I am delighted to share this month’s “DonorCONNECT” story – one that touches our hearts.
There are some days when we have unexpected calls / emails / visitors. A recent event was when a young doctor we knew, wrote to us after quite some time. He had attended our PubMed workshop a few years ago. He later enrolled in www.qmedcourses.in for advanced learning. For both events he gave us excellent feedback and had kept in touch with us off and on.
When he called, he shared with me about having joined his Alma Mater as a resident a few years ago – wanting to express gratitude to the institution. That sounded so good!
It felt even nicer when I heard that he now wishes to help their library in whatever way he can. He had got inspired by our work at QMed (and the fact that librarians were behind it). One important concern he shared was he felt that their institution’s librarian had put in lots of efforts but was unable to attract a foot fall to the library.
We fixed time to discuss this in some more detail and during the call, I shared some conceptual points like
- We have to see what best to do with short attention spans of people for any reading.
- Identify book lovers, get them together and brainstorm.
- See how the library can reach out to many users. He loved it when I said – “The library should go to the reader”. Footfalls are not just about people coming into the library – but about using library resources.
- How can the library be made into a “welcoming space”.
We worked out some ideas like:
- Start by involving a few students and faculty who love to read.
- Identify some unusual books and plan to highlight specific areas – maybe by making cards with these thoughts.
- Have book discussion clubs.
- Have journal clubs.
- Inspired by our old colleague who had done this earlier – Have events where participants are given questions. and asked to “find the answers from the best resources”. He loved this innovative idea.
- Have research discussions.
- Have short “learn how to” sessions.
He was very happy with these ideas and said he would work on them.
This is just the beginning – I hope to hear from him in a few months. Even if one activity takes off – that is a beginning!
It is indeed wonderful when a workshop participant of a decade ago comes back! We at QMed feel so good.
This quarter – Mid Apr to Mid- July we wish to raise Rs 2,00,000 for revamping our website and for various renewals we need to pay – video editing software, video hosting, website hosting and more. You could even give monthly recurring donations if that is easier for you. When you give, you join us in our mission towards developing a healthier society!