Tanzania Past Events

The following are a list of past featured events for Tanzania. For more recent featured workshops, see the Tanzania Events page. For a list of events in Tanzania, see the Events Calendar.

2008

Enhancing electronic resources searching, retrieval and usage, December 2008
Workshop 1: Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI)
Workshop 2: Kilimanjaro Agricultural Research Centre (KATC)
Peter Edward Xavery (SARI) organised and facilitated 2 training workshops targeted at key and senior staff from each of the zonal Agricultural Research Institutes in Tanzania. The 45 participants attending, represented different programmes and departments from Selian, Hort-Tengeru and Kilimanjaro Training center(KATC).  The training provided, with the assistance of Alfred Said Sife of Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL), aimed to raise awareness of the availability and use of electronic resources and equip participants with skills to search, use, retrieve and disseminate electronic resources and information for enhancement of research.  There was much greater demand for available places than possible to accommodate.  Participant feedback noted that "In Selian and Tengeru only a quarter of the staff were able to attend the training". Whilst those who participated are to share skills acquired with other staff in their programs, there is also need for further regular institutionally organised training.

Access, usage and sharing of scientific materials among Research and Academic Libraries in Tanzania, Kibaha Conference Centre - Coast Region, Tanzania, 17-19 December 2008
Mr. A Abdallah K. Hassan, Chair of Tanzania Library Association (TLA), organised the implementation of this workshop with the assistance of James Ndege, Vice-Chair TLA. The facilitator was Dr. Evans Wema from the University of Dar es Salaam. The workshop provided participants with a solid theoretical and practical understanding of the key concepts and skills of Information and Knowledge Sharing, which can be applied within their organizations. On the last day Mr. Hassan presented case studies and shared the experiences of his organisation - The Economic and Social Research Foundation, introducing information sharing and dissemination initiatives already available in Tanzania.  Dr. Ali Mcharazo, Director General of Tanzania Library Services Board (TLSB), officially closed the training urging participants to share the information and promote the use of available resources and requested institutions to support programmes on enhancing research.  Participants rated the training highly and welcomed the opportunity to network with other institutions.  Many requested similar events repeated to enable others to benefit and also annual refresher course "to enable professionals to be active and keep pace with change". 

Training of Trainers from Tanzania Agricultural Research Institutions, in Access, Use and Dissemination of E-resources, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) - Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL); 16-18 September 2008;
Lead facilitators: Mr. Alfred Sife and Ms Grace Emmanuel

Sokoine University management and Mr FW Dulle were very supportive in the implementation of this INASP small grant funded training workshop organised and co-facilitated by Dr. AM Chailla and Mr A Malekani of  SNAL.  The workshop aimed at enabling researchers to maximise impact of electronic information in Tanzanian research by equipping them with skills to cascade training at their individual institutions. Thirty-two researchers from 6 of the agricultural zonal regions attended the training.  Together with the skills acquired and the specially prepared compendium to use as a reference, they are confident that they can go on to implement further training.  As the organisers commented in their feedback that .. training of trainers in e-resources is one way of ensuring sustainable usage of digital information in research and development in Tanzania they also noted the barrier of internet connectivity and specifically internet reliability as a major stumbling block.

Electronic information - Searching and Retrieval, Tanzania Library Services Board (TLSB), National Central Library, Dar es Salaam 9-12 September, 2008
Facilitators: Dr. Evance Wema (UDSM Library) and Mr Oreste Makafu (School of Library Archives and Documentation Studies Bagamoyo)
Coordinator: Mr Hassan N. Nsubuga TLS

Opening the workshop, the TLSB Director General, Dr. Alli Mcharazo, encouraged the twenty participants to follow the training keenly so as to acquire the skills demonstrated.  At the end of the event all participants indicated their intention and ablity to  transfer learning to their own workplace.  The training was delivered through short presentations, discussions and hands-on activities.  Positive feedback on the course content included. well understood and friendly to use ideal to the Tanzanias local needs since many examples given corresponded with the materials/resources already in place.   However,  internet connection and bandwidth were problematic at the beginning of the event. Requests noted for future similar events and solutions sought to address low bandwidth and lack of computers in order to support increased use of electronic resources and information.

PERii Electronic Resources Sensitization Workshop , Dodoma Parliament, 18 April 2008
The workshop objective was to sensitize the Members of the Parliament in Tanzania on the role and importance of electronic library and information resources. Majority of the participants were Members of Parliament who were in the Social Services Parliamentary Committee and its support staff.  The Librarian of the Parliament and the Chairperson of the Social Services Parliamentary Committee, Hon. Omari Kwaangw-MP-Babati, assisted the facilitator Prof. Paul Manda from the University of Dar es Salaam Library.  Content covered was deemed as very important for politicians and decision makers and there was appreciation for the opportunity this workshop presented.  It was recommended by facilitators and participants that another similar but extended workshop be presented in the near future.

PERii Electronic Resources Sensitization Workshop, The State University of Zanzibar, 30 March 2008
This one day workshop was presented by Prof. Paul Manda, University of Dar es Salaam Library, to twenty participants from the Zanzibar House of Representatives.  It was successful in its aim to raise awareness of available electronic resources and there were a number of requests for similar workshop to help develop on the search skills acquired.  The local organiser, Amina Hilika of The State University of Zanzibar, reported positively on the event content and outcomes which he says has contributed to the capacity building of the Members of the House of the Representatives in Zanzibar.