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Pascal Mouhouelo

Reference Librarian/African Index Medicus
World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa
Brazzaville, Republic of Congo

International Associate at Yale University

I am Pascal Mouhouelo from the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). I was granted a fall semester 2006, International Associate at Yale University’s Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library. My selection was proposed by Mr. Charles Greenberg and supported by Mrs. Kenny Marone.

Expectations

When I received the invitation from Yale University you could not imagine how excited I was, just unbelievable. I was excited because one of my dreams was to become one of the Leaders in medical Librarians in the African Region. And the best ways of becoming a leader are: working hard and learning from other leaders. I wanted also to share the World Health Organization/AFRO Library experience.

Experience

My stay at Yale Library was a very good experience of exchange. I have learned about some technologies that I never saw. I was pleased to work on the use the PDA in a medical Library. I saw some programs such as Refworks. I learned also about the different programs of digitization.

Outcomes/benefits

My dream of becoming a leader in Medical librarianship came true. I met a lot academic Librarians and discussed our projects with them. Our cooperation with well known Libraries such as the National Library of Medicine, the Library of Congress was strengthened. Yale University has worked before with WHO Headquarters in Geneva on good projects like HINARI. But it was their first time to host a librarian from the WHO regional Office for Africa. Many Librarians at Yale were delighted to learn about the Blue trunk Library. We worked hard with all the colleagues on how people could pledge their support to Africa to give access to health information where the Internet does not exist. I was pleased to go back to Africa with more than USD 6000 for this project. I was also pleased to learn about diversity programs at the Yale University Library and in the USA. How wonderful it was to visit the USA for the first time!

Thanks

I thank the WHO/AFRO Regional Director, Dr. L. G. Sambo who authorized my mission. Thanks to all the Librarians at Yale University Library and in the USA.