Library Outreach Services at a Scientific Meeting of the Caribbean Health Research Council

Abstract

Librarians at the Medical Sciences Library, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, have often been called upon to provide leadership roles in the promotion and delivery of medical information services to its immediate academic constituents, as well as to the wider local and Caribbean regional biomedical fraternity and other health information professionals. Access to information resources, however, continues to be a major challenge in the Caribbean for various reasons, chief among these being the high costs of journal literature and subscriptions to electronic resources. This article outlines developments with three information resources (MEDCARIB, BioMed Central, and Cochrane Library), which allow greater access to information for regional health personnel, and reports on an outreach activity at a regional scientific health meeting that was designed to promote awareness of these resources among the regional health personnel present.