From: "Schemm, Ylann (ELS-AMS)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2013 09:52:40 +0000

Dear colleagues, on behalf of Research4life, we’d like to share the
results of the librarian case study competition. Best regards, Ylann
Schemm, Chair of the Research4Life Communications Team
________________________________________________________

Research4Life Announces Winner of “Unsung Heroes” Library Impact Competition

Onan Mulumba, of Makerere University, is awarded First Prize in the
global case study competition to raise awareness about the essential
role of librarians powering research in developing countries.

London, United Kingdom 1 July 2013 – The Research4Life partnership
announced today the winner of the case study competition to recognize
the role played by librarians in building research capacity and
boosting output among scientists, doctors and policymakers. Onan
Mulumba, Agricultural Librarian for the College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences at Makerere University in Uganda was chosen
from among 45 highly competitive applicants by a panel of 12
distinguished judges and international experts in the field of
research capacity building. As part of the first prize, Onan Mulumba
has been invited to serve as the first user to join the Research4Life
Executive Council. The prize includes an all-expenses paid trip to
attend the Partners’ General Meeting in Rome, Italy in September 2013.

“Research4Life has significantly boosted teaching and research at
Makerere University, and is the main source of reference for both
students and faculty. In addition, Research4Life databases have
drastically reduced the use of print resources and this has helped to
minimize congestion in the libraries,” said Onan Mulumba, “As a
result, researchers have come to acknowledge the efforts and roles
librarians play in promoting teaching and research at Makerere
University.”

“AGORA, Research4Life’s agricultural programme, will soon celebrate
its 10th anniversary, and we’re delighted that the winner of the
Library Impact Competition highlights the work of an agricultural
librarian from a prestigious African university,” said Stephen
Rudgard, AGORA Programme Manager at the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, “Onan Mulumba has clearly
succeeded in influencing Makerere’s scientists, academics and students
to make greater use of AGORA and so to improve the quality of their
research, their lectures, and their dissertations, possibly bringing
them into the international stage.”

An Honourable Mention for a second case study was awarded to Cynthia
Kimani, Librarian at the Kenya Medical Research Institute Library.
Cynthia has been invited to attend the annual Research4Life partner
meeting and serve on Research4Life’s newly founded library advisory
council which provides a forum for direct engagement between the
Research4Life user community and the partnership. The Council aims to
give Research4Life’s customers a prominent voice and support the early
identification of trends, challenges and opportunities from the
research and library communities in developing countries

“The Research4Life programmes began because we heard and responded to
our users’ needs,” said Barbara Aronson, competition judge and founder
of HINARI. It’s very gratifying that these two librarians, who have
made such an important impact in their institutions, will be
continuing our tradition of user voices helping guide our work.”

 ###

About Research4Life

Research4Life (www.research4Life.org) is a public-private partnership
between over 200 international scientific publishers, the
International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical
Publishers, Cornell and Yale Universities in collaboration with the
WHO, FAO, UNEP, WIPO, and technology partner, Microsoft.
Research4Life aims to help attain six of the UNs eight Millennium
Development Goals by 2015, reducing the scientific knowledge gap
between industrialized countries and the developing world.  Since
2001, the four programmes, Access to Research in Health (HINARI),
Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA), Online Access
to Research in the Environment (OARE) and Access to Research for
Development and Innovation (ARDI), have grown and developed  to the
point where they now give researchers at more than 6,000 institutions
in over 100 developing world countries and territories free or low
cost online access to over 35,000 peer-reviewed international
scientific journals, books, and databases provided by the world’s
leading science publishers.

Contact:       Charlotte Masiello-Riome
Research4Life Communications
[log in to unmask]
Twitter: @R4LPartnership