Slide 1

Cooperation and collaboration to strengthen the global research cycle

Kay Raseroka and Lucy Browse lbrowse@inasp.info

www.inasp.info

Slide 2

The purpose of Higher Education:

“Higher education institutions have responsibility for equipping individuals with

the knowledge and skills required for key positions in government, business, industry

and professions. They produce new knowledge through research and can transfer, adapt and

disseminate knowledge as well as being important institutions of civil society.”

“Universities and development: global cooperation” Universities UK

http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/Publications/Documents/UniversitiesAndDevelopment20101011.pdf

Slide 3

What about Higher Education institutions in developing countries?

• 1960s and 70s– institutions of excellence, producing leading researchers

• Years of neglect – 80s, 90s– pressure to expand, insufficient funding (government and

donor)– quality plummeted – prospects for research severely damaged

• 2000 onward– Universities slowly being rebuilt– Donors return to HE (influential World Bank publications)

• 2010+– Decade of investment, initiatives, programmes– Successes, but still a lot to be done

Slide 4

Where we find ourselves:

• In the context of our continent:Often facing social, political and economic challengesThe impact of the global recession yet to be fully realised

•In the context of scholarly institutions:Historical legacy economically, structurally and institutionally

•For the individual scholar:Pulled between the research requirements and the teaching requirements of his/her institutionSkills gained overseas can atrophy without CPD support

Slide 5

Exploring the issues – “University Challenge”

• Universities are complex – ‘fixing’ them isn’t easy. Financial constraints are significant but not the only problem…

– Organisational constraints: structures, systems and university governance

– Research management critical – funding and grant preparation

– Good libraries – access to materials and information

– Clear research agendas

– Postgraduate training plans and proper research career structures

– Incentives to do research – enabling an attractive research culture

– Better data for planning and monitoring

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Some contradictions: (1)• Developed world universities would

claim to be using an a-historical ‘universal’ modelBUT Where do developing country universities fit into the ‘game’ of ‘research rankings’ ?

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Some contradictions: (2)

• There is no issue about the basics of what makes for robust research

BUT The context within which that research

content is made available is very different in the developing world

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Some contradictions: (3)• Research communication ‘infomediaries’ have largely achieved availability and quantity of content

BUT • Access: i.e. usability, capability and usage are the continuing challenges

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Some more contradictions: (4) • Technical access remains a huge challenge despite initiatives like Bandwidth Management and Optimisation (BMO)

BUT• Although the Eastern / Western African sea board

fibre optic cables are in place, landlocked countries (at least) will still be disadvantaged because of tax-seeking by coastal countries and/or by their own governments: i.e. passing on the cost levied on them to institutions

Slide 10

UbuntuNetResearch & Education Network

• The first network of its kind in Africa• Launched in November 2012• The network will dramatically accelerate the

development of the information society in Africa, providing advanced data communications infrastructure and enabling African researchers to collaborate more easily in advanced International Research projects

• Video: http://www.africaconnect.ue/MediaCenter/Pages/Launch-Event-video.aspx

Slide 11

Steve Song Map – looking at 2014:

Download speeds

December 2011, journal article from UK-based publisher: 55 seconds at the University of Nairobi

2-4 minutes at two campuses of the University of Malawi in Lilongwe

…but even with several attempts a user in Uganda (outside of Kampala) was unable to download the article at all.

Slide 12

And what for the future?The partnerships, cooperation and collaboration that

have been achieved across the global south and north are vital to strengthen research and our work.

We must ensure that capacity, expertise and policies are embedded at a local level. This will include:

•More southern voices included in debates around availability, access and use of research

•More advocacy at Govt. level to help build and develop the vision of the WSIS knowledge societies

Slide 13

What are we already seeing?

A large, young, technologically hungry and increasingly media-clever cohort of up-and-coming researchers needs you to reach out to them

Their aspirations are important in preparing for our collective future…

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Partnerships building bridges

• Digital Libraries

- Green stone (digital library software)

- International Network for the Availability of

Scientific Publications (INASP)- Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL) Project

• DL support organisations

- Greenstone support organisation for Africa (GSOA)

• We now turn to the work of our partners - INASP

Slide 15

INASP facts and figures…

• Established in 1992

• 19 permanent staff

• International Board of Trustees

• Works in Africa, Asia and Latin America– 22 partner countries, over 100 eligible countries

• Funded mainly by partner countries and European governments

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Putting research at the heart of development• Our aim is that our work is sustainable beyond our

involvement

• We cooperate with local people, institutions and organisations - supporting them to develop the capacity and relationships needed for greater global participation and partnerships

• We co-design our work for the individual country infrastructure, HE policies and socio-economic situation.

Slide 17

Who is the INASP network?

ICT professionals at HEIs, NRENs and

NGOs

300+ HEI & parliamentary policy makers

Librarians at 1600 registered HEIs

Library consortia

Editors of over 675 journals published in

‘South’

50 academic publishers/aggregators

Over 6539 researchers,

inc. 800 mentors

“Kindred” organisations

Slide 18

Creationsupport researchers

AuthorAID

Useinformation literacy

promotion and advocacy

AccessBandwidth Management

Library infrastructure

Availability international research information

indigenous journals – Journals Online

Communicationand Uptake

into policy and by practitioners

Evidence Informed Policy Making

Research System

Slide 19

3,281,456 scholarly articles were accessed

through the PERii programme in 2012

Inju, Flikr

Availability

Slide 20

INASP Research Availability

• INASP negotiates free or proportionately priced access

• Funding = “real-world” economic model:

– Countries “own” their budget - transitioning from donor funding to self-funding

– Consortia development and buy-in to collective purchase/cooperation are key

– Countries select the resources they want (we respond to requests)

• Publishers

– commit to affordable sustainable prices

– provide COUNTER compliant usage statistics

– gain a new route for the dissemination of their materials and contribute to the strengthening of global research

Slide 21

Interdisciplinary resources: 2012• 50+ publishers and aggregators offering

– 11,000 full text books– 31,476 full text journals– 23,072 abstracted journals– 82 databases– Document delivery from 20,000 journals through

the British Library

• List of free and Open Access resources

• Cooperation and collaboration

The Importance of The Importance of Advocacy Advocacy

www.pubs-for-dev.infowww.pubs-for-dev.info

Why PfD?Explore how to contribute beyond availability

Increase understanding of the unique challenges

developing country libraries, researchers and publishers experience

A forum for information and discussion – for ALL publishers

Share best practice, developments,

ideas,find information, reports and news

SalesSales MarketingMarketing ITITEditorialEditorial TrainingTraining

in Action: Case Studiesin Action: Case Studies

•Sharing best practiceSharing best practice

•Promoting success storiesPromoting success stories

•Offering guidanceOffering guidance

•Providing ideasProviding ideas

Newsletter Newsletter

Sign-up at: http://eepurl.com/cBoao

AnnualAnnual ConferenceConference

Core discussions so far:• low-bandwidth environments: supporting and

encouraging resource interface design to increase access;

• supporting developing country researchers: encouraging greater visibility, inclusion and contribution;

• raising resource awareness: producing low-resolution promotional materials. Use networks!

Access in low-bandwidth

environments – what can be done?

Launched in 2012:

INASP Bandwidth Management and Optimisation• Works with institutions to reserve scarce

bandwidth for core institutional purposes• Encourages strengthening and formation of

National Research and Education networks

Bandwidth matters…

As James Lush of the Biochemical Society, blogged following a recent bandwidth session:

“Improving access makes an enormous difference to the professional lives of individuals; how they work and think, their research impacts and their reputation – and the reputation of their environment.

For researchers in developing countries to succeed in research on the global stage, the challenges are many. But creating usable interfaces seems a simple place to start”

(http://bit.ly/FPOZpL).

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It will enable me to encourage use of e-resources in my teaching at graduate and undergraduate levels. Workshop participant, Zimbabwe

Access & Use

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Unique Institutions Registered• Number of eligible

institutions from partner countries on the online registration system

• More institutions register each year as INASP’s activity increases – the “Ripple Effect”

1,622 in 20121,622 in 2012

Slide 30

Developing library infrastructure • Using OS solutions for;

– Library automation / resource discovery tools

– Digitisation and institutional repositories– e.g. KOHA, VuFind, Dspace, Drupal

2010 Institutional repository training in Sri Lanka

> 8 new institutional repositories e.g. University of Moratuwa: all 1650+ dissertations > federated search developed at national level

Slide 31

Training & Capacity building…• Training the trainer & pedagogy skills

• Marketing and promotion of e-resources• Monitoring & evaluating e-resource usage

• Working together to support research: librarians + researchers / ICT staff

• Library marketing and advocacy

• Library school curriculum development• Consortium strengthening activities• Licensing and negotiation skills

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How we are building skills and capacity…Cascading training methodology,

e.g. Zimbabwe:

2008: Zimbabwean Librarian at Cape Town Info Literacy workshop

2009: Train-the-trainer ‘Info Literacy’ workshop for consortium members

2010: Info Literacy training delivered to users in 12 institutions

2011 Train-the-trainer ‘Info Literacy into curriculum’ workshop

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2010: Uganda consortium review workshop - lack of capacity; uncommitted members

2011: Strategic Planning workshop - 5 functional committees; strategy & work plan

9 new institutions joined CUUL Consortium Administrative Assistant hired

“Such developments have increased the capacity of the consortium and its membership to undertake bigger projects and sustain them”

From to “LfD”?

What might INASP Librarians for Development look like? •Community of practice in Moodle: Bringing librarians together South and North

•Starting small – contribute ideas, designed to increase resource awareness, promo ideas etc.

•Licensing and negotiations – offer advice and input as INASP partners increase their expertise

Are there schemes at your Uni?

• http://www2.le.ac.uk/institution/gondar-information-hub

• http://medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk/malawi/

• For other examples see: universities UK

Let us know what you’re doing!

Other ways for librarians to get involved in information for development:

• Beyond Access: Libraries Powering Development – IFLA/EIFL/Gates looking at the role of public & community libraries: http://www.beyondaccess.net

• Libraries and Development: IFLA pages launched in February, so a growing resource (includes Building Strong LA programme info.): http://bit.ly/XXqUYG

Familiarise yourself with resources available to returning scholars!

Slide 37

I am fortunate enough to have good mentors who helped me to publish eight papers in national level journals

AuthorAID discussion list participant.

Creation

Slide 38

- An Overview

• A global research community for researchers in developing countries with over 6,500 members

• Help for researchers in the publishing process

• Main components– Mentoring by volunteers- Workshops - Preparing poster and oral presentations- Writing grant proposals– Online training delivered via moodle

Slide 39

AuthorAID www.authoraid.info

Regular blog posts

Resources Library

Small grants

Mentoring Scheme

We would encourage you to register, share information via your networks and consider becoming a mentor!

Slide 40

654 scholarly journals published in the south are available via ‘JOLs’

Local/indigenous publishing

Slide 41

• Websites for local journals to:– Increase global visibility – Increase editors capacity to improve journal quality

and manage them online– Enable southern researchers to contribute to the

global research community

• 1988 started with

• Now growing year on year…

Slide 42

JOLsJournals Online No. of

Journals

No. of OA Journals (Feb 2013)

% OA journals

Usage in 2011

Usage in 2012

BanglaJOL 101 99 98% 1,500,000 2,300,000

NepJOL 77 68 88% 971,000 1,140,000

SriLankaJOL 46 43 93% 691,000 947,000

LAMJOL 15 15 100% 49,500 111,000

MongoliaJOL 2 2 100% 12,000 22,000

AJOL, Philippines and Vietnam JOLs managed locally

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INASP &

• Make sure views from the south are represented and heard in OA discussions

• Signpost & provide training on OA resources• Open access advocacy - OA champions & OA week

competition• AuthorAID – explore benefits of publishing OA• Publishing Support: explore impact of OA on local

journals (good and bad)• Explore the APC conundrum

Slide 44

Over 200 parliamentary staff from eight African countries

have received training in

finding and using research information

Research Uptake

Slide 45

Evidence-Informed Policy Making

• EIPM (Evidence-Informed Policy Making) works to increase uptake of research in policy making.

• Key training topics include:– Information literacy for policy makers – Demystifying science – Policy brief writing – Summarising skills

Supply Demand

Infiniteview

Capacity of researchers to carry out research and communicate it to policy makers

Capacity of policy makers and influencers to access, evaluate and use research information

Slide 47

Cooperation the bigger picture:

“Some of the greatest challenges facing the world have a greater impact on developing

countries than the developed world and tackling them requires global effort and cooperation

by governments, international organisations and universities.”

“Universities and development: global cooperation” Universities UK

http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/Publications/Documents/UniversitiesAndDevelopment20101011.pdf

Slide 48

An invitation…

To showcase the work of our partners across Africa, Asia and Latin America we held a photo competition

last year.

We’d like to invite you to take a look at the way their work is “Bringing Libraries to Life”

ow.ly/fFT1S

Slide 49

Thank you for listening!

Lucy Browse & Kay Raserokalbrowse@inasp.info

@lucybrowse @pubsfordev @INASPinfo@authoraid

www.inasp.info

Slide 50

2012 Statistics

• Over 80,000 visits to the website

• 6539 registrants (compared with 595 April 2009)

• Travel grants: 6 awarded to allow participants to present their research at international conferences

• 162 participants at workshops in Zambia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sri Lanka

• 2 e-learning courses run for 75 learners

Slide 51

Registering for

• Most online AuthorAID content openly accessible

• By registering at site, also have chance to– Sign up for e-mail discussion list– Be notified when new blog posts appear– Seek a mentor or mentee or otherwise contact

members of AuthorAID community

We would encourage you to register, share information via your networks and consider becoming a mentor!

Slide 52

“The problem of availability – that is the provision of affordable or free journals and other resources in online form – has been widely and successfully addressed…”

Awareness

Access

Use

Growing knowledge: Access to research in east and southern African universitieswww.acu.ac.uk/growing_knowledge

Getting what is available into use…

Slide 53

In practice this means

PERI has indeed brought about a dramatic revolution in the availability of resources for research. This has given a great boost to existing researchers, encouraged new and young people to engage in research, pushed the libraries and even network administrators to modernize their outlook, and has laid the foundation of a nationwide consortium of libraries Abdullah Shams, Bin Tariq, Bangladesh

PERI has indeed brought about a dramatic revolution in the availability of resources for research. This has given a great boost to existing researchers, encouraged new and young people to engage in research, pushed the libraries and even network administrators to modernize their outlook, and has laid the foundation of a nationwide consortium of libraries Abdullah Shams, Bin Tariq, Bangladesh

Slide 54

12th Bangladesh Consortium Coordinators Meeting

March 2013

Slide 55

Collaborations and partnerships

Share expertise, extend reach, reduce duplication •UNESCO - Vietnam & Nepal staff at regional IR workshop

•FAO - contributed to IMARK CDs and online tutorials

•IDS - collaborative pedagogical skills training

•ITOCA and Phi - health information training

Slide 56

22 Partner countries

• Africa: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

• Asia Pacific: Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam

• Latin America: Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua

Slide 57

Curriculum development in library schools- 2008: review BA & Dip. LIS, Mzuzu University, Malawi Multiple Entry-Exit Bachelor of LIS curriculum

- 2010: review Library Association accredited certificate Bridging course between Certificate and Diploma in Information studies

- 2013: Development of post-graduate LIS Masters curriculum at Mzuzu University

In conclusion, the “Salima Curriculum” was the turning point in the delivery of LIS education in Malawi… Head LIS, Mzuzu University

In conclusion, the “Salima Curriculum” was the turning point in the delivery of LIS education in Malawi… Head LIS, Mzuzu University

Slide 58

2006 200

72008

1998

2010

Publishing Support – Journals Online

LAMJOL MongoliaJOL

2011