NAL Update

At USAIN's 2008 conference, Peter Young and colleagues gave an update on recent developments at the National Agricultural Library.

He introduced 'Blueprint for Success: The National Agricultural Library 2008-2012' - a staff discussion paper that, according to Young explains "what it is that NAL's programmes are about." It responds to the question "what do you [the NAL] need ..." to revitalize and sustain the library and its services into the future. The paper is "meant to stimulate discussion, evoke critical comment and spark debate about NAL’s future."

The starting premise of the team writing the report is that "information consumers, whether USDA staff worldwide or the Nation’s citizens, now expect easy and seamless access to digital content and personalized services. They demand reports, images and news feeds in a variety of formats. They also insist on the ability to customize interfaces, to tailor content to their precise needs and to have that content come to them on their timetable wherever they are." The various chapters set out ways that a national agricultural library and its partners can address these demands, through services, collections, marketing, partnerships, infrastructure and facilities. [Download the report - pdf format]

He also talked about several digital initiatives: AgSpace - a repository with more than 11,000 USDA-authored articles (searchable through AGRICOLA); the NAL Digital Repository (NALDR) - mainly historical USDA publications; and a new 'biofuels and bioenergy' page that will become an information center.

He also talked about 'InfoFarm' - the NAL blog. Young referred to this as "NAL's voice, sassy as it is." He asked readers to feel free to be 'sassy' right back - through comments and feedback.

After the session, we asked Peter about the international dimension of NAL's work, particularly the need for global collaboration:

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Preserving indigenous knowledge

Indigenous peoples all over the world are today using technology to record and protect their traditional knowledge and culture. Communities are gathering details on their environments and the available food sources. They are documenting and preserving agricultural methods that have been passed down through centuries. Far from being primitive, these techniques have been tried, tested and developed to perfectly suit local conditions. It is vitally important then, that this indigenous knowledge is preserved and shared for many generations to come.

Préserver les connaissances autochtones

Partout dans le monde, les populations autochtones se servent de moyens technologiques pour consigner et préserver leur culture et leurs connaissances traditionnelles. Ces communautés recensent les éléments de leur environnement et les sources de denrées disponibles. Elles consignent et préservent des méthodes agricoles transmises au fil des siècles. Loin d’être primitives, ces techniques ont été testées, éprouvées et développées pour répondre parfaitement aux conditions locales.

Préserver ces connaissances autochtones pour les transmettre aux générations futures est donc un enjeu vital.

Gender, Agriculture and Rural Development in the Information Society

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC), The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos) and the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) are inviting applications for the third round of the GenARDIS small grants programme.

A Small Grants Fund to address Gender Issues in Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural and Rural Development in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP Countries).

The deadline for receipt of applications is 2 June 2008.

Genre, agriculture, développement rural et société de l’information

Le Centre de recherches pour le développement international (CRDI), le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA), l’Institut humaniste pour la coopération avec les pays en développement (Hivos) et l’Institut international pour la communication et le développement (IICD) invitent des candidatures pour le troisième appel du programme de petites subventions GenARDIS.

Un fonds de subvention pour traiter les questions de genre dans le domaine des technologies de l’information et de la communication pour l’agriculture et le développement rural en Afrique, dans les Caraïbes et le Pacifique (Pays ACP).

Le délai de réception des demandes est fixé au 2 juin 2008.

Sri Lanka universities develop agricultural educational content with wikis

As part of its L3 Farmers project, the Commonwealth of Learning and the Sri Lanka Association of Distance Educators recently organized a workshop on Open (Agricultural) Education Resources. Participants from 5 universities learned to use WikiEducator to develop educational content, they also prepared interactive lessons on different topics.

The wiki pages show what went on in the 4-day workshop; visitors can also view lessons on the following topics:

1. Chilli Leaf Curl complex and its Management
2. Housing and Feeding of Poultry
3. Banana Cultivation
4. Chilli Diseases
5. Cost of Production in Rice Cultivation

The pages are still very much 'work in progress' but they show what can be done in a short time. Feedback and requests for further information should be sent to Krishna Alluri at COL.

See more posts on the L3 Farmers project.

AgInfo systems as pathways out of rural poverty

Last year Cornell University and partners put together a 'WorldAginfo' Design Team to test the premise that "new collaborative information technologies offer an exciting opportunity to transform agricultural education and information systems in Asia and Africa."

The Team was charged by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to explore the landscape of agricultural education and information systems in Asia and Africa, and to come up with "a set of recommendations for areas of investment that have the potential to improve the lives of smallholders through better access to agricultural education, training and information."

The 300+ page report - entitled Building Pathways out of Rural Poverty through Investments in Agricultural Information Systems - is now available online. It provides a summary of the activities undertaken and recommendations for areas of investment.

As the report authors point out, the "scope of this project was vast, covering two continents, multiple stakeholders all along the agricultural information chain, and all aspects of agricultural information from soil fertility to marketing mangoes."

They conclude that "while many factors affect the productivity and overall success of smallholder farmers, it is clear that lack of access to agricultural information presents one of the important barriers. It is also clear that there are many creative and innovative initiatives already underway, so there is ample opportunity to have impact by building on ongoing success stories as well as experimenting with new approaches."

The wide ranging process - literature reviews, surveys, site visits, workshops - generated 12 main proposals. These have some common themes and principles:

• The content, value, and quality of information and knowledge are not improved just because information is offered in multimedia or over the Internet. The importance of quality control is almost more critical the more accessible and ubiquitous information becomes.


• Building in extensive feedback mechanisms at all levels from all sources is critical. This can help address the issue of quality control and strengthen the smallholder voice.


• It is important to enable smallholder access to a wide range of support systems so that as many men and women farmers as possible are reached.


• Many of the proposals cite programs that are already making a difference, and could offer a model or potential partner for future collaboration. Investments should capitalize on existing successful programs and innovative organizations, rather then reinventing the wheel.

It is not known whether the Gates Foundation will invest in these areas. Nevertheless the report brings together an immense amount of experience and information, and it highlights and examines many of the areas where ICTs can - and are - making a difference to small holder agriculture. Including, for example, market information systems, working with community knowledge workers, multimedia instruction, collaborative content generation, access to literature, mobile phones, and community radio.

Project home page
More blog stories on this project

Connecting the aglibrary catalogue to Google Books

Colleagues at Wageningen UR library are getting excited about the potential to link their library catalogue to full text books in Google. Wouter Gerritsma explains how they got over some of the problems.

Wouter is a regular 'library 2.0' - and much more - blogger. Well worth visiting to see what's on the agenda at the largest Dutch 'agricultural' library. His colleague Peter van Boheemen also blogs about library applications they develop in Wageningen.

AgInfo Africa - upcoming IAALD activities

The IAALD Africa Chapter has been busy planning activities for its members and partners.

On 14 July, 2008, it organizes a one-day 'Seminar on Meeting Information and Knowledge Needs of Farmers in Africa Through e-Agriculture'. Part of the SCECSAL meeting in Zambia, up to 50 participants are expected.

Also this year, the Chapter is planning a session at the upcoming IAALD World Congress in Japan. Contact Chapter President Justin Chisenga for more information.

Preliminary planning has also started for the IAALD Africa regional conference to be held in Ghana, 13 – 17 July 2009. Mark you agendas!

IAALD's Africa Chapter was launched in Nairobi in May 2006.

More on IAALD blog metrics and use

In September 2006, we published a posting on IAALD blog metrics and use. We were proud to record 7,851 unique visitors and 18,500 page loads in our first year. How are we doing now?

For this blog in 2007, 'StatCounter' recorded 36,000 page loads and 12,800 unique visitors (28,800 page loads and 10,800 visitors in 2006).

Our RSS feeds and email alerts (that combine the blog posts with del.icio.us tagged items) were viewed 78,800 times in 2007, generating 2,500 clickthroughs to news items (this is sure rise in 2008 as we already recorded 22,000 views and 3,000 clickthroughs!).

What are you reading? See the most viewed blog postings and feed items (at April 2008).

Where are visitors coming from?

ClusterMaps shows a truly global readership, except China, large chunks of Russia and Brazil, and some parts of Africa. Strong concentrations in North America, Europe, South Asia, Australia, and parts of Africa.

'Google Analytics' lists the top sources of visitors so far in 2008: USA (23%), Netherlands (8.5%), India (8.2%), UK (4.5%), France (3.5%), Italy (3.1%), Canada (2.9%), Philippines (2.7%), Kenya (1.8%), Colombia (1.7%), Germany (1.4%), Australia (1.4%), Nigeria (1.3%), Costa Rica (1.2%), Iran (1.1%), Ghana (1.1%), and Malaysia (1%).

This all seems to show steady, growing, interest in the issues covered, and an increasing willingness by some people to sign up to email alerts and RSS feeds. Another very noticeable trend is the massively increased visits to some blog stories that follow when an email message is sent out to IAALD members announcing recent postings.

IFPRI's Pete Shelton recently blogged on the impact of web sites, giving "a few potential indicators for measuring impact on the web while trying to provide my own impressions on their overall value and utility for measuring impact."

Tags: agricultural information blogging iaald

Top stories on this blog

What are you reading? What are the most popular blog and feed stories on this site? As part of our efforts to understand and track the use of this blog and its primary RSS feed, we dived into Google Analytics (see related posting).

The top twenty most viewed blog postings in 2007 and 2008 are:

• IAALD World Congress 2008
• e-Agriculture Week in Rome
• The agricultural information specialist of the future?
• Conference: Participatory Web for Development
• ICT and Agriculture sessions at WITFOR 2007
• Analyzing agricultural ICT projects in India
• USAIN 2008 Conference
• Planning Iran's agricultural Information System
• Lifelong learning with farmers in Madurai, South India
• Agricultural knowledge and development in a new age and a different world
• Web 2.0 for participatory development: Notes from Rome
  
• Mass media to disseminate agricultural technologies in Pakistan
  
• Rethinking the Agricultural Library
  
• The Agricultural Information Management Standards Web Site
  
• ICT Adoption in Agriculture - Perspectives from EFITA 2007
  
• Market information systems and agricultural commodity exchanges
  
• Defining 'e-agriculture'
  
• e-Agriculture should focus on Information over Technology
  
• IAAMSLIC 2007 Conference
  
• Understanding the use of agricultural websites
  

The top twenty most viewed feed items for the same period are:

• Le web agricole nouveau est arrivé
  
• Food, Agriculture and Nutrition @ SLA
  
• PMN Launches Agricultural Web Search
  
• i4donline agriculture news (RSS feed)
  
• IICA interconnected throughout the hemisphere via a Virtual Private Network
  
• Knowledge Management in development cooperation
  
• Framework on Effective Rural Communication for Development
  
• IICA conectado a través de Red Privada Virtual en todo el Hemisferio
  
• Archivos Abiertos para el Desarrollo: Nuevos enfoques de la Biblioteca Digital
  
• KM and Knowledge Systems for Rural Development
  
• FAO and GTZ workshop examines KM and communication for rural development
  
• New CABI Website and Online E-Zine
  
• Towards an architecture for open archive networks in Agricultural Sciences and Technology
  
• New FARA website launched at 4th FARA General Assembly
  
• Développement du Web collaboratif
  
• Join GFAR project to share information on agricultural organizations
  
• CTA strategic plan emphasizes efficiency and sustainability
  
• AGRORED Peru: Specialists endorse good practices in open access and open archives
  
• The Agricultural Information Management Standards Web Site
  
• Historias Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación para el desarrollo (Ecuador)
  

Interesting the see the differences - especially the greater views of non-English postings via the feed ...

Tags: agricultural information blogging iaald

Blogging web 2.0 and KM for agriculture and rural development

Sometimes you find an excellent new blog on aginfo and related issues and wonder how it didn't come across your radar before... Anyway, Web Tastings is by IFPRI's Pete Shelton and Stephan Dohrn - writing in their personal capacities. The idea is to "reflect on the usefulness and impact of the social web and its tools and approaches on development cooperation."

A recent post that caught the eye looks at measuring impact on the web - and some experiences from IFPRI.

AgroWeb portal managers meet in Hungary

FAO's Michal Demes forwarded information about a recently-concluded 'Regional training workshop for portal managers and coordinators of thematic communities in the AW Network.' Participants were drawn from the three AgroWeb networks - CAC, CEE, and SEE (check the sites for their scope).

According to the introductory material for the workshop: "Lately, the development of the Network has stagnated, partially as a result of a lack of personal (face-to-face) communication. Attempts to share knowledge and best practices 'virtually' have not been as successful as workshops and conferences in the past." Hence, the organizers felt the need for this face to face meeting.

Beyond the community aspect, the Network also faces technological challenges. The organizers felt it is "of crucial importance to use up-to-date technology and tools for successful networking and effective work." In this vein, a "recently conducted review of the AgroWeb concluded that the Network urgently needs to be enhanced with new tools, in particular those based on Web2.0 technologies, ..."

This workshop was designed to train the participants in the adoption of a new technical platform and Content Management System (Typo 3).

According to the summary and conclusions powerpoint, "adoption of CMS agreed in principle for pilot phase"; a series of follow up steps will now be put into motion.

More on AgroWeb:

The AgroWeb international network was established in 1998 by organisations and individuals involved in agricultural and rural development in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries in order to contribute to agricultural and rural development by facilitating the generation, collection and dissemination of agriculture related information, sharing knowledge and best practices.

AgroWeb is maintained by volunteers from participating countries (Balkan region, New Independent States, Baltic States, Caucasus region and Central Asia, and European Union). Currently, it consists of 25 national portals, which provide access to information in a standard format and structure about agriculture-related institutions - ministries, libraries, information centres, universities, research centres, NGOs, agro-marketing organisations and organisations involved in the European integration process.

More information on the workshop is available on the AgroWeb Hungary Typo 3 web site ...

En Chile, comienza ciclo 2008 de capacitación IMARK

Profesionales y funcionarios de las Unidades de Información, ligadas al sector silvoagropecuario de Chile, tendrán la oportunidad de aprender procesos, tecnologías para la creación, manejo y difusión de información digital.

La Fundación para la Innovación Agraria de Chile (FIA) y la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), dieron inicio oficial al nuevo ciclo de capacitaciones para el manejo de documentos electrónicos en Bibliotecas Digitales –orientadas al sector silvoagropecuario-, el cual ofrece, por primera vez, una versión para la Región Metropolitana.

El objetivo de los Talleres de Capacitación en Gestión de Información Agraria:, es capacitar a los funcionarios a cargo de Unidades de Información que formen parte de la RedAgroChile y bibliotecas públicas de la Región Metropolitana.

Las clases se emplean una serie de módulos disponibles mediante el Repertorio de Recursos para la Gestión de Información Agraria (IMARK, por sus siglas en inglés), que FAO se encuentra desarrollando con asociados y especialistas de todo el mundo. El taller en Santiago, combina los módulos en 'Gestión de Documentos Electrónicos' y 'Digitalización y Bibliotecas Digitales'.

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