5th International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS)

Date01 September 2005
Published date01 September 2005
Pages39-41
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/07419050510633943
AuthorGreg Youngen
Subject MatterLibrary & information science
5th International Conference of Animal Health
Information Specialists (ICAHIS)
Greg Youngen
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 8 2005, pp. 39-41, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050510633943 39
Africa is at war with disease, famine,
poverty, and ignorance. Information is a
key weapon in fighting this war (Profes-
sor R.A. Mogotlane, Vice Principal,
University of Pretoria opening remarks.
The 5th International Conference of
Animal Health Information Specialists
(ICAHIS) was held 4-7 July 2005 at the
University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort,
South Africa with the theme, ``Running
Wild, Running Free: Capturing,
Harnessing and Disseminating
Knowledge Flows in Support of Animal
Health.''
Animal health information specialists
are generally librarians serving schools
of veterinary medicine, zoos, or other
related animal health research institutes.
The 5th ICAHIS, hosted by the
University of Pretoria's Academic
Information Service of the Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine, included over 70
participants representing 30 veterinary
libraries or institutions from Africa,
Europe and the USA.Since this meeting
was held in South Africa, p articipation
from other African nations was
especially encouraged. Thanks to
support from the Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
(CTA), Wageningen, The Netherlands,
(www.gm-unccd.org/FIELD/Multi/CTA/
OP_CTA.htm) seven information
specialists representing Uganda,
Tanzania, Mozambique, Nigeria,
Zambia and Zimbabwe were able to
attend and make presentations at the
conference.
With presentations equally balanced
between information-rich nations in the
USA and Europe and the developing
African nations, the gaps in information
access, availability and infrastructure
were quite obvious. Even within South
Africa's developed economy and
academic research settings, problems
with currency devaluation, access to
adequate bandwidth, and connectivity
problems conspire to restrict the flow of
information. The problems are
compounded for lesser developed
nations on the continent where
physical/geographic, cultural, and
political barriers exist on top of the
economic and technological issues.
Welcoming addresses were provided
by representatives from the University
of Pretoria, the Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine, and their Academic
Information Service. The first day's
keynote speaker, Dr Adi Patterson,
deputy director-general, South African
Department of Science and
Technology, addressed the country's
electronic information research agenda.
He praised the efforts of the ICAHIS,
noting that self-organized groups are
much more effective than governmental
or institutional bureaucracies for
crafting global solutions to problems
related to information access and
exchange. He also noted that animal
health informatics is seriously
underdeveloped and needs to be on par
with human health informatics. He
went on to note several instances of
information breakdown and the
resulting tragedies, including the
present system of incentives and
rewards that limit overall sharing of
critical HIV/AIDS information.
Dr Patterson concluded that
information, by itself, is the most
useless of resources ± and only when
it's mediated and made widely
available is its usefulness fully realized.
The presentations on the first day of
the conference focused on library
products and services of interest to
animal health information
professionals. Sarah Murphy, Ohio
State University, discussed her library's
efforts at promoting services to the
community of veterinarians in the state.
Sheila Shrigley, librarian at Pirtbright
Labs, UK, related her experiences
dealing with information needs of
researchers and the general public
during the foot-and-mouth disease
outbreak in 2001. Zanele Hadebe,
University of Zimbabwe, discussed the
changing demands and expectations of
library users. Libraries are no longer the
sole source for information and there
are a growing number of competitors
for library funding. He recommended
building relationships with our users,
providing quality service, and
continually reviewing the process for
improvement. Ernene Verster,
University of the Free State, South
Africa, next described the Progamme
for Agricultural Information Service
(PRAIS), a program developed at the
University that provides information
services on demand specifically related
to marketing agricultural products,
improved production, and
environmental protection. Wanyenda
Chilimo, Sokoine National Agriculture
Library, Tanzania, told of the problems
and issues facing many African
librarians and other information
professionals. While the physical
collections contain mostly outdated
materials, many are greatly
supplemented by access to electronic
publications available on CD-ROM or
online. Electronic access problems
persist, however, and conspire to inhibit
access to the more up-to-date materials.
Poor internet connections, inadequate
computers, and unreliable electrical
supply are some of the issues that must
be dealt with before electronic
information is widely available.
The second day of the conference
was lead off by a presentation from Roy
Page-Shipp, South African Research
Information Service Project, describing
the opportunities and potential pitfalls
for information professionals dealing
with electronic research and
e-publications. The biggest issues he

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