Multi-Cultural and Multi-Lingual Dimensions for the Education of the European Medical Librarian

Abstract

Interaction is the trend in Europe today: with and without the Maastricht accords, among and between the countries of the EEC (whose number appears to be increasing slowly but steadily) and the non-EEC countries (whose number sometimes appears to be increasing exponentially). The implications for the professional librarian are already evident, and concern us in our current activities. Why? because health and medicine in Europe have become “international” from every perspective:

• The professionals are international. Medical, para-medical and information personnel all travel. (And I am not talking about tourism). Many work outside their native country. Others study abroad. At the very least they attend international conferences, where they present papers and hold discussions with their foreign colleagues.

• The published information is international. Not only are health and medical professionals publishing in foreign languages (and I would argue that “professional journal English” should be classed as a new language), but papers are increasingly authored by multi-national teams, with international peer review.

• The patients are international. Immigration, economic migration, refugees and tourism all create situations where doctors and other care-givers treat patients with whom they have no common cultural understanding (to explain and evaluate symptoms, and to determine a suitable course of treatment), and with whom they often do not even have a common language for communication.

• The health problems and diseases have become truly international. A quick glance at the medical literature reveals: tropical diseases in northern countries (malaria in Switzerland, leishmania in Italy); developed country health problems (cancer, industrial pollution, heart disease, diabetes, smoking, to mention only a few) in developing countries; plagues (AIDS, tuberculosis) striking all continents simultaneously.