ITOCA (Information Training and Outreach Centre for Africa) is a capacity building organization aimed at enhancing information and communications technology (ICT) skills for African librarians, information specialists, scientists, researchers and students in Sub-Sahara Africa. Formerly, TEEAL Africa Office, ITOCA was established in February 1999 as a marketing and support office for Cornell University 's Albert R. Mann Library TEEAL (The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library) programme for Africa . Now, ITOCA spearheads programme support for TEEAL, AGORA, HINARI and OARE in the region.
Latest News
LanTEEAL 2.0 – bigger, better, and faster!
We are launching a brand-new version of LanTEEAL with the 2006 update, which includes an overhauled interface and improved search
capabilities. LanTEEAL 2.0 runs in a browser window, and for networks running Windows Server, there are no limitations to the number of simultaneous users!
Access the same quality full-text scientific literature, but with a look and feel more closely resembling your favorite research
databases such as EBSCO and ISI Web of Science.The interface is intuitive and easy-to-use – although of course there will be a full help section included. Furthermore, all articles in the 1993-2006 collection are now PDFs for easy opening, viewing, and printing.
All subscribers ordering the 2006 update will receive an entirely new hard drive loaded with the entire database at no extra charge. Our new hard drives are smaller AND have more capacity,so there's no worry about running out of space with future updates.
The expected launch date for the new software is mid-February 2008
Ibadan University hosts 18th AGORA/HINARI National Workshop
Ibadan University in Oyo State was host to the 18th AGORA/HINARI National workshop for Nigeria from 26 -29 June, 2007. The ITOCA team has been on the road conducting the Training of Training workshops in AGORA and HINARI since beginning of 2005 and the journey has seen the team through Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Mozambique, Senegal, Mali, Zambia and Lesotho. The workshops bring together 25-30 participants from various institutions and equip participants with necessary skills to fully utilize these programs as well as other resources available over the internet and how to market and cascade the training. The Training of Trainer approach is proving to be paying dividends as over 5000 participants have been trained downstream.
The Ibadan workshop brought together a total of 31 participants from 22 institutions . Marcus Banks a member of Librarians Without Borders- an MLA Global Initiative (Co-funders of the workshop) had this comment about the workshop
“Overall, I think it is excellent. The modules all flow logically into one another, and there is excellent documentation and many exercises to reinforce skills.
Great job everyone!!”
Let Your Voice be Heard on Electronic Scientific Journals Access and Use in Africa!
The HINARI, AGORA, and OARE (HINAGOA) Africa User Community Forum kicked off with enthusiasm in 2007, and saw users from all over the continent expressing interest to join. The aims of the forum are:
To network and share information and experiences
To keep abreast with developments in the field of information and learn about breakthroughs in e-resource access and management through the HINAGOA gateways
To collectively provide feedback to the HINAGOA programmes and help shape the future of the initiatives
To learn and update user skills on electronic resources so that they can effectively benefit from the HINAGOA programmes
HINAGOA programmes were developed to answer the need to improve access to up-to-date scientific scholarly literature in biomedical, health sciences, agriculture, environmental sciences and related fields for scientists, researchers and information managers in low income countries.
At the beginning of 2008, a themed approach to the discussions was introduced on the forum. Topical issues were raised on:
Are you using HINARI-AGORA-OARE resources? If you are, tell us how and what are you using the information you get from the HINAGOA resources for?
What are the limitations/challenges that you and your users encounter in using the HINARI-AGORA-OARE resources?
What investments have been made by the institution to promote and facilitate access to HINARI-AGORA-OARE resources?
What improvements regarding the HINARI-AGORA-OARE programmes would you like to see in order for the HINAGOA resources to make a positive impact in your work?
Lessons learned/Best practices and Recommendations in order to move the HINARI-AGORA-OARE process forward.
In order to be part of the discussions and have a chance of influencing future developments of the HINARI-AGORA-OARE programmes on the African continent, please join the User Community Forum by going to: http://www.itoca.org/hinagoa_usercommunity.htm
Partner Programmes
TEEAL
TEEAL (The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library) program www.teeal.org is an innovative scholarly scientific database .... more
AGORA
AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture) is an online program www.aginternetwork.org that gives educational, government departments .... more
HINARI
Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) www.who.int/hinari is part of the United Nation’s ... more
OARE
Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE)
www.oaresciences.org an international
public-private consortium co-ordinated by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Yale University,
and leading science and technology publishers ...
more
Funding
and resource guide for African students
For students wishing to apply for fellowships, plan
ahead. Application deadlines are often at least one
year in advance, and some deadlines listed here may
change.....more (pdf only)
Training Workshops
Our training workshops are currently scheduled
as per table below (these are subject to change). Detailed information can be obtained
by writing to itoca@itoca.org
