Managing ICTs at Sokoine National Agricultural Library

Like many other libraries, the Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL) has already computerized most of its services. The library has acquired a number of ICT facilities that contribute positively to provision of information services. However, the new technologies provide new challenges related to acquisition, preservation, maintenance and security issues, training of users, and lack of awareness and commitment among key stakeholders.This paper discusses some of the challenges experienced by SNAL, highlights measures taken to overcome some of these challenges, and proposes strategies for proper management of ICTs in libraries.

read the full article.

Themes for the IAALD 2010 Congress

At a planning meeting for the 2010 IAALD World Congress to be held in Montpellier, we discussed some proposed themes proposed by Jean-François Giovannetti.

Under the overall title 'Scientific and Technical Information and its role in rural development: Highlighting innovative practices', we aim to organize discussions around several overall themes that cut across different forms of content, end users, and information producers and creators, as well as the various levels of information activities, from local to global.

The initial themes are:

Theme 1: Innovative learning processes: Within this sub-theme, we will illustrate innovative learning processes of and among agricultural stakeholders - including farmers, educators, researchers.

Theme 2: Information services, the need for a continued redefinition: This sub-theme will explore information services tailored to fit the needs of specific end users. We expect these will include, among others, SDI, Q&A services, libraries, open access mechanism, web 2 services, etc.

Theme 3: Communication and information exchange for multiple stakeholders: This sub-theme would cover all issues related to information exchange as well as communication processes among all stakeholders involved in agricultural research for rural development. Likewise, issues related to innovation as a multi-stakeholder mechanism and how innovation is co-produced by a wide range of actors can be an interesting focus of this Session.

Theme 4: Information systems for structured and integrated information: This theme is dedicated to “high value information systems”. It will cover structured, integrated and relational information systems (e.g. Who is doing what, and what are the results or lessons learned?), knowledge-based systems, systems facilitating decision making processes, and systems enabling the diagnosis of species (such as weeds, etc).

Theme 5: Information products and services as public policy enablers: This theme is dedicated to information and communications approaches and systems that facilitate and enable the definition and implementation of public policies, whether national, grassroots or international. It will look at the way this information is made available for a wide range of citizens, particularly those which touch on innovative ways to open a public debate on key global issues.

The themes are now draft. Help us achieve a good congress: What themes are missing? Which should be adapted, and how?

Let us know by commenting on this posting....

Using ICTs for rural development

The December 2008 issue of Rural 21 focuses on the potential of Information and communication technologies in rural regions.

Articles include:

Are ICTs a new revolution in rural areas? - Koda Traoré
ICT and poverty reduction: mobile telecommunications advancing fast - Albrecht Wald
Without energy no ICT! - Dion Jerling
ICT as a tool for knowledge transfer - Peter Rave
Web 2.0 in rural areas – myth or practical? - Ednah Karamagi
Telecentres: knowledge sharing in rural Africa - Dean Mulozi

Read the whole issue

eLearning for international agriculture development

A long standing dilemma, particularly in developing countries, has been in how to get important knowledge to those who most need it. Developing country agricultural professionals are largely isolated from the global knowledge system and poor rural farmers are isolated from national knowledge systems.

One approach that has shown considerable promise, at least for strengthening the knowledge of agricultural professionals who in turn pass knowledge on to farmers, is eLearning. This paper focuses on how two non-profit organizations dealt with challenges associated with eLearning for agriculture and offers a number of recommendations for future efforts.

The authors’ involvement in two eLearning for agriculture organizations illustrated a number of challenges. While they were not successful in using this approach to reach farmers directly, survey results suggested that by targeting “knowledge intermediaries” they did improve knowledge flow to the ultimate beneficiaries.

The authors advance 3 recommendations. The first is to address the numerous digital divide issues that plague rural communities. Telecenters and new technologies like the Fieldserver have shown promise. Second, more attention should paid to providing support and training opportunities in online course design and facilitation for agricultural educators. Third, they call for increased long-term, public-sector and donor support for agricultural eLearning.

Read the full article.

E-learning courses for agricultural information managers

Alternative research publishing models

The UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) recently published a report examining the "institutional, budgetary and wider economic implications of three of the major emerging models for scholarly publishing (i.e. subscription publishing, open access publishing and self-archiving)."

It provides fascinating insights into the total costs of scholarly publishing along the whole process - something like £5.4 billion in the UK during 2007. The authors also give us much food for thought on the implications of their research for different stakeholders in the process - researchers, funders, libraries, publishers, etc.

The overall conclusion: "Preliminary analysis of the potential benefits of more open access to research findings suggests that returns to research can also be substantial, and that different scholarly publishing models can make a material difference to the returns realised, as well as the costs faced."

What do they recommend?

"There is evidence to support a move towards more open access to research findings,..."

Barriers to "transitioning to more cost-effective scholarly publishing models" need to be reduced, by, for instance:

• finding ways to reward scholarly communication innovation rather than more traditional publishing forms;
  
• ensuring that funds are available to support publisher fees;
  
• encouraging self-archiving;
  
• supporting advocacy on alternative publishing models.
  

The authors suggest that "open access self-archiving, either in parallel with subscription publishing or with overlay services, may be more cost-effective, although more information is required on repository costs and the potential benefits of greater integration of publications with other forms of research output, their integration into learning materials, and the curation and sharing of research data. Hence, there is scope to focus greater attention on the development of repositories."

The report ends arguing that "international developments are of great importance in realising the benefits of more open access and much can be achieved by international efforts towards sharing the gains." An important extra justification for CIARD!

AgInfo exchange for Near East and North Africa

The Near East and North Africa Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network is facilitated by FAO and AARINENA to improve regional and national information infrastructure and  to build common standards and platforms for knowledge exchange and information management in the Near East and North Africa region.

The portal is an entrance to a wide range of information resources from the region and the partners involved - country reports, good practices, thematic knowledge networks, events, projects and more ... You can also sign up for RSS feeds.

A presentation by Magdi Latif explains the NERAKIN approach and tools used to maintain the portal. It was designed with to have the following capabilities:

• Meeting International Data Exchange Requirements for Information Standards and Tools for Content Management
  
• Open System Architecture: The system is fully dynamic, built and developed under object oriented concepts using the latest technology and modern object oriented language 
  
• Portability: It is capable to be deployed easily in other machines and portable devices 
  
• User Friendly: It has a friendly interface and it easy to use and simple to configure
  
• Dynamic Workflow Back end Interfaces: The system has a dynamic workflow in the advanced Content Management System (CMS) 
  
• Centralized and Distributed System: The NERAKIN architecture on the one hand will enable all participating institutions to upload their materials in a centralized system, and on the other hand will allow for the development of distributed systems at institutional levels
  

Finally, it also contains a series of country reports on agricultural information systems and services in the region as well as useful contacts for people working on these issues.

Social media for agricultural science?

Looking back on 20 years of the world wide web, the Economist reports on the original "bland title' of a document written by Tim Berners-Lee in March 1989: "Information Management: A Proposal." It argues that "his proposal, modestly dubbed the world wide web, has fulfilled the implications of its name beyond the wildest dreams of anyone involved at the time."

The short article illustrates ways that scientists are "using the web to further their research." However, it suggests that scientists have "tended to lag when it comes to employing the latest web-based social-networking tools to open up scientific discourse and encourage more effective collaboration."

"Scientists publish, in part, because their careers depend on it. They keenly keep track of how many papers they have had accepted, the reputations of the journals they appear in and how many times each article is cited by their peers, as measures of the impact of their research. These numbers can readily be put in a curriculum vitae to impress others.

By contrast, no one yet knows how to measure the impact of a blog post or the sharing of a good idea with another researcher in some collaborative web-based workspace."

CIAT's Simone Staiger recently shared a presentation to colleagues on the Potential of Social Media for Improving Organizational, Project and Personal Impact in an agricultural research institute. She invites them to join the social web, to increase their 'impact pathways' by increasing their networks and reaching out to more users.

Such social approaches were one of the features of the recent Rome sharefair; they were also used to report on IAALD's 2008 World Congress.

They are thus spreading among agricultural information, knowledge and communication people. However, demonstrating the personal and professional 'business case' for social media in science is going to be an important step towards wide adoption of these approaches and tools.

Google Apps for agricultural research?

The CGIAR has been looking into alternative ways for its staff to collaborate and share information online.

Read this short report on an experiment they tried out in 2008.

Take a look at CGXchange 2.0 - one nice feature is that we can all learn from CGIAR experiences.