APLIC-INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATOR

Summer 2000, Issue #73

• Presidents' Message
• Spring 2000 Board of Directors and Annual Business Meeting Summaries
• Message from new Membership Secretary
• APLIC Memories - Carol Knopf
• New CD-ROMs Available
• Batelle Seattle Research Center
• Lisa Trodella, Pathfinder International
• Review of South to South
• Cyber Librarianship
• Conferences/Events Calendar
• UNFPA's new Project and Technical Publications CD-ROM
• 33rd Annual APLIC-I Conference
  • Silvia Texidor
  • Josefina J. Card
  • What Preservation Activities are APLIC-I Libraries Involved In, Including Digitization?
  • Breakout Session: What are the problems of working in small libraries -- increased work-loads, decreased funding?
• Subscribing to the APLIC Listserv
• Subscribing to the APLIC DUPS Listserv

Cyber Librarianship: Using Internet Technologies To Meet Health Research Needs in Developing Countries
by Jean Sack, Medical Informatics Consultant and
Partners in Population and Development Secretariat, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Like other APLIC-I members, I have been actively involved in web and electronic resource development in the hope that the Internet can provide an avenue for translating research into action. Shortly after arriving in Bangladesh, I traveled to Malawi to help teach a Fogarty Medical Informatics course. When I returned to Dhaka, visits to many libraries (the Dhaka Public Library, the National Medical Library, a development library, two agriculture libraries, a research consortia collection, and several NGOs) revealed a gap between expectations for electronic resources and the realities of poorly funded, pitifully updated, and just barely managed print libraries in this country. Many agencies did not have working photocopiers or on-line catalogs and most were not using the Internet for information retrieval, as many developed country-based researchers would expect.

Most Bangladesh medical institutions and universities do not use computers in their teaching, research, or patient records. In contrast, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee's (BRAC) community-based libraries in village settings, the agricultural libraries (such as Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Centre) and the ICDDR,B Dissemination and Information Services Center are encouraging IT initiatives through small grants.  GIS computerized data and mapping endeavors can be observed in several institutions, such as BRAC and ICDDR,B.   In the private sector, dozens of high-priced computer training schools of questionable quality have sprung up all over Dhaka.  Some institutions, like the World Bank and ICDDR,B's Centre for Health and Population Research, are investing funds for improved computing and connections to the rest of the world.  Recognizing that Internet connectivity may enhance the potential for collaboration, it appears that ICDDR,B will be able to extend its new Singapore VSAT connections to my new place of work, which is located close to their Centre in Mohakhali, Dhaka. (VSAT is an  acronym for very small aperture terminal and acts as a ground station to contact communications satellites.)  Since our Partners in Population and Development ISP is currently through a telephone modem, connectivity is highly irregular and very slow.

In fact, my new part time job in the Secretariat of Partners in Population and Development (Partners) here in Dhaka depends upon my ability to locate electronic resources on the web.  Partners' new portal site will offer more links to South institutions and full-text how-to documents. (A portal site offers a wide range of resources and services, like e-mail, electronic forums, and search engines.)   With an all-in-one, searchable interface like Yahoo, we hope that this new South-South portal site can help our 16 partners countries mount their websites and documents. This is the right time. It is no secret that many developing countries are competing for new Internet Service Providers, winning contracts to program and test software, and making forays into e-commerce.  Can health sites be far behind?

Just as Bangalore, India has become the "silicone valley" of the developing world, Bangladesh's Minister of Science and Technology is planning an IT village (where connectivity will be constant) in the "backyard" of ICDDR,B and it's partner agencies.  A local firm, Dohatec, has also written management programs and developed CD-ROMs for PAHO and WHO.   Unfortunately, public sector Internet technology professionals in Dhaka are lagging behind the business community in their ability to finance electronic resources.  As I write this IT status report from my flat in Dhaka, I am connecting to my e-mail through Grameen Bank's Citechco ISP which still does not have the requisite telephone lines promised by a government ministry. Most NGOs are poorly connected to Internet services, restrict employee access in order to avoid paying large ISP bills, and have yet to create their own websites. They cannot afford the latest technology. Donors' requests for proposals and training announcements reach the privileged web-connected agencies weeks before snail mail.  The convenience of on-line conference applications, airline schedules, distance education, on-line consultations (e.g. information sharing with Thai-based scientists about the latest Dengue outbreaks in Bangladesh), which are routinely handled via e-mail, put the unconnected developing world at a disadvantage. Opportunities to share in information gleaned from the XIII International AIDS Conference, held in Durban, South Africa, July, 2000 are being missed. WHO authorities fear that the 10-90 gap (a term that refers to the fact that 10% of health research funds are devoted to 90% of the world's health problems) in research and health infrastructure is being exacerbated by the web haves and have nots. IT can help translate research into action and change health policies when results are smoothly communicated to stakeholders, the media, and government decision makers.

We in APLIC-I need to be IT cheerleaders for South affiliated agencies! Peggy D'Adamo has taught computer research skills in north and west Africa and Susan Pasquariella is making a tremendous difference in website development in Latin America. Perhaps we should again invite overseas APLIC-I members to visit our computerized information centers before or after our conferences.   Certainly Diane Rubino has insights about web connectivity in Vietnam. In response to this inequity of connectivity, the Partners secretariat is attempting to offer their country affiliates new research materials and resources and "how to" manuals by mounting full text documents, linking to rich websites, and encouraging participation in on-line training. This July, Partners, with Management Sciences for Health, offered an on-line course on communicating with donors, drafting concept papers, and proposal writing.  The Partners team included Beatrice Bezmalinovic<beatrice@ppdsec.org>.

Training is an area in which APLIC-I members could participate. When we teach computer literacy to international students visiting our universities, we are building capacity when they return to their home country institutions. Staff from the Bangladesh Center for Communications Programs (Yasmin Khan and her computer assistant, Ravi) and I are teaching ICDDR,B researchers to expeditiously use the web in their work. The ICDDR,B integrates hands-on computer exercises with their international training programs and is sending their support staff to the new BRAC IT University for Microsoft Office training. Although Bangladesh currently has only a handful of Microsoft certified engineers, the BRAC curriculum will enable administrative staff members to learn spread sheets, databases, and time-saving word processing shortcuts. Progress is being made and connectivity is improving in research institutes here in Bangladesh, despite the gloomy impressions I had after my initial visits to Dhaka libraries.

I am grateful for the experience I gained at Johns Hopkins and through resources made available by APLIC-I colleagues.  Bravo to Susan Pasquariella's POPIN efforts around the world, Peggy D'Amado's weblinks, and Zuali Malasuma's POPNET. Julia Cleaver's Webliography, the RHO web and Rhgateway are on my hotlinks, as is POPLINE. New e-journals are being accessed. CD-ROMS like David Rose's UNFPA Archive, the Hopkin's Center for Communications Program's Helping involving Men (HIM) and Condom, and the JHPIEGO Reprolearn tutorials are being used in Dhaka. Population resources abound for web connected agencies.

Partners in Population and Development is an inter-governmental alliance of 16 developing countries, created for the specific purpose of promoting and improving the transfer of knowledge, expertise, and skills in population and reproductive health through South-to-South collaboration. Partners members believe that by sharing their expertise, they can transform reproductive health goals outlined in the ICPD Program of Action into reality. The current members of Partners and Population and Development are internationally recognized as having developed effective population policies, programs, and services, and as being strongly committed to implementing the ICPD Program of Action. Members are Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Egypt, the Gambia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Thailand, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. We are hoping to develop our website into a useful tool for practitioners and policy makers, helping these professionals to share their experiences in digital documents, on listservs, with virtual conferences, web-based training, and useful links. The new websites for Partners are www.south-south.org  and for ICDDR,B www.icddrb.org. 

Conference & Events Calendar

• September 6-8, 2000: "The role of the United Nations in the 21st century." The Millennium Summit.
  This special United Nations session in New York will invite Heads of States to discuss goals for 2015 to cut in half the number of persons who earn under a dollar a day and reducing from 20% of the world to less than 10% without potable water. Another goal to be offered is that "all children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling." Convening just prior to the opening Assembly of the UN, representatives from 188 member states will divide into four separate groups of 47 for private discussions.

   

• September 13-16, 2000: Reproductive Health 2000
  www.arhp.org/2000regform.htm
  Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, Chicago, Illinois. For more information call Amy Swann, conference coordinator at 877-444-ARHP, or send e-mail to conferences@arhp.org.

• September 17-23, 2000: Third International Entertainment-Education Conference for Social Change, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  http://www.entertainment-education.nl/
• September 18-20, 2000: Online World 2000, San Diego, CA
  http://www.onlineworld2000.com/
• October 8-17, 2000: CALL FOR ACTION! MADAGASCAR 2000!! Third International Conference on Women in Africa & the African Diaspora (WAAD III)
  In the tradition of WAAD conferences, WAAD III focuses on issues relating to women of African descent but more than before, the meeting in Madagascar will draw attention to the urgency and pertinence of a sense of history as participants engage simultaneously in stocktaking and mapping forward-looking strategies for future engagements. The first conference (WAAD I), which was held in 1992 in the rural Igbo town of Nsukka (Nigeria), brought together over 700 men and women from all continents. The sub-theme of WAAD I, "Bridges across Activism and the Academy," underscores the conference's primary goal of providing an arena for the equal participation of researchers and grassroots women, men, and organizations. The second conference held in the American city of Indianapolis in October 1998 gathered hundreds of participants from 35 countries and 48 national and international organizations to examine issues related to the health and human rights of women of African descent. This third conference, to be held in the historic and beautiful island of Madagascar will examine, in cross-disciplinary terms, women in relation to history and development. There will be keynote/plenary speeches, panel presentations, workshops, forums, town meetings, art exhibitions, photo/slide presentations, and a film screening. Because the conference is designed to encourage maximum participation from students and grassroots men, women, and organizations, we will create an environment conducive to a free flow of information and exchanges. For more information, contact: Obioma Nnaemeka, Convenor, Third WAAD Conference, Women's Studies Program, Cavanaugh Hall Room 001C, Indiana University, 425 University Boulevard, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. Phone:(317) 278-2038, (317) 274-7611 or (317) 274-0062 (messages), Fax: (317) 274-2347, E-Mail: nnaemeka@iupui.edu

 

• October 10-13, 2000: International Conference on Health Research for Development
  World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank, the Global Forum for Health, Research (GFHR), and the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED). Bangkok, Thailand
  www.conference2000.ch

   

• October 15-18 2000: INCLEN Global Meeting XVII
  Research Networks in the New Millennium: Developing Countries' Contribution to Global Knowledge"
  Organized by Thai Clinical Epidemiology Network (Thai-CLEN)In collaboration with Southeast Asian Clinical Epidemiology Network (SEA-CLEN) Supported by International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) Inc., Bangkok, Thailand
  http://www.inclen.org/meeting.html

• October 16-19, 2000: Global 2000 Worldwide Conference on Special Librarianship, Brighton, UK
  http://www.slaglobal2000.org/
• October 23-26, 2000: ARMA International, Las Vegas, NV
  http://www.arma.org/
  ARMA is the Association for Information Management Professionals.

 

• October 25-29 2000: 8th International Cochrane Colloquium, Cape Town, South Africa
  http://www.mrc.ac.za/conference/cochrane.htm
  charleen.daries@mrc.ac.za

   

• November 2-4, 2000: ISA Research Committee on the Sociology of Migration, International Migration in Latin America Enters a New Millennium. November 2-4, 2000, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  http://www.isn.ethz.ch/conferences/

   

• November 10, 2000: AAMMM (Action des Academies contre la Mortalite Maternelle dans le Monde). High level meeting to evaluate the WHO international strategy to reduce maternal mortality in countries of the South. Paris, France

   

• November 6-8, 2000: Symposium: Cervical Cancer Problem in SE Asian Countries
  Organized by The Royal Thai College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists; Royal Thai College of Pathology; Depts of Health and Dept. of Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. Sponsors: JHPIEGO Corporation; International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and PATH. Venue: Royal Thai College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Bangkok, Thailand. Participants: Obstetricians and Gynecologists from SEA Countries (Brunei, Laos, Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand). Some observers from region may apply. Contact: Dr. Suwanna Vorakamin at suwanw@health.moph.go.th

• November 12-16, 2000: APHA, Boston MA
  http://www.apha.org

UNFPA's new Project and Technical Publications CD-ROM : The Preview Edition 2000
By David Rose

UNFPA proudly announces its new way to tap into the rich resources found among publications issued by our many projects around the world in all sectors, regions and genres. We have issued the first version of an electronic collection of many of these previously hard-to-find programme and research publications. The PTP CD-ROM features a very user-friendly point-and-click interface to find and display its documents. Every publication is given in full-text facsimile version using PDF technology, which has become the de facto world standard for electronic document delivery.

UNFPA views this CD-ROM as a part of our commitment to knowledge sharing among colleagues both within and outside the UNFPA house. It also supports UNFPA's accountability to its donors and supporters. The initial release contains 115 full documents. One can extrapolate from this number to a much larger critical mass of documents in the future which will shed valuable light on UNFPA's programming and evaluation activities.

This CD-ROM is very attractive and is sure to find a receptive audience among anyone interested in the work of UNFPA, including population programme professionals, researchers, government ministries of development, health and population affairs, donors and media representatives.

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