Bridge Builders African Experiences With Information and Communication Technology (1996) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
CASE STUDIES IN THE INTRODUCTION OF CD-ROM TO UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
CASE STUDIES IN THE INTRODUCTION OF CD-ROM TO UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Pages 11-62
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 11... ...
They demonstrate that CD-ROM can bring the following gains: user-friendly, interactive online searching of databases by library staff and end-users; current citations, with abstracts that often provide sufficient information to negate the need for source documents; selected citations and abstracts that can be used for national digests of relevant material; an enhanced image of library staff due to their dramatically improved ability to deliver current information and to demonstrate computer skills; and demystification of microcomputer technology for staff and end-users.
|
From page 12... ...
These case study authors demonstrate how they have used CD-ROM as a powerful tool to develop local computer literacy by providing the opportunity for hands-on use of a sophisticated system. They also describe how CD-ROM has been used to develop both local and pan-African databases and digests of relevant information.
|
From page 13... ...
- 1 Dr. John Newa is Director of Library Services at the University of Dar es Salaam.
|
From page 14... ...
At the UDSM, besides the University Computer Centre, there were personal computers in only some departments. The library had two computers.
|
From page 15... ...
Until then the University Library used the Medical Library and Computer Centre email nodes for sending and receiving messages. The University Computer Centre expected to install an Internet connection via leased line to South Africa in November 1995; however that proved too expensive and the Computer Centre is currently waiting for the arrival a satellite dish that they will use to connect to the Internet.
|
From page 16... ...
This provision enabled the Library to provide a modest document delivery service emanating from the CO-ROM database searches. In order to cope with the increasing demand from the CD-ROM service, the document delivery financial allocation had to be more than doubled.
|
From page 17... ...
Since then the Library has acquired six computers, which are used in a variety of operations, including the creation of three local databases, in education, environment, and biodiversity. Under the UDSM Library's coordinating role for the SAREC Library Support Programme to Tanzania, we have also acquired four personal computers for other universities and research institutes.
|
From page 18... ...
The first two CD-ROM workstations were actually bought directly by the donor from ICL London and sent to the UDSM Library. We faced a number of problems before the service got under way.
|
From page 19... ...
The image of the library staff has also been significantly boosted among university professors, students, and committees. The CD-ROM service has frequently been cited by the Higher Degrees Committee as reason for academic staff and postgraduate students to enroll in the university.
|
From page 20... ...
These are in addition to the document delivery service. RESULTS, IMPACT, AND BENEFITS OF THE PROJECT We put a monitoring system in place when the service was launched.
|
From page 21... ...
We are bearing in mind Erick Baard's injunction that: "A correct assessment of an information technology innovation should include an examination of its requirements as regards physical and social infrastructure, its possible effects on new environments, and finally the nature of the limitations to information utilization which it is designed to alleviate."3 TABLE 2 Searches by Database Database 1993 1994 1995 Compendex Plus Social Science Citation Index Science Citation Index Tropag and Rural Economy Educational Resources Information Center Agecond Arts and Humanities International Centre for Distance Learning Public Affairs Information services Life Sciences Social Science Index POPLINE Applied Sciences Current Citation Current Contents Biotechnology TOTAL 32 154 199 199 9 154 8 6s g 41 4 93 6 46 11 6 33 47 20 10 51 21 51 6 12 56 35 12 22 4 5 67 702 721
|
From page 22... ...
The training of this group, together with that of students, is done by the library staff during their early database search sessions. The library has persuaded some teaching staff to have demonstrations in their classes or during seminars.
|
From page 23... ...
, however, raises some old problems: if not used properly, ICT could perpetuate the dependency syndrome of the poorer African countries on the western countries. Of course this is a controversial issue like "appropriate technology" or "aid" in both the North and the South.
|
From page 24... ...
Recently the Faculty of Law consulted the Library on the acquisition of hardware and software, including databases in law. Some departments also have arrangements to pay for the cost of document delivery for their staff and postgraduate students.
|
From page 25... ...
We are convinced that because of this, besides the growing user demand for the service, the Carnegie Corporation accepted our application for the extension of the project by supplying an additional CD-ROM workstation and two CD-ROM database subscriptions, a desk-top publishing facility, and support to outreach activities.
|
From page 27... ...
Can that gap be narrowed or even bridged, or will the poorer countries be further marginalized in terms of technology and information access? Fortunately, in many African countries, the advent of the personal computer has enabled libraries to leapfrog two decades of development in information technology, and move straight into effective and appropriate solutions to some of the problems of information storage and retrieval.
|
From page 28... ...
In 1978 the library moved to the spacious premises of the new medical school and teaching hospital close to the city center, where more non-university health workers began to make use of it.
|
From page 29... ...
Some of these needs were addressed by a Joint Health Information Committee, which we established with the Ministry of Health for this purpose core collections of 40 textbooks and 13 manuals were provided by a Scandinavian donor for all hospitals and clinics. Adequate journal collections could not be provided to all hospitals, so we compiled instead a digest of MEDLINE abstracts on Zimbabwe's health issues, Current Health Information Zimbabwe (CHIN, a free update for all Zimbabwe's health professionals.
|
From page 30... ...
Among the major benefits of the project would be the familiarization of library staff with microcomputer technology. We also counted on providing our own MEDLINE searches for CHIZ, and relieving WHO's Library in Geneva of that expensive burden.
|
From page 31... ...
They are giving occasional trouble now. The pioneer personal computer, within three years of purchase, was unable to process the burgeoning MEDLINE database.
|
From page 32... ...
As time passed our local suppliers learned much more about CD-ROM; we too learned, as personal computers became cheaper, faster and more powerful in terms of clock speed, disk and memory size, that we needed to allow for rapid growth in the number and size of databases, for much more RAM, for Windows software for the databases which would, before long, be available only in Windows; for anti-virus packages to check the diskettes on which our users increasingly needed to download their search results. Our initial choice of a vendor for the MEDLINE database (from a product range of eight competing companies)
|
From page 33... ...
Other searchers were academic staff, nonacademic staff, or government workers, or from NGOs, parastatals, or the private sector. (See Figure 2.)
|
From page 34... ...
We had a response rate of 50 percent (n = 252~. Of 122 academic staff to whom we sent questionnaires, 49 responded.
|
From page 35... ...
37 32 TABLE 3 Value of Search Results Search results satisfactory (n= 117) % Usually 78 67 Sometimes 32 27 Rarely 7 6 Never n n TABLE 4 Usefulness of Abstracts Abstracts as a source of information (n = 1 16)
|
From page 36... ...
were interested in receiving training from library staff and/or the MEDLINE tutorial program. It is important that we enable more end users to make searches independently of library staff.
|
From page 37... ...
The Bradford's Law of Scatter (illustrated in many studies including one at the National Library of Medicine, where it was found that only 300 titles of its 22,000 periodicals satisfied 70 percent of all requests3) reinforces the benefits of accessing journals through a document delivery service, rather than "owning" expensive subscriptions to little-used journals.
|
From page 38... ...
While published data demonstrate the impact of MEDLINE on patient outcomes in the USA6 7 ~ we are not able in Zimbabwe to quantify what the direct and indirect benefits of CD-ROM databases and their abstracts are, in terms of improved efficacy of health professionals, or improved health status indicators, for instance. There were considerable gains in the health status indicators of Zimbabwe's people after the country won its Independence in 1980, but these are now being rapidly eroded by the combined effects of the AIDS pandemic, and of the economic structural adjustment programs being implemented in recent years in many African countries.
|
From page 39... ...
Demonstrations of CD-ROM searches get the most attention in our library orientation sessions for students; post-graduate students are given a longer introduction than undergraduates, and are strongly encouraged to read database tutorials and take the training which is always available from our staff. However, offers to academic staff and students of training for individuals or small groups have had little response thus far.
|
From page 40... ...
Email: local and international access to information Email now enables health workers outside the capital to get access to MEDLINE searches and other material from the Harare library and beyond. In our third year of reliable email access, we now operate through ZimbaDwe's upgraded telephone system, through SatelLife's local HealthNet node in Harare, which links us with other major international email networks as well as with the HealthNet users in provincial medical directorates and many of the district offices.
|
From page 41... ...
The impact of microcomputer technologies on library stag Many libraries in Africa, including our own, have become shelters for dwindling and aging printed resources. The effects on library staff of acquiring computer skills and delivering computerized and very current information are all the more positive in this context.
|
From page 42... ...
Our survey, made after five years of use of MEDLINE, shows that this database has become essential to the work of many of our academic staff: eighty per cent of respondents stated that they would elect that the library cancel ten journal subscriptions rather than the MEDLINE subscription. We are likely to have to make just such a substitute in the near future.
|
From page 43... ...
Paper presented at 7th International Congress on Medical Librarianship: Health Information for the Global Village, Washington, D.C.
|
From page 44... ...
(1994) Effect of on-line literature searching on length of stay and patient care costs.
|
From page 45... ...
Further, there is a wealth of untapped information in books, reports and studies from international development agencies, nongovernmental organizations and local institutions. The African Index Medicus (6AIMj was initiated by the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA)
|
From page 46... ...
Her enthusiasm and commitment to the cause of health information in the poorer countries motivated and encouraged her colleagues even at a distance. As a vocal supporter and untiring friend of Africa, she gave vigorous backing to the launching of the AIM Project.
|
From page 47... ...
The country has a fairly good health service infrastructure and a reasonable cadre of health professionals, at least by standards of the developing world. The health system is heavily biased in favor of curative services rather than in preventive medicine and' even then, it favors urban population over rural populations.
|
From page 48... ...
Health information provision at the Medical Library suffered much since 1985. The last regular subscriptions to periodicals was in 1984.
|
From page 49... ...
Zambia, like any other developing country, has no time to walk-it must run to keep up with the developments of industrialized countries in all fields. In health information provision in particular, the need to focus on the 1978 Declaration of AlmaAlta, which stated that primary health care was the key to attaining health-for-all and the recognition that health-for-all could not be attained without a well coordinated health information system, became critical to Zambia's aspirations to improve health information provision.
|
From page 50... ...
... : ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ : ~ ~ ~ :~: : ~ i:: :: ::: ::: :: ~ ~ :: i: :::: ~ ::: i: ma: ~: :: :~:: ~ i:: ~: ~ :.::~:: ::: ::: ~:~ i:: ~ i: :::::: took the opportunity and worked to use the resources that were extended to it to increase health information provision.
|
From page 51... ...
The University of Flonda Health Sciences Center Library continued to provide photocopies of bull text articles. Tables 4-8 provide some statistics of the reprints that have been provided with help from THE since the project started in 1992.
|
From page 52... ...
52 TABLE 2 Literature Search Statistics (January-June 1995) BRIDGE BUILDERS Database MEDLINE British Medical Journal Lancet New England Journal of Medicine AIDS Paediatrics Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Viral Hepatitis Year Books American Journal of Public Health Family Physician AIM POPLINE Infectious Diseases 6 Months Statistics 714 88 69 7 95 3 12 4s 11 34 26 67 36 48 TABLE 3 Categories of Reprints for Medical Library (September 1992-April 1995)
|
From page 53... ...
~ ir~ ~ ~ ^~ ~ I ~ ~j] TABLE 5 Dis~b~n of awls User category Number of Reprints University of Zambia ~vc~# Teacb~g Ho~haI Hcaltb practitioners 586 703 762 TABLE 6 Percentagc Dis~ibubon of Repdnts Use cargos Pcrconta~c distribution Oniversi~ of Zambia Unveil Tcac~ Ho-1 Hcaltb practitioners 50 60 65 TABLE 7 HeaDh Practitioners Dis~ibuion of Repdnts Geo~cal Acrid fiber of repents Within Lus~a Outside Lusaka 410 q TABLE 8 Mod of Rams Dis~b~n outside of Lns~a god Number of repents Pdm Email 176 176
|
From page 54... ...
Its contents include appropriate and relevant health information designed for all levels of health care workers (presented in the form of abstracts culled from the Ovid MEDLINE and AIM databases) , articles on the management of common medical conditions, feature articles on other medical conditions, and institutional profiles.
|
From page 55... ...
The pressure on the one computer, which was used for both email and CD-ROM activities, mounted as more and more people became aware of the improved health information services being provided by the UNZA Medical Library. Efforts to get more equipment from donors met with some hitches as we failed to provide convincing justification for the acquisition of additional equipment.
|
From page 56... ...
,,, ,, ,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,; ~ :: ,,.,,,.,,,,,,, i,:,i::i:;... i,,i,,,, ~,,,.,,,,,iii :::::i,:~ Em: :~:::ii::::::: ~ ~ usefulness of the publication in promoting health information provision.
|
From page 57... ...
As the UNZA Medical Librarian, I give yearly lectures to the Post Basic Nursing students on library services and literature search strategies. Recently, I started to do the same for the School of Nursing students at the UTH.
|
From page 58... ...
Dean Kopano Mukelabai of the School of Medicine at the University of Zambia acknowledged this giant breakthrough in the provision of health information by inviting me to address a meeting of the Eastern and Southern African Chairmen of Paediatrics Departments, in August 1 99 1. HealthNet News SatelLife introduced an electronic newsletter that we disseminated to health care workers linked to the Fidonet system.
|
From page 59... ...
There is no more health information being transmitted by Healthsat because the ground station was moved from Zambia to a more needy site. In another vein, the Fidonet system which spread all over the country is, in some cases, being replaced by the interactive Internet.
|
From page 60... ...
The Medical Library will continue to need support from partners to develop these programs that improve information provision to health care workers. The devastating effects of the structural adjustment program on the development of health information and literature can only be alleviated through the sort of assistance we have received and hopefully will continue to receive until the national economy strengthens.
|
From page 61... ...
I would like to wrap up this story with the following: partnership, intelligent use of available resources, marketing of health information, and willingness not to give up are very important factors in the provision of health information. Better health information leads to better health care.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.