Spreading the Word about NLM Resources in Kazakhstan!

Posted by Hannah Sinemus on February 28th, 2015 Posted in: The MAReport
Tags: 2015 Issue 1

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Director’s Musings

Barbara Epstein, Director

We are pleased to announce that the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has a partnership with the Nazarbayev University (NU) in Astana, Kazakhstan to advise on establishment of a new medical school.

As the press release from 2013 stated:

 

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine experts will advise NU officials on how to design and develop teaching facilities for a medical school curriculum; recruit and train school leadership and faculty; plan organizational and administrative structures, policies and procedures; and develop courses, syllabi and clinical experiences.

Pitt’s Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) is now included in this project to provide consultation to NU librarians about establishing library service to a new medical school.  This will include advice on collection development, space, reference, and teaching.  The first class of medical students will start in August 2015.

Barbara Epstein, HSLS Director and MAR Director, and Nancy Tannery, HSLS Senior Associate Director, will travel to Astana in early March to meet with NU librarians and medical school faculty.  Part of the visit will include a seminar for medical librarians from other areas of this very large country.  Nancy will present a hands-on class titled “Useful Resources, Databases, and Open Access Articles Freely Available from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.”  We are proud to highlight the wonderful resources available from NLM!

As the year progresses, we expect to offer a series of webinars with more in-depth training about NLM databases and other online tools.  A team of librarians will also visit Pittsburgh to learn more about services and instruction in academic health sciences libraries in the United States.