Everybody benefits ?????

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust Library and Information Service which consists of two libraries (Crawley and East Surrey - Redhill), is part of the Kent Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Libraries group. I have been working there for just over four years and have had the pleasure and opportunity to work and lead a partnership between a UK and an African library.

The partnership is specifically between the Albert Cook Medical School Library, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda and Kent Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Libraries (formally South Thames Library and Information Service). It has existed informally since about 1994. This was made formal in September 2000, under the guidance of the registered charity Partners in Health Information (PHI). The aim of the partnership is to encourage the free flow of health related knowledge between nations. For further details see: http://www.surreyandsussex.nhs.uk/lis/documents/Ugandaleaflet.pdf

During the span of this partnership a number of visits have been made to UK and to Uganda. I have been specifically involved with the visit that took place in January 2005 to set up the website for the Albert Cook and more recently in March 2009 to update the site. The main aims of the latter visit was to change the site from a static Hyper Text Mark Up Language (HTML) to a dynamic website with the potential for added functionality. The improved website would also facilitate library staff updating the library website themselves.

|[pic] |I travelled with Robert Shimield (Web Developer) from Frimley |
| |Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, he accompanied me on the |
| |January 2005 trip too. The Web 2.0 tool Word Press was chosen |
| |because it is very simple to use, has a very robust support |
| |community and is open source. The trip was very successful, it|
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