History of HSLA

In 2011, Shamjibhai Parmar joined C.U. Shah Medical College, Surendranagar as Chief Librarian. He found a lack of resource sharing and networking between librarians of health science libraries. He saw that there was no platform in Gujarat to connect government as well as private medical college libraries and librarians, so he thought that something should be done in this area.

Mr. Sanjay Limbachia, Librarian, AMC Dental College, Ahmedabad and Ms. Preetika Dave, Librarian, A.M.C. Medical College, Ahmedabad were very enthusiastic & diligent professionals and they had been working for uniting librarians since 2010. Mr. Sanjay Limbachiya and Ms. Preetika Dave both were constantly thinking that something could be done in the field of health science libraries. Meanwhile, Ms. Preetika Dave has introduced Mr. Sanjay Limbachia to Shamji Parmar and created the "Gujarat Health Science Library Network" a WhatsApp Group by contacting the librarians of the Medical College Libraries.

By 2015, many colleges of different fields of health science education started in Gujarat. Many professional friends working in the libraries of these various colleges felt that there should be a Health Science Library Association in Gujarat where library professionals can interact and acquire professional knowledge in this information age. In addition, library professionals should be technology savvy, exchange information, and motivate librarians to perform a variety of activities. Keeping in view the need of library professionals, Shamjibhai Parmar and Sanjay Limbachiya undertook the task of establishing the Health Science Library Association.

In this regard, Shamji Parmar met Dr. Kautilya Shukla, Director, Knowledge Resource Centre, Sumandeep Vidyapith, Vadodara, He encouraged a lot for taking this kind of initiative, and assured support whatever required. Shamji Parmar also met Mr. R.S. Khetra, Librarian, B.J. Medical College, Ahmedabad; Mr. Mahesh Parmar, Librarian of NHL Medical College, Ahmedabad; Ms. Varsha Kargathiya, GCS, Ahmedabad; Mr. Jitubhai Makwana, Librarian, Pramukh Swami Medical College, Karamsad; Dr. Sanjeev Sharma, Librarian, SMIMER, Surat; Mr. Divakar, Govt. Medical College, Surat; Mr. H.D.Poradhiya, Librarian, Govt. Medical College, Bhavnagar; Dr. Rajesh Trivedi, Librarian, Govt. Medical College, Rajkot, Mr. Jayesh Pandya, M.P. Shah Medical College, Jamnagar, and Librarians of GMERS, Sola, Gandhinagar, Gotri, Dharpur and Valsad. He asked all librarians to cooperate to build a network, and all librarians enthusiastically assured for cooperation.

We did a series of meetings. Meanwhile, Mr.Sanjay Limbachiya come to know that Dr. Avni Shah, Former Librarian, B.J. Medical College, Ahmedabad had established the Gujarat Medical Library Association (GMLA) in the year 1985, Which was in operation till 2000. But GMLA was dormant for the last one and a half decades. So we kept in touch with Dr. Avni Shah, with the idea of moving the association forward.

After a long discussion, a meeting was arranged on 18.02.2017 at B.J. Medical College Library for further process of GMLA. Dr.Shamjibhai Parmar and Mr.Sanjaybhai Limbachia took over the charge of the Gujarat Medical Library Association (GMLA) from Dr.Avni Shah at B.J. Medical College Library, Ahmedabad. The meeting was attended by the Librarians of various Government, Semi-Government, and Private Medical and other Health Science Colleges of Gujarat.

The following librarians were present at the meeting.

1. Dr.Avniben Shah, Former Librarian, B.J. Medical College, Ahmedabad

2. Ms.R.P. Khatri, Librarian, B.J. Medical College, Ahmedabad

3. Mr.R.S. Khetra, Former Librarian, B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad

4. Mr.Ramanlal Patni, Former Asst. Librarian, B.J. Medical College, Ahmedabad

5. Dr.Shamjibhai Parmar, Librarian, CU Shah Medical College, Surendranagar

6. Mr.Sanjaybhai Limbachia, Librarian, A.M.C. Dental College, Ahmedabad

7. Ms.Preetika Dave, Librarian, A.M.C. Medical College, Ahmedabad

8. Ms.Chauhan K. Nuri, Librarian, GCRI, Ahmedabad

9. Ms.Jyotsna Suthar Librarian, Institute of Kidney Disease and Research Center, Ahmedabad

10. Mr.Narendra Chauhan, Librarian, GMERS, Dharpur, Patan

The Gujarat Medical Library Association only worked for the affiliated colleges of the Health Department (Medical Education) of the Government of Gujarat. Therefore, it was decided to expand the scope of work so that the librarians and library staff working in the libraries run by all the Health Science Colleges (Institutions / Hospitals) in Gujarat could be incorporated. As well as the name of this association was suggested to be changed. We had expanded its scope and included libraries of government and private Medical, Dental, Nursing, Ayurvedic, Homeopathy, Physiotherapy, Pharmacy and Health Science Institutes. It was also renamed as a Health Science Library Association.