“Health literacy is imperative to improve the public health in the country”, the Prime Minister, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said on 27th February, 2012 while inaugurating the Public Health Information Resource Centre (PH IRC) at the Health Services Academy, PM National Health Complex, Islamabad. Mrs Nirgis Sathi, Secretary Cabinet and Dr Assad Hafeez, Executive Director, HSA were also present on the occasion.
The Prime Minister appreciated the online access to thousands of books & journals at the PH IRC and hoped that it would play its role in catering to the information needs of the students & researchers and also to augment the health literacy which would improve upon the public health in Pakistan as the people would be able to make appropriate health decisions.
The PH IRC is the first public health library with virtual access in the federal capital. It also takes the pride to be the first public-sector library to provide online access through Athens Login. Athens is an Internet-based facility to provide access to online, electronic & digital resources through password protected Individual Log-in. The users can log-in at any time and from any location.
The IRC is equipped with 14 Computers with Internet connectivity, four carrels for researchers to study without disturbance, multimedia lounges to access and use audios & video (Documentaries), PowerPoint presentations, lectures etc.
The IRC has a collection of more than 7000 selected books and has access to more than 50, 000 electronic books on health and related subjects. The Resource Centre subscribes to 22 print journals and also has an access to 20,000 online journals through Athens and Higher Education Commission (HEC) Digital Library. The resources include BioMed Central, Cochrane Library, Ovid Online, SpingerLink, Wiley Online Library, AccessMedicine and many others online health specific electronic databases.
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