A Special Sister Library Program

Crosses the Ocean

(US and Latvia) byby

Velta Poznaka Velta Poznaka Donna Flake Donna Flake Library Director Library Director Library Library Director Medical ResearchDirector Medical Research

Coastal AHEC Library of Coastal AHEC Library of LatviaLatvia Wilmington, NC, USA Wilmington, NC, USA Riga, Latvia Riga, Latvia

Sister Library Partnership of the

International Section

of MLA AND The Medical

Research Library of Latvia

Dr. Joseph Daugman

Vicki Croft

Medical Research Library of Latvia

Holberton Hospital Medical Library

Antigua, Caribbean

Library Director The Library

Our Sister Library Initiative

Nordic Association

Latvians in the

United States Latvian Welfare Associations The American Latvian Association The Latvian Association of

Physicians and Dentists

My Library – Coastal My Library – Coastal AHECAHEC

Lessons We LearnedLessons We Learned

1. Dedication of all people involved 2. Administrator who oversees library

needs to be supportive3. Only select one Sister Library at a

time4. Get support of a group that has a

vested interest in the country, or geographic area of the Sister Library.

Lessons We LearnedLessons We Learned (Cont.)(Cont.)

5. Thank the library vendors who supported the project many times in many ways

6. I was personally enriched by this program

7. Making lifelong friendships

The Greatest Deal

project idea was not just forgottenand left on paper,

but is being implemented with great enthusiasm

1999

• the number of electronic books – 0 • data bases – Medline on CD• some journals on CD• the average time to obtain a journal

article from another library through interlibrary loan - 14-60 days

• place for reading room 32m2

Free Electronic Document Delivery

• medical libraries in the US and Canada

• in 2 – 4 days

ILL - I am pleased• 46 medical

libraries in the US and Canada

• in 2 – 4 days

ILL Difficulties

• Technical problems • Checking time

Databases for our Library:

• MDConsult • Stat!Ref • UpToDate

DB and Users

• Branches without Internet• are not taught information literacy • less fluent in English

DB and librarians• Having these databases makes our

librarians study more, to learn how and what we can get from each database so we can teach our users to use them.

• We are finding ways to break our doctors’ wall of indifference, and to become interested in electronic sources of information.

• We tell them about the enormous possibilities they now have, but we are mindful not to show that sometimes we know more than the doctors know.

Shipment of Medical Books and Periodicals

• 170 boxes of books and periodicals -200 books and 5800 periodicals

2001 Science Citation Index Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine.

• All was paid by Latvians in the USA. (Milwaukee and Cleveland )

New shipment

Shipment of Medical Books and Periodicals

duplicate copies

changes

Measuring

Can we measure the friendship by the amount of money donated, or the number of

books or databases? Each time when we take a look at the books,

journals or we tell about databases, we with thankfulness and fondness are thinking

about people, who have worked so hard and so unselfishly

to help our library

We are thankful for the tremendous and incredible job the MLA Sister Library Initiative has done, and for spreading goodwill and for

sharing knowledge