Rachel Cooke

Biography

Since November 2002 Rachel has been Head of Library Services and Knowledge Management at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, where she has been responsible for the development of the Trust's Knowledge Management Strategy.   Previous posts: 1990-2002 she was part of the South Thames Library and Information Service (during more NHS reorganisations than she cares to remember!), for most of that time her position was as Assistant Director- Organisation and Staff Development a post that she job shared; 1989-90 District Librarian, St Helier's Hospital, Merton and Sutton Health Authority; 1987-89 Librarian for Kingston College of Nursing.   Rachel is Convenor of the Makerere University and Kent Surrey and Sussex NHS Library and Knowledge Services, UK Steering Group (USG for short!).

Abstract - The Benefits of an International Link Partnership: Albert Cook Medical Library, Uganda and Kent Surrey and Sussex NHS Library & Knowledge Services.  'Share what you know, learn what you don't.'

For the past three years Librarians from the Albert Cook Medical Library, Kampala and the Kent Surrey and Sussex NHS Library & Knowledge Services (formally South Thames Library & Information Services) have been visiting each others' libraries as part of a Link Partnership, under sponsorship and guidance of the charity Partnerships in Health Information (PHI) , and currently funded by the DFID/British Council.

The aim of the partnership is to encourage the free flow of health related knowledge between nations.  

Whilst many such partnerships have failed when key stakeholders/drivers move on, this presentation will provide evidence that one of the main reasons this project is thriving, is due to recognition of the inherent value it provides in developing the library & information workforce in both countries.

The primary purpose of the specific DFID/British Council funded project is to develop a culture of life-long learning, provide an understanding of the global knowledge base and how it may be accessed, so enabling health practitioners to improve the quality of healthcare for the people of Uganda.

This has been achieved through a series of visits between the two countries:

•  Year one (2002/3) involved three Ugandan Librarians, Maria Musoke, Joseph Nsobva & (the late) Beatrice Tushemereirwe visiting the UK, to improve their health information retrieval skills.

•  Year two (2003/4) led to Katie Street & Rachel Cooke visiting Uganda.   Whilst there, Library staff were trained as trainers, thereby developing their skills to deliver ‘E ffective Access and Retrieval of Online Health Information' skills programmes.   Rachel Nakalembe then visited the UK from Uganda in Feb 2004 on a fact-finding mission for setting up Library Internet pages, e-resources and enhancing skills in the automation of medical collections.

•  Year three (2004/5) will see two Ugandan colleagues visiting the UK, to plan the future of the partnership and to develop local databases.   This will be followed by two UK colleagues visiting Uganda to work with Librarians in developing their Internet skills, thus enabling them to develop and maintain their own web facilities.  

Benefits to information workforce development for UK Librarians in year two have included: stretching ones current skills through training in a new environment with different resources, including adapting training style and format to suit cultural and linguistic diversity; plus the benefits of reassessing ones own work in a different context - same work different surroundings.  

Changes to library processes and provision have already been implemented as a result of lessons learnt in Uganda, with new ideas for delivery requiring further workforce development.

The objective of the presentation is to share the benefits of such a partnership in terms of information workforce development for all concerned, with a view to encouraging similar projects elsewhere.

This page was last updated on: 2 September, 2004