Friends, As many of you know we are building the first and largest Research methods library at the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. This has been the result of the incredible generosity of staticians and epidemiologists world wide. WE constructed first a virtual library with 1000s of lectures, ebooks and free software. As we were doing this Mary Shann contacted me and asked if the library wanted her 2000 research methods books. Our eyes sparkled as we thought it would be wonderful to also build a book library. We set out the call to those in statistics, with the simple idea that we scientists look at our book shelves, and ask the question: What percentage of my books have I opened in 5 years. For me it was about 10%, with the rest turning yellow, dusty, and perhaps a little bit of mold. We worked with the Library of Alexandria to arrange a cargoship. You field is a very kind group as we have 5000 books being sent now to the library of Alexandria. This has been endorsed by the ASA, RSS, and IBS. Amazing. At the library the books will be curated, the names of each of the donors included in their books and the books will be then shelved
The rational is simple. Only 3% of scientific publications come from developing countries, despite the fact that 25% of the scientists live there, and 80% of the world. A primary reason for the lack of publication is "stataphobia", (I made this word up), which is the fear of statistics and not having experts to help. Close to 80% of the time an article is turned down, it is due to poor methods, and there are very few statistical help desks in Developing countries. Therefore we decided to build the BA Euclid, a global library dedicated to research methods and statistics.
We would like to request your help. We would like to expand our resource offerings. If you have research methods videos, ebooks, lectures, etc we would like to link to these (you receive full credit, and we guarantee that you page views will rapidly expand). Second, please share this with you faculty and students, as we would like global involvement and sharing. THird we built a "helpdesk" to answer questions, but for some reason we are not receiving many questions. We would like your input, and if this picks up, your help in answering questions.
You can join the BA Euclid team to improve research especially in Africa and Arab countries
We are considering having another voyage for the BA Euclid, depending upon if we can obtain sufficient donations of books. Our focus is exclusively on research methods books. We are not collecting journals because of their bulk, also if they are good, typically they will be on line.
This has been developed by Ismail Serageldin, Ph.D. the director of the Library of Alexandria, and myself, with the incredible generosity of those skilled in research methods. THis is a free global service to help improve global statistical literacy. Here is the map of where the Sealand Washington is today. It reached port in Naples today, and hovered around Naples for a few hours. We are about 3/4 to the library of Alexandria. We hope to have a virtual ribbon cutting and groundbreaking.
Besides your generosity, we must commend the library of Alexandria. Who would have guessed that we could develop perhaps the largest research methods library in 8 months, with virtually no money. Thanks to the ASA, RSS, and IBS members!!!
Global Health, so near, so far
"Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". (WHO)
Ronald E. LaPorte, Ph.D.
Emeritus Director WHO Collaborating Center
Professor Emeritus Epidemiology
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Telephone home 724 934 9023 Mobile 724 759 3283