During
the year, INASP training activities on bandwidth management and optimisation (BMO)
began to accelerate. Following from the ‘programme initiation, planning and collaborative design workshop’ in
April, two pilot workshops – one on ‘network traffic monitoring and analysis’,
the other on ‘policy development’ – were run in Zambia. Content development
began for workshops on ‘open source tools and solutions’ and ‘web caching and
other open source technical solutions’. Briefing packs on bandwidth
optimisation were also developed – targeted to executive and senior managers
and ICT managers.
The BMO programme aims to sensitise and train staff
of research and academic institutions how to make more effective use of their
costly Internet connections. Using modules developed through a
collaborative materials development process, workshops will be run in Bolivia,
Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa,
Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
INASP also worked with Lund University on a
low bandwidth version of their Electronic Library Information Navigator (ELIN).
During 2005, four workshops were run to accompany the installation of the
application in Pakistan, Rwanda, and Uganda.
More information: www.inasp.info/training/bandwidth/
www.inasp.info/peri/elin/
Revitalising libraries and library and
information schools
Recognising the important role that libraries
can play in facilitating access to information, INASP has long supported
professional development and networking activities for librarians, especially
in Africa.
As
the impact and reach of the Internet has grown, we can see greater attention
being given to the design and establishment of electronic, virtual or digital
libraries (and the challenges like bandwidth optimisation they need to
overcome). In 2005, most of our efforts in this area coalesced around work on
the digital library in Africa.
The
results of our 2004 study were published as a research report and as an
InfoBrief. Discussions were held with librarians at several meetings and events
around the world. A multi-year proposal was also developed to assist
digital library development in Africa, Asia and Latin America – including
specific attention to the curricula of library and information schools and how
they can be updated.
We continued our support for regional
associations of libraries in Africa, this year supporting the meeting of the Standing Conference
of African University Libraries Western Area in Senegal. We also published
a book with the Standing Conference of East, Central and Southern
African Librarians: User Information Literacy: case studies from
university library programmes in the SCANUL-ECS region.
More information: www.inasp.info/lsp/
Accessing research information
Extending developing country access to
international and local research literature is a central goal of the Programme
for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI). Services like African
Journals OnLine have been further developed within PERI to make research findings
from developing countries more visible and accessible to the worldwide
community. We also assisted researchers and their libraries in 18 countries
gain access to international scholarly information.
In 2005, we expanded the choice of
international content available to countries by making a further 17 publisher
services available through PERI. Over 20,000 full text journals plus many
leading major reference works, reports and e-books were available by the end of
2005 as a consequence.
A
major aim this year was to build on this access by exploring and promoting more
effective use of resources – which also entailed obtaining more data on
information users. To this end, we developed a series of PERI ‘Access
Support Packs’ to assist researchers and librarians in fully exploiting the information
resources available. We also improved PERI ‘help’ pages supporting registration,
user-names, passwords, IP addresses, URLs, file down-loading and opening, etc.
Greater attention was also given to in-country marketing and promotion.
To prepare consortia for negotiations with
international publishers, we developed and piloted a training course on ‘Licensing
and Negotiation Skills’. This will be further developed and delivered to
consortia personnel in at least five countries during 2006.
Statistics
kept by INASP show that researchers in the 18 countries together carried out
1,120,927 searches and downloaded over 794,000 full text articles (roughly 47%
increase on 2004). This is partly attributable to a greater number of countries
in PERI; more significant are the growing information capabilities of the
institutions. 62% of downloads were from 400 registered institutions in Asia
(an average of 1220 per institution); 25% of downloads were from Africa where
252 institutions averaged 812 downloads each; 12% were from 91 institutions in
Latin America, averaging 1000 downloads each; and less than 2% were from the NIS
(where PERI ceased activities during 2005) and where 38 registered institutions
averaged 278 full text downloads.
Following discussions in 2004, we joined
forces with other initiatives working in the ‘journal access’ sector. We
undertook joint workshops in Ghana with eIFL and SIST, we co-presented with
AGORA and HINARI, we ran training events with FAO and the WHO, and we are working on a joint web interface
which will serve as a gateway to all access
programmes.
More information: www.inasp.info/peri/electronic.html
Information
management training
Developing and delivering information and ICT
training workshops are a key part of the PERI programme. A travelling
methodology is used in which local resource persons co-facilitate and then
facilitate a series of workshops in several countries.
In 2005, as part of PERI, we delivered 42 workshops in 13 countries, involving 671
people from 266 institutions. A key
element in the success of these workshops has been the increase in local
capacity with ten local resource persons facilitating or co-facilitating a
travelling workshop for the first time.
New in 2005 were ‘sector workshops’ in health
and agriculture that delved deeper into information resources management in
these disciplines, a work-shop on ‘Licensing and Negotiation Skills’ for
library consortia wishing to build relations
with publishers, and a workshop
entitled ‘Working Together to Support Research:
Optimising the use of e-resources’ that aims to improve and increase the
use made of e-resources by researchers and improve the cooperation between
librarians and researchers.
Beyond the actual delivery of these workshops,
over 75 modules are also made available via a Creative Commons licence that
encourages them to be re-used. In 2005, we recorded 1,886 downloads from our
web site in this area.
More information: www.inasp.info/training/
Publishing scholarly information
Supporting publishers in developing countries
to publish and disseminate their own research information is a critical aspect
of our activities.
A major result during 2005 was the successful
handing over of African Journals OnLine (AJOL) to African management. After an
extensive tender process throughout 2004 and 2005, a suitable organisation was
identified and the programme transferred to the newly formed non-profit organisation
located in South Africa. Throughout this transfer the service continued to be
available, and by the end of the year hosted 230 journals.
The AJOL model has proved to be of great
interest to our partners and during the year we started to plan for an Asian
Journals OnLine programme. In Latin America we worked with CLACSO, supporting
the setting up of a journal publishing portal for member organisations and providing
workshops for librarians and editors on uploading and managing
online publications.
Increasing
the visibility and quality of publication requires development of skills and
new working methodologies, and in response to this we organised strategic
journal publishing workshops in Croatia, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Uganda. We also
supported a workshop on ‘Improving the Quality of Library and Information
Science Journals in West Africa’ and one for University Presses in East Africa,
and supported study tours to attend the Council of Science Editors annual
conference in the USA, and the London Book Fair in the UK.
We
continued to provide advice, and published several resources for editors and
publishers on our web site. We co-published a book entitled A Practical Guide to Bookselling with
CTA and, for UNESCO, we carried out a survey of opinions and understanding of
Open Access and compiled a directory of information resources on this topic,
available on CD and on the UNESCO web site.
To
help ourselves develop better programmes, we undertook comprehensive evaluation
of our African Journals full text online support, producing a report and
feeding this into our 2006 planning.
More information: www.inasp.info/peri/jourpub.shtml
www.inasp.info/psi/
Sector information exchange
Since its inception, INASP has actively
supported and facilitated information exchange and networking among information
professionals and others working in development. In 2005, we continued to
maintain the INASP database that has been built up over the years – and shared
with the world though our print, online and CD directories of information
resources in areas like health and rural development.
We also maintained and extended our health
networking activities, adding a series of health information training
activities in developing countries. In rural development, we also organised
some national workshops and contributed to the 2005 World Congress of the International
Association of Agricultural Information Specialists.
In mid 2005, the Global Forum for Health
Research decided to support the HIF-net discussion and information exchange
platform. As part of the agreement, HIF-net will be used by the Global Forum as
a tool to engage its partners and members discussing ways to close the 90/10
health gap.
A ‘first’ during 2005 was the organisation of a national
health information training workshop in Tanzania. Co-organised by WHO Tanzania,
AHILA, and INASP, this was
also a first collaboration with the International Network for Online Resources and
Materials (INFORM) at Uppsala University with whom INASP is now collaborating
in the delivery of a series of health information training events.
In
agriculture and rural development, we organised rural sector workshops with
partners in Tanzania and Ghana. We also collaborated with FAO in several
activities and events – including a joint session at the science pre-meeting of
the WSIS in Tunis and in an expert consultation in Rome in October.
As
part of wider efforts to foster communication and collaboration across major
international information access initiatives, we joined up with FAO (AGORA) and
WHO (HINARI) in joint posters and stands; we also collaborated in joint activities
with eIFL, the ACU, the SIST project of the French government, and others
active in this area. Work began on a joint web site to introduce all the
various initiatives.
More information: www.inasp.info/health/
www.inasp.info/rural/
Publications in 2005
Three issues of the INASP
Newsletter were published. Other reports and articles published were:
·
INASP. INASP
Strategic Framework 2005-2010.
·
INASP. INASP Review and Highlights 2004.
·
INASP.
PERI Review 2001-2004. InfoBrief 4.
·
INASP.
Towards the Digital Library in Africa. InfoBrief 5.
·
INASP.
Journal Access Programmes in African University
Libraries. InfoBrief 6.
·
Kiondo, E. and J. Msuya. User
Information Literacy: case studies from university library programmes in the
SCANUL-ECS region. Co-published with SCANUL-ECS.
·
Orimalade, O. and B.
Impey. A Practical Guide to Bookselling. Co-published with CTA.
·
Rosenberg,
D. Towards the Digital Library: Findings of an
investigation to establish the current status of university libraries in Africa.
·
Smart, P. African Journals Online Programme (AJOPP)
Programme Report.
More
information: http://www.inasp.info/pubs
Organisation and governance
In April 2005, the Board of Trustees approved the strategic framework
that was developed in 2003 and 2004. Covering the years 2005-2010, it sets out
the organisation’s vision and mission, five areas of activity, and planned
activities for the programme areas. The full document and a summary are on the
INASP web site.
The Board met four times; the annual meeting in November was held together
with the International Advisory Panel. During 2005, we were pleased to welcome two
new Board members: Ms Ling Thompson, formerly of the Royal Society, and Professor John
Feather, Professor of Library and
Information Studies at Loughborough University. Dr Gagik Gurzadyan (Armenia) joined the
International Advisory Board.
There were a number of staff
changes during the year: Sara Gwynn was appointed coordinator of PERI; we were
pleased to welcome Manuela Bianco (Instructional Design Officer), Vanessa Butt
(Administrative Assistant, part time), Ali Coles, (Administrative Officer),
Jeanette Cowley (Finance Officer), Chris Hagar (Head of Library Development),
Trish Sheehan (Training Events Administrator), Egbert de Smet (Programme
Manager, Training), and Nicki Sutherland (Director, Finance and
Administration); Christopher Follett retired, and Peter Ballantyne, Acuarela
Gutierrez and Sue Wright left.
INASP funders
INASP is grateful to the following organisations that
provided funds for INASP activities in 2005:
·
Association of
Commonwealth Universities
·
Atlantic
Philanthropies
·
Carnegie
Corporation of New York
·
Department for
International Development (DfID), UK
·
Food and
Agriculture Organisation of the UN
·
Gibbs Trust
·
Global Forum for
Health Research
·
Health Communications
Exchange
·
INTAS
·
International
Development Research Centre (IDRC)
·
Morel Trust
·
National Academy
of Sciences, US
·
Norad (Norwegian
Agency for Development Cooperation) of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs
·
Royal Danish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
·
Sida (Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency)
·
Technical Centre
for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA)
·
UNESCO
·
VLIR-OUS
(Flemish InterUniversity Council-University Development Cooperation
