Effectiveness of Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL) in disseminating veterinary information.
The Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL) was established by Parliamentary Act No. 21 of 1991, which elevated the former University Library to a national agricultural library. Therefore, SNAL serves both as a University Library as well as a national agricultural library. SNAL’s overall goal is to develop and maintain library and information services in agricultural sciences and related disciplines. As a university library, SNAL aims at supporting efficiently and effectively teaching, research, extension, consultancy and other academic activities of Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). The Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) consists of many academic units that include four faculties; namely; the Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation, Faculty of Science, and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. This paper examines the capacity of SNAL in disseminating veterinary information. Electronic information resources available at SNAL are assessed with the aim of examining the coverage of veterinary information in comparison to other agricultural related fields offered by SNAL. Major electronic information resources include: CD-ROMs, e-journals and an OPAC. Additionally, the information needs and seeking behavior of veterinary scientists and students at SUA are identified in order to establish the extent to which SNAL meets their needs. The quality of library human resources at SNAL in relation to their capacity to provide veterinary information was observed as well.
Information gathering methods of Nigerian veterinary scientists
Resultats d'une enquete menee aupres de 100 chercheurs nigerians: type d'information recherchee, taux de satisfaction des besoins documentaires, but de la recherche d'information, strategies de recherche, evaluation de l'utilite des diverses sources d'information
Information need and use studies
Elizabeth T. Hewins concentrates on the need and use studies of the literature in: medical informatics, business, public administration and marketing research, and library and information science. She looks at information-provision mechanisms, user modeling, information value, cognitive processes and interface designs as they relate to use studies. She concludes that group needs and uses should be studied so that systems can be designed to serve the members of the group. She finds that new paradigms and approaches are user centered rather than system centered. Hewins suggests that research must become more interdisciplinary than in the past, that research on user behavior should drive research on systems and interfaces to a greater degree than inthe past, and that the two areas should ultimately be linked to user behavior