The Third Initiative

This week I want to look at a “sister” program to HINARI and AGORA called OARE which is Online Access to Research in the Environment. OARE was started in 2006 and then was updated in 2007. After I review the basics about OARE (using the same format as I did with HINARI and AGORA), I will discuss another database called AJOL which is African Journals Online.

OARE- Online Access to Research in the Environment (the information below comes from http://www.oaresciences.org/en/ ).

What organizations have Developing Nations Initiatives?
OARE was developed by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and Yale University along with various publishing companies such as Springer, Elsevier Science, and Oxford University Press and various scientific associations such as the Food and Agriculture Association and Microsoft.

Specifically, what type of access is being offered?
It provides access to over 1,300 journals. The digital resources are offered to professionals and researches working in the environmental field.

What countries is it being offered to?
The list is available at http://www.oaresciences.org/eligibility/en/index.html . The list is divided into two bands. Band one countries get free access and band two countries pay $1000 per year. Examples from band one include Afghanistan, Kenya, and Vietnam. Examples from band two include Cuba, Iraq, and Peru. (Same as HINARI)

What criteria are used to determine which countries are eligible?
AGORA uses 2006 data from the World Bank.

Is access free or discounted? What is the discount?
If a country’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is below $1250, then that country is able to have free access. If a country’s GNI per capita is between $1250 and $3500, then that country pays $1000 per year. Even if your country is not on the list of developing nations, there are still many journals that are available for free.

How is access provided?
Institutions must fill out a registration form and then they will receive a license agreement which must be signed. The institution is then assigned a password.

Can the information be accessed in other languages?
There are other languages available which can be located using the search feature.

What are the goals of these types of initiatives?
OARE has four main goals. They are as follows:

“Build the capacity of environmental professionals to manage fragile ecosystems, protect human health, and manage natural renewable resources more sustainably.”

“Build the capacity of national experts to facilitate – through their knowledge and reputation – the development of more progressive, science-driven state policies, regulatory frameworks, and governance structures.”

“Strengthen the intellectual foundation of universities so as to enable scientists to conduct scientific research on a par with peers in industrialized countries and establish their own publishing record; help faculty to better educate the next generation of leaders; and enable students to seek education in new and emerging scientific disciplines.”

“Build the capacity of local media to gather and disseminate to the public new scientific knowledge of importance to the welfare of developing nations” (OARE website).

Do developing nations possess the necessary technology to access these digital resources? (i.e. computers, internet connection)
Institutions must have a computer with internet access that is considered high-speed (56k baud rate or higher).

Is there a measurement that shows how much developing nations access these digital resources?
OARE has institutions registered in 107 countries.

*****
As you might have noticed, many of the countries which receive free access to the various online resources are located in Africa. In addition to HINARI, AGORA, and OARE, Africa has launched its own database of journals which are published on the continent. The main goal of African Journals Online (AJOR) is to increase the visibility and accessibility of African scholarship. Prior to AJOR, it was difficult for many people to obtain information written by African authors (and in some cases it still is since many articles published in Africa aren’t indexed). The project was started in 1998 and currently provides access to over 340 journals from 26 countries. Statistics now show that over 60,000 researchers access AJOR each month. Most of those who access the database are in Africa. As of 2006, only 10.3% of document requests came from people in North America and Europe while 69.4% came from others in Africa (Paulos, 253). Still, projects like HINARI, AGORA, OARE, and AJOL are making important strides. A 2005 study about the status of university libraries in Africa concluded that “over the last five years enormous progress has been made in ensuring that staff and students in universities in Africa can access the growing quantities of information sources now produced in electronic format” (Paulos, 253-4). It is only logical that because the study was completed in 2005, progress has continued in the years since.

Next week, I will be looking at the growth of HINARI, AGORA, and OARE in terms of numbers and then summarizing what we’ve learned.

REFERENCES

AJOL: African Journals Online. 2009. African Journals Online. 2 July 2009. http://ajol.info/.

OARE: Online Access to Research in the Environment. 12 May 2009. Online Access to Research in the Environment. 2 July 2009. http://www.oaresciences.org/en/index.html .

Paulos, Afeworki. “Library resources, knowledge production, and Africa in the 21st century.” The International Information and Library Review. V 40 2008, 251-6.