Information Retrieval By using E- Mail Facilities : A Case Study with Home-grown Agricultural Databases in Uganda
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Date
1996-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study is aimed at designing an improved Information
retrieval system (IRS) for the agricultural research sector
in Uganda . For this reason, a survey was conducted to
ascertain the information retrieval facilities available in
the libraries of the National Agricultural Research
Organization (NARO) , Uganda as well as the information needs
of the users. The survey was necessary as a basis for
developing an improved IRS.
The Agricultural
Ugandan economy.
sector is the engine
It employs nearly 90%
of growth of the
of the country ' s
population and contributes to over 64% to the government
revenue, over 50% of the GDP and over 90% of the total
exports. The agricultural research sector, under NARO, has to
meet the challenge of developing improved technologies that
can be used by the farmers.
Findings of this study show that the existing information
facilities / l ibraries are not adequate for the needs of the
majority of the research sc i entists in NARO, let alone other
users in the agricultural sector . In most cases the
information needed i s not available in the libraries a t their
institutes. Scientists have to search for required
informat i on from NADIC, other l ibr aries or use a l ternat i ve
sources of information such as the invisible college. On the
other hand it was established that there were modest
information resources at NADIC which could be shared by allresearch scientists in NARO. For this reason, an Information
retrieval system (IRS) that is based on E-mail has been
proposed. It will enable the users at remote research
insti tutes t o access the information resources that are
available at a central facility l ocated at the National
Agricultural Documentation and Information Centre (NADIC).
The prototype information retrieval system (IRS) comprises
of three components: NADISRV, a bibliographic information
server which will facilitate the users at remote institutes
to search home-grown databases at NADIC without having to
travel from their stations; and a Selective Dissemination of
Information Service that uses bibserve facilities. By using
the databases that are available at NADIC : the E-mail
assisted SDI service, will periodically update all registered
users about current information in their fields of interest.
These services require as a prerequisite the availability of
active databases. The centralized home-grown databases that
are already existing at NADIC, namely AGRIN, CARIN, AGRINF,
and ULIST will be used for this purpose. In addition, two
other prototype databases have been established using Micro
CDS/ISIS software . The first one is AGREXP , a database of
profiles of experts in the broad agricultural field, and the
second, is AGRORG, a database of institutions that a r e
closely or remotely related to agriculture .
The third component of the Information retrieval System (IRS)
is, the NADIC SEARCH INTERFACE, a user friendly interface
which has been developed using the ISIS Pascal interface. TheNADIC SEARCH INTERFACE will allow both the Information
Centre/Library staff and the on-s i te users to int eract with
the system in a friendly way, thus making i t easy for the
use rs t o conduct searches for themselves.
Finally ,
proposed
strategies
prototype
for implementing and
information retri eval
managing
system ,
recommendations for further improvements , are suggested.
Description
Keywords
Information Retrieval