The document discusses challenges and opportunities for strengthening research and cooperation between higher education institutions in developing countries and the rest of the world. It summarizes INASP's work to improve access to scholarly information, build capacity through training programs, and support local publishing in developing regions. The document advocates for greater collaboration and partnerships across borders to strengthen the global research system and ensure knowledge from the developing world is represented in international debates.

1. Cooperation and collaboration to
strengthen the global research cycle
Kay Raseroka and Lucy Browse
lbrowse@inasp.info
www.inasp.info
Slide 1

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/UniversitiesAndDevelopment201
01011.pdf
Slide 2

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
– 3
Slide Successes, but still a lot to be done

4. Where we find ourselves:
• In the context of our continent:
Often facing social, political and economic challenges
The 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 institution
Skills gained overseas can atrophy without CPD support
Slide 4

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
Slide 5

6. Some contradictions: (1)
• Developed world universities would
claim to be using an a-historical
‘universal’ model
BUT
Where do developing country
universities fit into the ‘game’ of ‘research
rankings’ ?
Slide 6

7. 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
Slide 7

8. 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
Slide 8

9. 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 9

10. UbuntuNet
Research & 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 10

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 11

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 12

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…
Slide 13

14. 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 14

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
Slide 15

16. 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 16

17. Who is the INASP network?
“Kindred” organisations
Librarians at 1600 Over 6539
registered HEIs ICT professionals researchers,
at HEIs, NRENs inc. 800 mentors
Library consortia and NGOs
300+ HEI &
Editors of over 675
50 academic parliamentary
journals published in
publishers/aggregators policy makers
‘South’
Slide 17

18. Availability
international research information
indigenous journals – Journals Online
Communication
and Uptake Access
Bandwidth Management
into policy and by practitioners
Library infrastructure
Evidence Informed Policy Making
Research System
Creation Use
support researchers information literacy
AuthorAID
promotion and advocacy
Slide 18

19. 3,281,456 scholarly
articles were
accessed through
the PERii programme
in 2012 Availability
Slide 19
Inju, Flikr

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 20

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
Slide 21

22. The Importance of
Advocacy
www.pubs-for-dev.info

23. Why PfD?
Explore how to contribute beyond availability
Editorial IT Tra
Mar keting inin
g
Sal es
A forum for information
and discussion –
for ALL publishers
Increase understanding of the Share best practice,
unique challenges developments,
developing country libraries, ideas,
researchers and publishers experience find information, reports and news

24. Annual Conference
in Action: Case Studies
•Sharing best practice
•Promoting success stories
•Offering guidance
•Providing ideas
Newsletter
Sign-up at: http://eepurl.com/cBoao

25. 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!

26. 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

27. 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).

28. Access & Use
It will enable me to encourage
use of e-resources in my teaching
at graduate and undergraduate
levels.
Workshop participant, Zimbabwe
Slide 28

29. Unique Institutions Registered
• Number of eligible
institutions from
1,622 in 2012
partner countries
on the online
registration system
• More institutions
register each year
as INASP’s activity
increases – the
“Ripple Effect”
Slide 29

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 30

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
Slide 31

32. 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
Slide 32

33. 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”
Slide 33

34. 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

35. 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!

36. 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!

37. Creation
I am fortunate enough to
have good mentors who
helped me to publish eight
papers in national level
journals
AuthorAID discussion list participant.
Slide 37

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 38

39. AuthorAID www.authoraid.info
Resources Library
Small
grants
We would encourage you to
register, share information via
Regular blog your networks and consider
posts
Slide 39
becoming a mentor!
Mentoring
Scheme

40. Local/indigenous publishing
654 scholarly journals
published in the south
are available via ‘JOLs’
Slide 40

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 41

42. JOLs
Journals Online No. of No. of OA % OA Usage in Usage in
Journ Journals journals 2011 2012
als (Feb
2013)
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
Slide 42

43. 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 43

44. Research Uptake
Over 200 parliamentary staff
from eight African countries
have received training in
finding and using research
information
Slide 44

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
Slide 45

46. Supply Demand
Capacity of
Capacity of policy makers
researchers to and
carry out influencers to
research and access,
communicate evaluate and
it to policy use research
makers information
Infiniteview

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 47

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 48

49. Thank you for listening!
Lucy Browse & Kay Raseroka
lbrowse@inasp.info
@lucybrowse @pubsfordev @INASPinfo
@authoraid
www.inasp.info
Slide 49

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 50

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 51

52. Getting what is available into use…
“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
Growing knowledge: Access to
Access research in east and southern African
universities
www.acu.ac.uk/growing_knowledge
Use
Slide 52

53. In practice this means
PERI has indeed brought about a dramatic
PERI has indeed brought about a dramatic
revolution in the availability of resources for
revolution in the availability of resources for
research. This has given a great boost to
research. This has given a great boost to
existing researchers, encouraged new and
existing researchers, encouraged new and
young people to engage in research, pushed
young people to engage in research, pushed
the libraries and even network administrators to
the libraries and even network administrators to
modernize their outlook, and has laid the
modernize their outlook, and has laid the
foundation of a nationwide consortium of
foundation of a nationwide consortium of
libraries
libraries
Abdullah Shams, Bin Tariq, Bangladesh
Abdullah Shams, Bin Tariq, Bangladesh
Slide 53

54. 12th Bangladesh Consortium
Coordinators Meeting
March 2013
Slide 54

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 55

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 56

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
In conclusion, the “Salima Curriculum” was the turning point
In conclusion, the “Salima Curriculum” was the turning point
in the delivery of LIS education in Malawi… Head LIS,
in the delivery of LIS education in Malawi… Head LIS,
Mzuzu University
Mzuzu University
- 2013: Development of post-graduate LIS Masters
curriculum at Mzuzu University
Slide 57

58. Publishing Support – Journals Online
2010 2011
LAMJOL MongoliaJOL
1998
2006
2007 2008
Slide 58