At the sixth congress (1990) in New Delhi, 46 papers (53%) were presented by delegates
from developing countries, in contrast with the first congress (1953) in which only one
delegate represented all of Africa. In evaluating local needs and their emerging national
systems, the Arabic countries, Africa, India, and Latin America reported inadequate
coverage of their medical literature in international databases. If South Africa were
excluded, only 8% of African biomedical journals were indexed in Index Medicus. It was
recommended that local area databases be developed, such as the LILACS database by BIREME
for health sciences literature generated in Latin America. The political instability and
socioeconomic dilemmas of developing countries were underscored by countries such as
Zambia where 70% of subscriptions were recently cut. Attempts to develop networks and
resource sharing among medical libraries in China were reported. While large centers in
some areas are meeting the challenge of new technology and integrated systems, most
libraries in developing countries are still confronted with basic problems of distance,
lack of resources, poor communications, inadequate facilities, and insufficient budget for
daily operations.
--excerpted from The International Congress on
Medical Librarianship, 1953-1995:
Goals and Achievements by Susan Crawford.