Donating books and journals to less developed countries

How to apply

BMA/BMJ INFORMATION FUND: ACTIVITY REPORT 2000-2001

Introduction

Both the BMA and the BMJ receive many requests for help from organisations and individuals in developing countries and other areas of need – for example, those which have recently suffered wars or natural disasters. These requests may be for books, journals, "know how" advice or direct funding. Until recently there was no specific funding to meet these requests and no single point to which they could be directed. Various donations of secondhand journals or surplus BMJ books were made on an ad hoc basis. There was much discussion about the need for a coherent system.

In April 2000 the Finance and General Purposes Committee (F&GP) approved a recommendation from the Journal Committee that £30,000 be set aside for that budgetary year to provide material for developing countries and others in need. The funding was to come from the trading profits of the BMJ Publishing Group, but political responsibility for the administration of the fund would rest with the International Committee. Funding has since continued on an annual basis and the fund is known as the Information Fund.

Following the decision of the F&GP, a small steering group was set up with the following members:

Dr Edwin Borman, Chairman of BMA International Committee;

Sallie Nicholas, Head of BMA International Department

John Hudson, BMJ Books Publisher

Dr Trish Groves, Primary Care Editor, BMJ Editorial

Dr Rhona Macdonald, BMJ Careers Editor, joined the group at the end of 2001.

This report from the steering group summarises activities in the first two years of operation.

Ground rules

With the approval of the International Committee, the steering group drew up the following ground rules.

The mission of the fund is to provide access to information on health to appropriate institutions in developing countries and other regions in need. The information should be relevant, current and of high quality.

Appropriate institutions will probably include medical libraries, professional bodies such as medical associations, and health care institutions. The steering group wishes to ensure that any materials donated are available to as wide an audience as possible, and therefore it will not be possible to respond to demands from individuals.

The aims of the steering group are:

1. To fulfil the mission by providing funds from BMJ Publishing Group profits
2. To evaluate, with expert independent help when necessary, all requests from institutions for such funds
3. To enable the funded health institutions to choose the right information for their users

Dilemmas

The last two years have involved a steep learning curve for the steering group. The processes involved in assessing and responding to requests are complex and time-consuming. Some of the dilemmas facing the group are as follows:

• How to ensure that those approaching the BMA/BMJ are bona fide organisations and that their needs are real;
• How to involve them in the choice of materials, to ensure that these are appropriate to their needs;
• How to ensure that we receive feedback – i.e. evidence that donated materials are widely available to doctors and health professionals and being put to appropriate use;
• How, where and to what extent to publicise the Fund.

The steering group has been grateful for the advice of Dr Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Programme Manager of INASP(International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications) –Health and coordinator of a Health Information Forum, which meets regularly and is supported by the BMA/BMJ. Sallie Nicholas and John Hudson introduced the aims of the Fund at the Forum’s January 2001 meeting, which focused on "donation-distribution" schemes. Dr Pakenham-Walsh suggested that the BMA/BMJ might wish to consider options for the long-term which might be more cost-effective than "donation-distribution", easier to administer and have a more sustainable impact on library/information services in the developing world. These options might include working with established UK-based distributors or entering into partnership with associations in developing countries.

With these points in mind, in October 2000 members of the steering group and Dr Pakenham-Walsh visited the South London offices and warehouse of Book Aid International, a registered charity which works in partnership with organisations in developing countries to support local initiatives in literacy, education, training and publishing. The BMJ Publishing Group had previously donated surplus material to Book Aid International. The organisation has well-established networks and procedures for assessing requests and communicating with its partner organisations. With the approval of the International Committee, the steering group decided to explore ways of working in partnership with Book Aid. In effect, we have adopted a "two-pronged" approach, working partly through Book Aid and partly by responding to individual requests.

Allocation of Resources

This section sets out how funds were allocated in 2000 and 2001. Where the BMJ’s own publications are involved, we are able to supply these at very low cost. Other publications are also available at discounted prices, purchased via the BMJ Bookshop, meaning that we can supply quite large consignments at relatively low cost.

With the approval of the International Committee, the steering group has stretched its terms of reference to some extent by providing materials for organisations helping refugee doctors in the UK to re-establish their careers. There was a general view that this was both consistent with BMA policy and a worthwhile use of funds.

2000

• Iraqi medical libraries £8,246

• Nigerian Medical Forum of the UK and Ireland £4,666

• Medical Department of Hargeisa University, Somaliland £1,547

• Book Aid International £15,000

2001

• Refugee Doctor Postgraduate Centre, Hendon £713

• W Midlands Refugee Council Refugee Doctor Group £1,939

• Book Aid International May 2001 £10,915
• Book Aid International December 2001 £16,213

Other requests for materials are pending and decisions will be taken during the next budgetary year. They include requests from institutions in Sierra Leone and India and a further request from the Nigerian Medical Forum. There were also requests from individuals to whom we were unable to make donations but whom we tried to help via a matching scheme run by the editor of BMJ Careers for doctors wishing to donate journals and books. Likewise there were others which we did not fund either because we were unable to gather sufficient information about the institutions concerned or because the projects involved were too far removed from our terms of reference.

The Future and Lessons Learned So Far

Requests so far have been sporadic, but are likely to increase as awareness of the Fund grows. Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) has now publicised it to its current and returned medical volunteers, for example. Two points on which we need to work in the coming year are the following:

• A more formal application procedure, with an information leaflet and application form for institutions requesting help;
• Improving follow-up and feedback. While we have always emphasised that we want feedback – e.g. photographs of our books in use – obtaining it has posed some problems. This, of course, is one of the advantages of working with an organisation such as Book Aid International.

Sallie Nicholas

John Hudson

Trish Groves

Edwin Borman
 
 

BMA/BMJ Information Fund - How to apply

The British Medical Association (BMA) and British Medical Journal (BMJ) have recently set up a small fund, to enable us to respond to requests for health information from organisations in developing countries and other areas of need.

The fund does not grant money: it provides educational materials. This mainly means books and journals, although we can sometimes send other materials such as CD roms and videos: we ask you to provide a detailed list of the titles your organisation needs. We can supply material from the BMJ Publishing Group at good discounts, thus getting the best value. But we don't insist on this, and we can provide discounted materials from other publishers.

We are pleased to consider applications from medical schools, medical libraries, health care institutions and similar organisations. But, because we want to ensure that any materials we donate reaches as wide an audience as possible, we do not respond to requests from individuals.

We need to know that the fund is being used in the best possible way. If we decide to support your application, we will ask you to confirm that your organisation has received and used the donated materials.

To help us understand what your organisation needs, please provide as much as possible of the following information:

1. About you

• Please state your full name and title (eg Dr)____________________________________
• Please give your
• full postal address

• phone number(s)_______________________________________________________
• fax number (s)________________________________________________________
• email address_________________________________________________________

• Please give the full postal address of your organisation

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

• Please give your organisation's
• Phone number(s)_______________________________________________________
• Fax number (s)________________________________________________________
• Email address_________________________________________________________
• Website address_______________________________________________________
• What kind of organisation is it (for example, medical school, library, hospital)?________________________________________________________________
• What job or role do you have in the organisation?________________________________
• What work do you want the fund to support? If you need materials for a training course, for example, please describe the course__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Who would benefit from the materials you need? Please state roughly how many health care workers or students would use the books and journals_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Is your organisation currently receiving funding for educational material from other international bodies or charities? If so, please list other donors__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Please explain briefly why your organisation needs our help now____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• If we are able to supply some educational material, what is the best way to send it to you? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• We aim to spend as little as possible of the fund on transporting donated materials. For example, you may already be receiving parcels from somewhere in the UK or the rest of Europe. If you have links with such organisations which can help with transportation, please list them and give details of how we can contact them____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• If there's anything else you need us to know to support your application, please write it here____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Do you need us to send the BMJ Books catalogue to you by post?___________________
• Please attach a separate list of books, journals, and other materials that your organisation needs, including the following details
• the exact titles of the publications
• the number of copies of each title
• an order of priority - we may be able to provide some, but not all of the titles you list, and we will try to supply those that are most needed

• What work do you want the fund to support? If you need materials for a training course, for example, please describe the course__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Who would benefit from the materials you need? Please state roughly how many health care workers or students would use the books and journals_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Is your organisation currently receiving funding for educational material from other international bodies or charities? If so, please list other donors__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Please explain briefly why your organisation needs our help now____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• If we are able to supply some educational material, what is the best way to send it to you? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• We aim to spend as little as possible of the fund on transporting donated materials. For example, you may already be receiving parcels from somewhere in the UK or the rest of Europe. If you have links with such organisations which can help with transportation, please list them and give details of how we can contact them____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• If there's anything else you need us to know to support your application, please write it here____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Do you need us to send the BMJ Books catalogue to you by post?___________________
• Please attach a separate list of books, journals, and other materials that your organisation needs, including the following details
• the exact titles of the publications
• the number of copies of each title
• an order of priority - we may be able to provide some, but not all of the titles you list, and we will try to supply those that are most needed

• Please explain briefly why your organisation needs our help now____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• If we are able to supply some educational material, what is the best way to send it to you? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• We aim to spend as little as possible of the fund on transporting donated materials. For example, you may already be receiving parcels from somewhere in the UK or the rest of Europe. If you have links with such organisations which can help with transportation, please list them and give details of how we can contact them____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• If there's anything else you need us to know to support your application, please write it here____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Do you need us to send the BMJ Books catalogue to you by post?___________________
• Please attach a separate list of books, journals, and other materials that your organisation needs, including the following details
• the exact titles of the publications
• the number of copies of each title
• an order of priority - we may be able to provide some, but not all of the titles you list, and we will try to supply those that are most needed

Please provide a detailed list of the materials your organisation needs. We can supply materials from the BMJ Publishing Group and other publishers. You will find the BMJ Bookshop's catalogue on the web at www.bmjbooks.com

• Do you need us to send the BMJ Books catalogue to you by post?___________________
• Please attach a separate list of books, journals, and other materials that your organisation needs, including the following details
• the exact titles of the publications
• the number of copies of each title
• an order of priority - we may be able to provide some, but not all of the titles you list, and we will try to supply those that are most needed

Martin Carroll

< mcarroll@bma.org.uk>

Head of International Department

British Medical Association

BMA House

Tavistock Square

London WC1H 9JP

Tel: +44 20 7383 6033

Fax: +44 20 7383 6644