Research for Life Programmes at Njala University, Sierra Leone

The Universities Act of 2005 established the University of Njala (NU) as a Public Institution with a mandate to provide training in agriculture, education, environmental sciences, social sciences, community health sciences and technology. NU has campuses at Njala (main campus), Bo, Bonthe and Freetown.



Prof. Abu Sesay, Vice Chancellor and Principal,
Njala University

One challenge faced by lecturers and students at Njala University, like in most academic institutions in Africa, is lack of access to the latest scientific information published in peer-reviewed scholarly publications. Prior to the 11-year civil war (1991 – 2002), the University Library was relatively well stocked with books and journals. Today, its collection is old. The shelves reserved for journals hold old issues except for the latest copies (2013 samples issues from the publisher) of the Journal of Ecology and Journal of Animal Ecology and a couple others. Current publications on the shelves are mainly those produced by international development organizations such as the World Bank, FAO, CTA, etc, that are sent to the University for free; news magazines and local newspapers purchased by the Library mainly from Freetown, the Capital City of Sierra Leone.

The current Vice Chancellor and Principal of NU, Prof. Abu Sesay, is determined to turn the institution into “an outstanding centre of learning, scholarship and community service with a national and international profile”. Access to the latest global knowledge available in scientific publications, to enhance the teaching and research activities in at NU, would certainly contribute to achieving this vision.

Access to academic and professional peer-reviewed journals, especially in agriculture and related sciences, health and medical sciences, and environmental sciences by lecturers and students at Njala University should no longer be an issue. NU has very good Internet connection and subscribes Research for Life Programmes – HINARI, AGORA, OARE and ARDI.  These programmes provide online access to over 30,000 peer-reviewed international scientific journals, books, and databases. This includes access to full-text articles which can be downloaded for saving and/or printing.

Participants at the Research for Life training at Njala University

From 3 to 5 September 2013, I and Professor Bamidele Fawole (of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and ITOCA), travelled to NU to facilitate a national training workshop on Research for Life programmes. The trip was
worth it. Thirty enthusiastic lecturers, researchers, information technology specialists and librarians from academic and research institutions in Sierra Leone took part in the four-day workshop. They learnt how to access, search and retrieve full-text articles (in PDF or HTML formats) provided through the Research for Life Programmes. They were also introduced to information search strategies including using Boolean search operators. At NU, the challenge is no longer access to global scientific knowledge but how to effectively and efficiently use the more than 30,000 online resources available through Research for Life Programmes. The Vice Chancellor is determined to transform the university into a 21st Century institution. The lecturers should also play their part in the transformation process of the institution by conducting good research and recommending to their students to use the latest scientific literature available to them through the Research for Life Programmes.

Social media and researchers in agriculture in Ghana and Kenya

Are researchers in agriculture in Africa using social media? The answer is likely to be YES. However, are they using social media in their research related work?

Colleagues (Joel Sam, from CSIR in Ghana, and Richard Kedemi, from KARI in Kenya) and I recently carried out a study on the use of use of social media in agricultural research workflow. We used social media as an umbrella term to refer to mobile and web-based technologies, web platforms and web-based services that facilitate interactions and conversations among users and thus enhance their participation in the generation, distribution, searching and sharing of digital content. Regarding research workflow, we adopted the research lifecycle (see Fig. 1 below) proposed by CIBER, University College London and Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.

Figure 1 - Research lifecycle
[Source: CIBER, University College London and Emerald Group Publishing Ltd (2010:16)]

We invited 338 researchers from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Ghana to complete an online questionnaire hosted on Survey Monkey. Sixty-one (18%) researchers fully completed the questionnaire.

Our findings show that in general, the researchers in the two institutions have profiles/accounts on social media; Social Networking Services (SNS), that includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and MySapce, are the most popular category of social media tools; and these are followed by Voice over Internet (VoIP) Applications (i.e. Google Talk, Skype, etc,). Specifically, Facebook is the most actively used social media followed by LinkedIn and Skype.

The researchers are adopting social media for various reasons. Mostly were motivated with by the need connect with fellow researchers or to enhance their visibility within the research community and outside their countries or to connect with family members and relatives.

In agricultural research workflows, the researchers are using social media mainly in identifying research opportunities and finding potential collaborators for research projects. Overall, there is little use of social media in the dissemination of research results. LinkedIn and Google Docs are the most popular social media tools used in research.

We also found that the researchers are facing some challenges in the use of social media. Key challenges faced include unreliable Internet connectivity and lack of skills to make effective use of social media. Furthermore, use of social media in research is more of individual initiatives than part of the research organizations’ wide social media strategies. This is also common in most organizations in Africa and is not limited to agriculture research organizations.

Based on the findings, we are of the view that agricultural research organizations should improve their Internet connectivity and should implement policies and strategies that encourage the use of social media tools in the dissemination of research results in addition to the traditional methods of communicating research. The strategies should also incorporate capacity development initiatives in the use of both generic and specialized social media tools in research.  Strategic approaches to the use of social media in public agriculture research organizations in Africa could potentially open up research carried out in these organizations.

[Note: A presentation based on the study was made at the 13th IAALD World Congress at Cornell University, Ithaca, USA. The full paper will soon be available in the e-LiS repository].

IMARK e-learning course on managing spatial information

The Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) Steering Group has announced the release of the course entitled: “Management of Spatial Information ”, available in English. The course provides a comprehensive overview of the nature and characteristics of spatial data, how it can help improve the quality and scope of activities in organizational processes, how to manage the infrastructure internally and how to integrate the infrastructure in a wider context of data acquisitioning and provisioning. The course was developed by FAO in partnership with ITC - Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation of the University of Twente.

The course is available on CD (on request) and online.

Other IMARK modules/courses, also available CD and online, are:

• Knowledge Sharing for Development
• Digital Libraries, Repositories and Documents
• Web 2.0 and Social Media for Development
• Networking in Support of Development
• Building Electronic Communities and Networks
• Investing in Information for Development
• Digitization and Digital Libraries (superseded by the module Digital Libraries, Repositories and Documents)
• Management of Electronic Documents (superseded by the module Digital Libraries, Repositories and Documents)

IMARK courses provide an opportunity for self-paced learning to individuals who want to acquire skills in modern information management and exchange.