Info Services
1. The Question and Answer Service (QAS)
Background
CTA established in 1985 a Question and Answer Service (QAS)
to provide information and documentation to ACP partners
on demand. An external evaluation of the QAS commissioned
by the CTA in 1997 recommended the devolution of the service
to appropriate institutions in the ACP countries over a
period of 2 to 3 years. As a result, the Centre developed
a strategy for the QAS devolution that favours the development
of regional QAS taking into account the need to promote
regional networking activities, subject orientation and
linguistic lines.
In 1997, a feasibility study of the QAS devolution was carried
out involving the key information sources and services in
South Africa. The following institutions were selected to
form a partnership: the University of the Orange Free State
as the leading institution, the Agricultural Research Council
and Sabinet.
Following the successful pilot QAS devolution in Southern
Africa, CTA expanded the process of setting up other QAS
nodes in other ACP regions. They include NARO (Uganda),
FARC (Mauritius) and CARDI that cover the Eastern African,
Indian Ocean countries and Caribbean regions respectively.
Institutions have also been identified to cover specific
countries in Central and West Africa. Currently, QAS centres
have been established in Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire
Ghana and Nigeria. Setting up of QAS in Papua New Guinea
and the Pacific Region are also on-going. The Kenya Agricultural
Research Institute (KARI) is the national Sub-node for QAS
in Kenya.
Purpose
The main purpose of the service is to develop regional
mechanisms to provide agricultural systems stakeholders
with information services on demand, on the following priority
themes: -
· Conquering markets: promotion of market-led developments;
· Production intensification and optimisation;
· Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Management;
· Strengthening National Agricultural Systems (NAS);
· Mobilisation of the civil society.
In addition, the service aims at improving networking, developing
partnerships, providing advisory services and provision
of training.
Organisations
The services will be provided to the following National
Agricultural Systems stakeholders:
· Governmental organisations (including research, extension
services and training institutions)
· Non-governmental organisations in the agriculture and
rural development sector
· Agricultural production bodies (farmers' groups, associations
and co-operatives; farm input and machinery suppliers and
local authorities)
· Trade and Commercial bodies (local entrepreneurs and agro-industries;
packaging/storage and transport agencies; chambers of commerce
and trade federations)
Expected Results of Service
The following are some of the results expected from the
service:· Information products adapted to users' requirements
· Increased number of information users
· Reduced servicing costs
· Strengthened regional and national capacity to run a demand
led service
· Mobilised regional expertise and external resources for
capacity building
· Trained staff of partner organisations in information
and communication management
· Developed information policy and strategies in Eastern
African organisations
Expected Impact of Service
The following are some of the expected impact of the service
on the National Agricultural Systems (NAS):· Reduction of
risks in research and development activities as a result
of the availability of current and timely information to
make informed decisions;
· Increased productivity due to access to agricultural technologies;
· Improved policy and strategy formulation
Activities
· Identification of users' needs;
· Identification and collect information;
· Carry out on-line and off-line searches on major relevant
databases;
· Responding to requests for information by analysing and
interpreting the information;
· Provision of the utilisation on relevant addresses of
experts or organisations
· Disseminating the information to users;
· Filing of copies of responses (usually without bibliography)
for monitoring and evaluation;
· Promotion of the utilisation of the service (brochures,
radio adverts, etc.);
· Production of bimonthly or quarterly newsletter;
· Provision of quarterly technical report.
· The evaluation of the service taking into consideration
the following objectives- The effectiveness of the QAS
- The efficiency of the service
- Suggestions on the improvement of the service
2. Current Awareness Services / Selective Dissemination
of Information
The main objective of Current Awareness Service is to
keep researchers abreast with advances in their fields.
It ensures that users are provided with up to date, reliable
and accurate information. To ensure that Current Awareness
Service is effective the library offers Selective Dissemination
of Information (SDI). This service is aimed at alerting
individual scientists of new literature in their areas
of interest. To provide this service the library has created
a database comprising of researchers' profiles. Other
methods, in which the library provides CAS includes, sending
tables of contents of new journals received at the headquarters
library. These are sent to centre librarians who in-turn
circulates them to researchers in their centres. Publishing
articles on new library services and acquisitions are
featured in the in-house KARI newsletter, the Highlighter,
displaying titles of new acquisitions on the notice-board,
routing of information materials of interest to the Director,
Deputy Directors and Assistant Directors and other managerial
staff among other methods.
3. Literature Searches
The Library carries out literature searches for researchers
on request. The searches are carried out on the Internet,
internal and external databases. The internal databases
include CLIS (Centralized Library Information Services)
which is the main library catalogue, KARD (Kenya Agricultural
Research Database) which contains citations on agricultural
research literature. In Kenya from published sources and
also 'grey' literature. Other specialised internal databases
include GARD (Gender Agricultural Research Database) which
contains research on Gender and technology development
and transfer in agriculture. The external databases are
on CD-ROM format and include TEEAL, TROPAG and RURAL,
CABI Abstracts, AGRICOLA, AGRIS and CPC.Users can request
searches by email, post or fax.
4. Reprographic Services
The library provides users with photocopy reprints of
documents held in the library and scanning services subject
to the copyright act. This is strictly for literature
purposes only.
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