The New Library at IUHS

The Learning Process and The IUHS Library

In order to become a Centre of Excellence in health-related training, IUHS plans to change the way training/learning in the health sector has traditionally been done. The Health Sector appears to hold fast to practices and pedagogys that are sometimes outdated and unable to prepare health workers for many areas of health care in today's world. The latest breakthroughs in diagnostic practices (CAT, MRI), the latest treatment techniques, and the use of ICTs in the health sector, means that students and professionals today need to be continually stimulated to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in order to provide optimal healthcare to Uganda's population. IUHS aims to use Problem-Based Learning techniques, in addition to the latest electronic pedagogical methods, to train both young people who aspire to a job in the health sector and those seeking to upgrade their professional skills through Continuing Medical Education. Providing critical and analytical skills to students is paramount in providing an effective workforce to meet Uganda's health needs in the coming decades.

None of this will be possible without a library that will provide all the learning materials necessary for IUHS students to make a success of their studies. A library is the heart of any tertiary institution. Its resources must expand horizons and knowledge. At IUHS we envisage a library that will contribute positively to the learning processes, not only of our students, but also of the general public and interested healthcare workers.

The IUHS library will work hand-in-hand with the Centre for Digital Learning and e-Health. Since our sandwich/distance-learning and remote-learning students will study on a flexible basis (so as to attract as many up-country health workers as possible), our digital resources must be adequate, relevant, and always available. Our students (no matter what discipline) will always have access to our resources, even after graduation, because it is in this way that life-long learning and Continuing Medical Education can be brought to Uganda's healthcare workforce.

What will be New at IUHS Library
Given that we will be bringing education to the people (rather than students necessarily coming to Kampala), we will need a large repository of digital materials that can be used by students (especially remote-learning students) and busy professionals on a 24/7 basis. Many of these learning resources are available freely for many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa – Uganda included – and we will also invest in books, journals, and other resource materials (CDROM, VIDEO) that can supplement our digital resources. Since we plan to open our library facility to registered members of the healthcare professions and to the general public (at no fee), we will need to stock a wide range of materials aimed at different audiences: from experienced clinicians to student nurses, from teaching staff to a mother seeking simple information on breastfeeding.

Setting up a digital library that can function beyond its physical boundaries is a challenge, but one that will bear immediate results in terms of connecting health professionals to an always-available source of information. Such a library would be a “first” in Uganda, and the IUHS library could well be a significant role model for others to emulate.

In short, our graduates, through using IUHS as a knowledge resource, will be in a better position to make use of ICTs for health in a country where vast distances can be cut to a matter of seconds with connectivity to the IUHS knowledge hub.

Thus, our Library and Information Resources Centre will be a state-of-the-art knowledge hub that connects staff, students, health professionals, and the general public. The ultimate goal of setting up a Library and Information Resources Centre is to not only to ensure that our staff and students have access to recent, relevant information that will ultimately have a direct effect on the way healthcare is provided, but also, through our Centre for Digital Learning and e-Health, that all Ugandans have access to health care by well-trained healthcare professionals, either on location or remotely (through our telemedicine project).

Since the major objective of setting up a new health sciences university is to train the necessary professional workforce (both at IUHS or remotely) who can contribute meaningfully to the healthcare needs of Uganda's growing population, the Library and Information Resources Centre will function as the heart of the institution. Our vision is that IUHS will host a fully-functional digital library that can be accessed 24/7, and that it will become a library of choice for health workers not only in Uganda, but also in the East African region.

Impact
the first beneficiaries are the students who receive training at the institution - the skills of those who undertake professional, clinical, or academic courses will be increased so that they provide better healthcare to the people, and are better able to support themselves and their families
given that our students will have life-long access to IUHS digital resources, they will receive continuous healthcare updates and information that will enable them to deliver healthcare in the most appropriate fashion, no matter where they are located
the staff who teach the healthcare workforce will benefit from the availability of the latest information in their subject areas and will be kept up-to-date about latest developments in their field
clinicians and other healthcare professionals who register to use the library will be enabled to increase their clinical skills and build knowledge capacity in the places where they work
the general public who use the library will be assisted to find appropriate information that will benefit them and their families.