PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Microsurgery
58, Abovyan St.
Yerevan, Armenia
Contact: Gevorg Yaghjyan MD, PhD
Secretary General
Tel: (37410) 560636
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Microsurgery Center Resident Library
The Resident Library of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and
Microsurgery University Centre was established in February 2001,
by the Republican Scientific Medical Library (RSML), through a grant
from the Yerevan office of the Open Society Institute, an affiliation
of Soros Foundation.
The library’s first steps were amazing. The residents, quite interested
in having their own library just a few meters away from their offices,
were happy to support this initiative. They helped the RSML staff
to bring the books from a warehouse, install in places and set up
the computer and Internet connection. Since than the library has
been their favorite place at the hospital. If one is unable to find
a resident anywhere else, he or she would be there, at the library,
doing a search in medical databases or browsing through the pages of
thick-volume books. Some of residents are staying up to late at night
even on non-call days, to have a chance to use the library resource
over and over again.
Our residents now routinely spend time at the library searching
medical abstracts, getting news in their field of specialization,
preparing papers and presentation for seminars and rounds at our
hospital. The recent presentation prepared by one of our rotating
graduate students has been presented at Nork Marash Medical Center
(also known as the Yerevan Cardiosurgery Center under the leadership
of Dr Hrair Hovagimian). Dr Hrair was present at the presentation
himself, and showed great interest in the topic. Later, he sent us a
thank you letter with a copy addressed to the Rector of the Yerevan
State Medical University describing the unique style and western
standards of the presentation.
Observing this as the Residency Training Director in Plastic Surgery,
I saw that the residents take the library as their own creation. That
is why we call it the Residents’ Library at University Hospital # 1.
Besides, I can feel how much our residents have “grown” using their
library. This good feeling of ownership makes them routinely take
care of the library.
Since its establishment, we have put efforts to improve the library.
Those of us, who are traveling abroad, try to bring medical books and
journals for the Library. We have applied to several organizations,
individuals and libraries asking for donation of books and journals.
To learn about the success of our mission, you are welcome to visit
our website’s library section at
Several individuals and organizations have helped us to growth the
library. Significant help was provided to us after a visit to the
USA. We have received donations from several individuals, as well as
several dozens of books from the libraries of Cornell University and
Yale University (a private donation by Dr. Stephane Arian).
Dr. Artur Gevorgyan, one of our residents, currently in training in
Canada, has also succeeded in the same mission. He was able to secure
a donation of a 1 year subscription to a hand surgery journal from a
private donor. As well, he helped to organize and ship to us a donation
of crucial plastic surgery manuals from the Queens University Library
and Dr. Wyllie Alfred Kenneth. This donation totaled over $6,000
based on Amazon.com prices. Multiple books, journals, educational
CDs and DVDs were also collected and shipped to our library.
A friend and collaborator with our centre, Dr. Aram Gazarian from
Lyon Clinique du Parc purchased a subscription for the Journal of
Hand Surgery from 2002 to 2005. In 2005-2006, the subscriptions
to the Journal of Hand Surgery (British and European Volumes) and
International Journal of Surgical Reconstruction was made by Shant
Korgirian, an individual donor.
Dr. Edward Athanasian from the Hospital for Special Surgery in New
York helped as with subscription to the Journal of the American
Society for Surgery of the Hand from 2003 and several books devoted
to hand surgery. Dr. Athanasian continues his help in 2006.
Dr. Arthur Grigoryan, a neurosurgeon from Virginia and an alumnus of
the Yerevan State Medical University, subscribed our library to the
Annals of Plastic Surgety and Microsurgery Journal for 2006.
The Fund for Armenian Relief (via the United Armenia Fund) has provided
us with an incredible opportunity to ship the donated items free of
charge from New York to Armenia.
Besides the improvement in books and hard copies of journals, we
aim at getting subscriptions to the professional journals and online
resources, such as free access to MEDLINE and OVID. A significant move
in this direction was our subscription to the Health InterNetwork
Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) project of the World Health
Organization, which provides us with access to over 3,000 biomedical
journals online. This subscription was made possible due to research
done by our friends at the Armenian Canadian Medical Association
of Ontario.
Overall, we are sure that our continuous efforts will make our
Residents’ Library the best hospital library in Armenia in forthcoming
years.
The Armenian Association of Plastic Surgery and Microsurgery
is a non-for-profit organization of plastic surgery health care
professionals, aimed at improving the specialty care system provided
to the community and advancing medical sciences in Armenia.