Following from work in 2003, we collaborated
with partners on various proposals to help institutions in developing countries
optimise use of their existing bandwidth (Internet access). After discussions,
the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) and the International Development
Research Council (IDRC) agreed to co-finance a series of bandwidth optimisation
and management training workshops and accompanying tools and training
materials. The pilot workshop together with the follow up cascading and
travelling workshops will begin in early 2005.
Alongside these efforts to better manage
bandwidth, in 2004 we joined with Lund University to develop a (s)low bandwidth
version of the existing Electronic Library Information Navigator (ELIN) used
widely in Sweden. This application provides a single interface through which
users can search, browse and navigate an extremely wide range of electronic
information resources (such as are typically provided through the Programme for
the Enhancement of Research Information – PERI). The pilot system was developed
in 2004 and will be tested in Pakistan, Rwanda and Uganda in early 2005. If
successful, it will provide an exciting low bandwidth answer for users
frustrated by the need to search multiple electronic databases over the
Internet, one by one.
More information: www.inasp.info/training/bandwidth/
www.inasp.info/peri/elin/
Information management
training
A major feature of our support to the
research community and the information professionals supporting it, is
training. In 2004, 760 people from 412 institutions participated in 32 training
events. Participant evaluation of workshops indicated that: 91% of participants
felt that the workshop would help them ‘a lot’ or ‘quite a lot’ in their work;
77% of participants felt ‘very able’ or ‘quite able’ to pass on what they had
learnt; and for 89% of participants, ‘all of’ or ‘most of’ the aims and
objectives of the workshops were met.
During the year, four new countries
participated in INASP-supported training (Cuba, Pakistan, Rwanda, and Vietnam)
and three new workshop series were developed and delivered: Training the
Trainer (with the International Institute for Communication and Development),
Web Page Design and Authoring, and PC Technical Troubleshooting for Library
Personnel.
In terms of training materials, all 65 PERI
workshop units are available via a Creative Commons license. In the year, 1325
registrations were received to download materials from the INASP web site. All
these materials are also available on the ItrainOnline web site.
More information: www.inasp.info/training/
www.itrainonline.org
Disseminating
African research
The ‘flagship’ activity in the area of
national publishing support is African Journals OnLine (AJOL). By the end of
2004, AJOL indexed the contents of 214 peer-reviewed African journals (an
increase of 36 titles during the year), and provided access to full text
articles through document delivery. More than 2,100 document delivery requests
were fulfilled during the year (300% increase from 2003), and 12,151 people are
registered to use the service. While the service generally only provides online
access to abstracts, in 2004 some editors began to publish the full text of
their journals on AJOL.
Three major developments during the year were
the technical upgrading of the AJOL platform, planning for AJOL to move to
African management, and workshops to support AJOL editors. The technical
upgrading resulted in a fully database-driven system using the OJS software
developed at the University of British Columbia. It has allowed more efficient
up-loading of content (full text as well as abstracts) and it provides more
possibilities to interact with readers, in particular email alerts. The content
is also fully open archive initiative compliant and is included in the beta
version of Google Scholar which facilitates scholarly content retrieval on the
Internet.
In the first part of the year, African
organisations were invited to apply to manage AJOL and fourteen organisations
submitted proposals. These were considered by an evaluation team consisting of
AJOL journal editors, and a shortlist was drawn up. A decision is expected in
early 2005.
We delivered two regional AJOL/publishing
work-shops in South Africa and Kenya, containing a mix of practical modules on
publishing online with AJOL, as well as wider strategy sessions. We also
published several publishing resources on the INASP website.
Some start-up support was provided for the
Society of African Journals, to provide a forum for exchange of experiences and
skills. Beyond journals, we worked with colleagues from Addis Ababa University
Press as the prelude to a project with African university presses and we began
to investigate institutional archives as publishing tools for African research
institutes.
More information: www.ajol.info
www.inasp.info/psi/
Accessing research information
In 2004, we provided support for 22 countries
and regions to gain access to international scientific information in databases
and full text. Of course, not all of them are making equal use of the available
opportunities. With support from multiple funders, we negotiated discounted
country-wide licences with commercial publishers, liased with each country to
identify the resources required, and helped to ensure that the content was
locally promoted and used. A major step forward in 2004 was that countries
themselves were able to generate 41% of the subscription funds needed from
their own sources (a growth from 2003 when around 30% was paid for locally). A
major contributing factor to this has been the emergence of consortia in
several countries. These joint ventures have shown that institutes can
successfully raise funds by working together.
By the end of the year, we had secured
reduced prices and country-wide licences for over 14,600 full text journals
from 19 publishers, at a discounted rate of around 96.3% of the full price.
Statistics from 9 of the main content providers show that researchers in the 19
countries together carried out 369,000 searches and downloaded about 365,000
full text articles (roughly 100% increase on 2003).
This past year has seen a significant effort
to strengthen collaboration among some of the initiatives working in the
‘journal access’ sector. In October, we joined the ACU and other partners to
organise a workshop on journal provision in African university libraries. We
negotiated memoranda of understanding with eIFL.net and the SIST project to
foster more joined-up approaches. We also explored collaboration with the AGORA
and HINARI programmes of the FAO and WHO respectively.
More information: www.inasp.info/peri/electronic.html
Revitalising
African libraries
Recognising the important role that libraries
can play in facilitating access to information, we have long supported
professional development and networking activities for librarians in Africa.
In 2004, the Carnegie Corporation of New York
(CCNY) programme to support the revitalisation of African public libraries
neared its end. In July, we organised a workshop in Johannesburg on "ICTs
and the Library: experiences, opportunities and challenges". We also
carried out and published a survey of the use of ICTs in African public
libraries and we supported national and regional Library Associations to
produce their own newsletters (two regional newsletters and nine country
newsletters).
We supported two meetings of regional
associations of libraries (SCANUL East, Central and Southern Africa and
SCECSAL) and commissioned and published two case studies from Zambia and Ghana.
At the national level, with support from the Norwegian Government, we assisted
in a planning exercise of the Malawi National Library Service.
Finally, in a look to the future, we
initiated a digital libraries ‘situation analysis’ in public universities in
Anglophone Africa to better understand the current status of different
initiatives on the continent.
More information: www.inasp.info/lsp/
Networking
information professionals
A core part of our mandate has been to
promote cooperation and collaboration and to act as a clearinghouse for
questions asked and advice sought by colleagues around the world. In 2004, our
two sector programmes on health and agriculture were mainly operating in this
networking and facilitation mode. Additionally, we replied to hundreds of
general information requests, pointing them to our online directories of
organisations and links and to other information sources.
Anticipating an upgraded database environment
in 2005, we used the second half of 2004 to edit all the links and directory
entries on our websites. Lenny Rhine at the University of Florida continually
updated the health links directory. Initial steps were taken to migrate the
INASP and Rural directory information into a new contacts database system.
In 2004, our health activities included the
provision of advisory and Q&A services, facilitation of regular meetings of
the UK-based health information forum, moderation of the HIF-Net email
discussion list, and maintenance of a health links gateway and directory of health information development activities.
During the year, HIF-Net grew to more than 1500 people. We organised
four health information forum meetings: Getting research into practice in
developing countries; Leapfrog technologies; Global review on access to health
information; and Sharing reproductive health information. We also mobilised
in-kind commitment from over 20 organisations to launch a Global Review of
Access to Health Information in Developing Countries. In terms of country level
capacity development, INASP joined AHILA and other partners to formulate a
joint approach to address the training needs of health information workers in
Africa. This will be followed up in 2005 through some sector workshops funded
through PERI.
In agriculture and rural development, we
participated in meetings with major global players in agricultural information
– CGIAR, CTA, FAO, GFAR, and IAALD. We moderated an intermittently active
discussion forum (iNARS). At the country level, we discussed agricultural
information, exploring links between INASP programmes and the specific sector
situations and needs. These will be followed up through sector workshops funded
through PERI. In Ghana, we joined local networks as well as FAO and IAALD to
hold an agricultural information networking and knowledge sharing day that
showcased the range of initiatives in the country and promoted networking
across the sector.
More information: www.inasp.info/health/
www.inasp.info/south/
Evaluating INASP activities
In mid 2004, we published the report of the
2003 INASP-Health evaluation. Following the suggestions of the team, we
re-assessed our involvement in various health information activities, seeking
to add more focus on capacity-strengthening in developing countries and to
broaden the ownership and governance of the various networking tools.
In September, we initiated a mid-term review
of PERI. It was designed to document and assess progress towards goals and
objectives, to establish appropriate data and indicators for future monitoring
and evaluation, and to identify appropriate priorities and directions for the
next phase of the programme. The review examined five main areas:
·
Relevance. Do PERI’s current components meet the needs
of the research community?
·
Usage. Are PERI services and resources being used and
why/how?
·
Management. Is PERI being managed and structured in an
effective way?
·
Sharing. Are experiences and lessons being shared and
learned?
·
Sustainability. Are the activities currently supported
by PERI becoming or likely to become sustainable within countries?
After visits to three countries, stakeholder
meetings in five countries, questionnaires, and a global stakeholders meeting,
the review team draft report concluded that the activities supported by PERI
basically meet the needs of its stakeholders. However, attention is needed to:
better embed PERI in its wider situation and with other stakeholders, to
improve programme documentation, to increase use of the services provided, to
develop evaluation and impact indicators, and to support progress to
sustainability. The final report is expected in 2005.
More information: www.inasp.info/peri/
Publications in 2004
Three issues of the INASP Newsletter were
published and sent to over 2000 subscribers
·
Alemna,
A.A. and M. Cobblah. The Ghana Interlibrary Lending and Document Delivery
Network. Co-published with SCAULWA.
·
Chisenga,
J. The Use of ICTs in African Public Library Services.
·
INASP. The Use of ICTs in African Public Library Services.
Infobrief 3.
·
Simui,
M.H. and Kanyengo, C.W. An Investigation into the Funding of University
Libraries in Zambia. Co-published with SCANUL-ECS.
More information: http://www.inasp.info/pubs/
Organisation and governance
INASP reached an important milestone in late 2004 when its
application for charity status was approved by the Charity Commission of
England and Wales. This completed the process by which INASP became a fully
independent legal entity, separate from ICSU that created it in 1992. Close
links with ICSU continue. A strong role is set out for INASP within the new
ICSU Priority
Area Assessment on Data and Information; we also expect that INASP will be
recognised as an interdisciplinary body of ICSU.
Alongside this application process, a Board of Trustees was
established as well as an International Advisory Panel with members from all
the regions where INASP works. Mr Robert Campbell of Blackwell Publishing was
the founding Board Chair; Professor N. Mukunda of the Indian Academy of
Sciences was asked to Chair the International Advisory Panel. The Board met
four times and the Panel once – in association with the first INASP Symposium
held in November. With support from seven of our publisher partners, this
symposium highlighted several promising approaches and tools that are helping
to enhance access to scientific information.
Mobilising sufficient staff to deal with the growing demands
on INASP continued to be a challenge. In 2004, we welcomed Sue Wright as our
new Financial Director. In December, we said farewell to Neil Pakenham-Walsh
and Blanca
Gonzalez.
INASP is grateful to the following organisations that
provided funds for INASP activities in 2004:
·
Association
of Commonwealth Universities
·
Blackwell
Publishing
·
British
Medical Association
·
Carnegie
Corporation of New York
·
EBSCO
·
Elsevier
Foundation
·
Exchange
·
Flemish
Interuniversity Council
·
INTAS
·
Morel
Trust
·
National
Academy of Sciences
·
Nature
Publishing Group
·
Oxford
University Press
·
Royal
Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
·
Royal
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
·
Springer
·
Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency
·
T&F
Informa
·
Technical
Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU
·
Thomson
Scientific
·
UNESCO
·
UK
Department for International Development
·
Wenner
Gren
·
John
Wiley and Sons
