Peer Experience Exchange Project (PEEP)

Peer Experience Exchange Project (PEEP) visits involve a sharing of experiences between peers, usually from different countries, but sometimes from different institutions within the same country. They may include a two-way exchange of information where both countries/institutions have much to offer and much to learn, or the flow of experience may be more one-way, with one participant (or group of participants) keen to learn about a particular area that the host participants are experienced in.

UK Serials Group Annual Conference
INASP has supported colleagues from several partner countries to attend the annual conference of the UK Serials Group over the past few years.

During 2007, colleagues from Kenya and Malawi attended and found that: "It was a wonderful opportunity to update our technological knowledge in the area of information management and dissemination." They also found it provided "ideas on how to move forward in closing the digital divide".

During 2008, colleagues from Ethiopia attended. They found the opportunities afforded by the conference to be useful, particularly in meeting the publishers whose resources they subscribe to.

Two Sri Lankan colleagues have been selected to attend the conference during 2009. More information on will be included following the event. 

Publishers for Development (PfD)
INASP has been working jointly with the Association of Commonwealth Universities PfD meeting 2008(ACU) to develop a publisher forum, called Publishers for Development (PfD), for information and discussion around the importance of access to information for development and to explore some of the unique challenges faced by developing country libraries, researchers and publishers.  This forum provides an opportunity for publishers to keep up-to-date and feed their input into the work all parties are undertaking to lessen the digital divide.

A PEEP visit gave a Kenyan colleague the opportunity to offer her perspective on access to information and the other topics discussed during the initial Advisory Meeting that took place in November 2008.

Sharing best practice on information provision to parliamentarians: Uganda and Nigeria
The Ugandan Parliament is currently involved in a project with the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). The aim of this project is to ‘ensure that parliaments have the capacity to scrutinise decision making processes and act as the national fora for discussion and debate on the broad implications of issues with a basis in S&T'. The library and research section of the Parliament of Uganda is looking at ways to strengthen its capacity to handle science and technology issues and a PEEP visit to the Nigerian Parliament gave Ugandan staff the opportunity to learn from their counterparts' experiences. This visit provides the initial step for an ongoing relationship between the two countries as they seek to learn from each other's experiences. 

Strategies for effective management of electronic resources: Kenya and Ghana
Kenya were facing a number of challenges similar to those experienced in Ghana and therefore applied for support for a PEEP visit. Throughout the visit, the Kenyan participant was able to learn from the strategies that Ghana had put in place to address challenges, in particular in the following areas:  

  • Consortium membership rules and regulations
  • Country coordination strategies - a regional team approach
  • Promotional and marketing strategies - sharing of brochures and other publicity materials
  • Negotiation skills - Ghana had begun some direct negotiations with publishers for access to e-resources
  • Sources of funding

This South to South visit was felt to provide "viable solutions that can be implemented within the available resources".

Library consortium development: Tanzania and Kenya
The Consortium of Tanzania University Libraries (COTUL) was keen to learn from the experiences of their Kenyan counterpart, the Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC). So in 2007, two Tanzanian colleagues visited Kenya to do just that: learn more about the set-up and structure of KLISC. The Tanzanians learned much from their visit including the fact that "partnerships do not happen overnight". COTUL had found progress to be slow in establishing the consortium but now recognised that this was sometimes inevitable. The PEEP visit equipped the participants with practical steps and advice on how to further develop and strengthen the consortium.

Promoting PERI: Nepal and Vietnam
During 2007, two Nepalese librarians visited Vietnam to share experiences on promoting the electronic resources available through PERI. The visit involved meeting representatives from a variety of institutions in Hanoi, to learn more about the local context of academic libraries and access to electronic resources in Vietnam. The Nepalese visitors also shared their own experiences of the context in Nepal and "found every Institution [they] visited were willing and ready to make PERI sustainable, and help the scholars, academicians, students and other users to satisfy their thirst for information."