libraries Journal, 2014–2015

“…As long ago as 2001, individuals and organisations advocated the need for journals to publish from a broader international platform, in order to learn how librarians in low‐resource settings manage to provide services to their users; a view seconded by Cheeseborough and Godbolt in their Health Information and Libraries Journal editorial in 2015. Although this analysis is by no means comprehensive, it does go someway to illustrate the demographic make‐up of authors of manuscripts published in the Health Information and Libraries Journal , demonstrating the international platform that the journal provides for health science librarians to show case their work and add to the global evidence base.…”