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Making information user-driven

LLOYD-LANEY, Megan
March 2003

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This brief document describes the issues and priorities involved in making information accessible. It explains that tailoring information to suit your audience increases the likelihood that your information will be accessed and taken up. To provide user-driven information it is important to understand who your target audience is, what information they want/need, how they access information and whether you are trying to inform or influence your audience. With this knowledge you can provide the information your target audience wants, in media they can use, and place your information where your audience will look for it. If you are clear about who has produced the information, who it is intended for and its purpose, the user can make informed decisions about the value of your information. Involving end users in research is also more likely to produce outputs that are quickly disseminated and taken up. Awareness of the strategic role of information within your organisation can be enhanced by encouraging all organisation members to become involved in identifying information needs, dissemination and community building

Blue trunk libraries : selected publications

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) Library and Information Networks for Knowledge
2003

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The Blue Trunk Library is a 'ready-to-use' mini-library designed for district health centres in Africa as a means of compensating for the lack of up-to-date medical and health information. The mini-libraries which consist of more than one hundred books and three journal subscriptions, are contained in blue metal trunks to ensure easy transportation and protection. Priority is given to practical manuals (especially those published by WHO) offering accessible solutions to the medical, public health and management problems medical and health staff may have to face

Resource centre manual : how to set up and manage a resource centre

O'SULLIVAN, Sheila
et al
2003

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Contains practical information on all aspects of setting up and managing a resource centre, from planning, fundraising and finding a suitable location, to collecting and organising materials, developing information services, and monitoring and evaluating the work of the resource centre. It assumes that most readers will use manual systems for organising information, but also explains how computers can be used in resource centres, including e-mail, Internet and databases. It describes how to select database software, and contains a detailed review of three leading database programs. It includes a list of organisations and publications that can provide further information

Brandon/Hill selected list of books and journals in allied health

HILL, D R
Stickell, H N
2003

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A useful list to aid the selection of materials, but with an American emphasis. This list of 434 books and 79 journals is intended as a selection guide for print literature to be used in a library supporting allied health educational programs or allied health personnel in either an academic or health care setting. Because of the large number of and wide variety of allied health professions and occupations, the recommended publications are focused primarily on the educational programs listed and recognized by the American Medical Association and other accrediting bodies. Books and journals are categorized by subject; the book list is followed by an author/editor index and the subject list of journals by an alphabetical title listing. Items suggested for initial purchase (169 books and 32 journals) are indicated by asterisks. To purchase the entire collection of books and journals (2002 subscriptions) would require an expenditure of about US$36,744. The cost of only the asterisked items totals US$14,465

Multimedia training kit

TOTHILL, Ann
Ed
2003

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The multimedia toolkit aims to promote and support linkages between new and traditional media for development through a structured set of materials. The materials are based on a standard set of templates, and are intended to be used as building blocks from which trainers can build up training workshops appropriate for their own contexts. New materials will be added to this ItrainOnline section as they are developed; the materials currently available are just a starting point. Eventually the MMTK will offer a comprehensive suite of training materials covering technical, content, organizational and ethical topics

Sight and life

SIGHT AND LIFE
January 2003

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This is a CD-ROM version of the Sight and Life website, a task force established and financed by Roche to combat nutritional blindness. The CD-ROM (and website) include several books by Sight and Life in PDF format, including their manual and guidebook, as well as various materials on food fortification, a slide set, video, and downloadable Vitamin A intake calculator

Vision 2020 : the right to sight. Developing an action plan to prevent blindness at national, provincial and district levels

VISION 2020
LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE (LSHTM)
2003

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VISION 2020 is a joint initiative by the WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, which intends to eliminate avoidable blindness (eg caused by cataract, refractive errors, trachoma, vitamin deficiencies, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma) by the year 2020. The strategy of VISION 2020 is built upon the foundation of community participation. VISION 2020 has the following objectives: implementation of disease control interventions; development of human resources and development of infrastructure. This CD-ROM serves as a toolkit for countries and organisations that want to enforce a VISION 2020 action plan to combat blindness at the national, provincial and/or district level. Relevant background information for planning exercises are provided in the form of reports from expert committees, scientific articles, manuals, guidelines, software packages, websites, and contact addresses. [Abstract courtesy of CAB International]

Measuring and monitoring the information and knowledge societies : a statistical challenge

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO). Institute for Statistics
2003

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The focus of this report is on data systems and measurement issues with regard to ICT, including aspects of data availability, international comparability and quality, as well as content. The overall aim is to support the development of national, regional and international data systems and indicators that are comprehensive, policy relevant and reliable for the proper understanding, monitoring and development of a sustainable and equitable information/knowledge society. The first part of this report includes a stocktaking of selected global ICT data from a variety of sources. This is followed by a discussion of the limitations of the existing data as well as barriers and problems that might be encountered in collecting of such data. The final section of the report discusses what data might be of value to collect in the future. The report concludes with a series of recommendations

Information management strategy formation in northern development NGOs

SCHUEBER, Michael
2003

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This research explores how information management (IM) strategies are formed in northern NGOs (NNGOs). It considers three relevant bodies of theory (information management, NGO management, strategy formation), and for a practical perspective, IM strategy formation in the Swiss NGO Helvetas. The analysis explores the cause-effect relationship of IM strategy formation and organisational culture and eventually draws attention to seven conceptual tensions that seem to influence IM strategy formation as well as to reflect the status of the organisation. Finally, it introduces a model that could be developed into a framework for guiding NNGOs in their processes of transformation

Providing low-cost ICT access to low-income communities in developing countries : what works? what pays?

CASPREY, G
O'CONNOR, D
2003

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This Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report discusses the potential of and need for telecommunications development in rural areas of low-income countries. It outlines the main challenges, and describes sustainable options. The report also reviews low-cost options and summarizes policies that would support the more rapid diffusion especially telecommunications reform

Revisiting the "magic box" : case studies in local appropriation of information and communication technologies (ICTs)

BATCHELOR, Simon
O’FARRELL, Clare
2003

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This book looks at the way communities and groups in developing countries are appropriating information and communication technologies (ICTs) to address their needs. It finds that ICTs are being integrated into wider community-based activities and adapted to fit different contexts. It follows on from the paper "Discovering the Magic Box". It finds that there are still few examples of community-driven and locally appropriated ICT initiatives and an absence of standards or guidelines to evaluate ICT-based projects. The book includes some analytical frameworks and indicators to identify good practice and evidence of impact A significant development has been in the growth of telecommunications, in particular mobile phones, that are relatively cheap and powerful tools for poor communities, even in remote areas. The book concludes that the power of oral communication through telephones and radio cannot be underestimated. The book proposes that the main challenge is to adapt the new, usually computer-based ICTs to the needs of poor, predominantly oral-based communities so that they can be appropriated effectively and quickly

VIH/sida en la sociedad de la información

CABRERA, Marcelino
2003

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The communities of people living with HIV/AIDS are particularly active in the Network. The activity of these communities has not only served to support themselves, but has also made a contribution to immunologists. After exposing some elements of the relation of these communities and Internet throughout the last years, this case study observes how the use of the Internet contributes to improve the quality of life of patients. There is an emphasis on the influence of the use of the Internet in the management of side effects caused by treatments, subsequent use in doctor-patient relations and, concretely, in the process of therapeutic co-decision

Information for research in developing countries : information technology Friend or Foe?

ARUNACHALAM, S
2003

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The author details the need for and complexity of doing research in the developing country environment. He summarizes the technology divide, lack of visibility of research from these countries and how this gap is widening and notes various programmes to overcome the lack of access to information primarily journal articles. The author concludes with a number of suggestions for facilitating research in developing countries including the increase of standards and norms

Understanding the indigenous knowledge and information systems of pastoralists in Eritrea

DINUCCI, Alessandro
FRE, Zeremariam
2003

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This case study explores pastoralists' traditional natural resources mangement practices and their sources and channels of information. It aims to contribute to the development of demand-led extension and advisory services for nomadic herders in Eritrea, on the premise that sustainable development programming builds on indigenous systems of communication and information diffusion

HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support across faith-based communities : an annotated bibliography of resources

FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL (FHI)
2003

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This annotated bibliography lists, describes and reviews resources that have proven useful to faith-based organisations (FBOs) addressing the HIV crisis in Africa. The information should help each reader identify the right materials to meet his or her community's needs and then to obtain those materials from the appropriate organisation.

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