Librarians spearhead the information superhighway

"As our library stocks diminish due to scarce financial resources it is good to know that, for two years now, our academic and research staff have had reliable Internet access through the MALICO VSATs. This has enabled electronic access to the best world literature, keeping our teaching materials and research current. The facility also enables students to explore information beyond the lecture room and helps university managers to follow international trends in higher education." Prof. Zimani D. Kadzamira Vice-Chancellor, University of Malawi

Library consortia are key stakeholders in national ICT infrastructure. Librarians are the link between users, technology and content with expertise managing distributed access to huge volumes of high-value electronic resources.

Bathed in the warm glow of the setting sun and surrounded by the picturesque plateau of Zomba in southern Malawi, a unique partnership led by librarians, which has transformed connectivity for the academic, research and development community in Malawi, came to fruition. High speed Internet access spanning the whole country became a reality as bandwidth doubled overnight, (then quadrupled on two sites), enabling a host of new services for libraries, students and researchers.

Like other developing countries, Malawi benefits from initiatives to bring top quality electronic resources, such as those licensed through eIFL.net, to the region. It was estimated at the time that Malawi had access to over three million US dollars worth of online electronic content. However, poor connectivity, mostly through dial-up modems, greatly hampered its use. Downloading journal articles was painfully slow and important functionality, such as full-text search facilities, was impossible. Librarians and users expressed their frustration. “It was like looking through a window, but being unable to enjoy the view”, said Margaret Ngwira, College Librarian of Kamuzu College of Nursing.

The Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO) decided to act, with support from eIFL.net. The result was a major national infrastructure project spearheaded by librarians. Multiple stakeholders were persuaded of the value; funding agencies, technology companies, government procurement bodies, university vice-chancellors, national communications regulators, policy makers and politicians. The decision of the Malawi Revenue Authority to waive the import duty on the VSATS and the agreement by the Malawi Communications and Regulatory Authority to slash the licence fees by 95%, in recognition of the significance of the project for academic and research work in Malawi, was an encouraging early start.

With coverage on national TV, the Deputy Minister of Information and Tourism launched the VSAT network comprising 3.7 metre satellite dishes installed at four sites of the two major universities, University of Malawi and Mzuzu University. The VSATs now deliver bandwidth to the majority of higher education sites in the country and access is being extended to the development sector.

“The benefits have been enormous”, said Professor JJ Uta, Chair of MALICO and Mzuzu University Librarian. “I can’t begin to say the number of areas for which it has been a catalyst”. Academics have better knowledge of digital resources because they have access from their desks, leading to improved research output. Statistics show that journal article downloads have more than doubled since the installation of the VSATs. MAREN, the Malawi Research and Education Network, part of the UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking, has been established and is being “incubated” by MALICO. Through MAREN, a virtual campus for health education has been created linking the institutions in a fibre loop in Blantyre in the south. It is planned to link the capital, Lilongwe, providing crucial assistance in attaining health-related Millennium Development Goals including HIV/AIDS, gender and poverty alleviation. Discussion of new services has been enabled, such as the creation of open access institutional repositories, curriculum development and distance learning courses to reach rural areas and better institutional websites.

“I knew that the library had access to many electronic journals, but online access was so slow that in practice, I couldn’t make use of them. Now I can search quickly and easily for the latest articles. It is really helping me in my studies to become a medical doctor”, said Wanangwa Chisenga, a fourth year student at Malawi College of Medicine.

MALICO
The Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO) provided the lead in this pioneering activity to introduce VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminal, a satellite ground station with a dish antenna) to Malawi benefiting the higher education community throughout the country. MALICO licenses electronic resources, offers leadership for library cooperation, training and development, mechanisms for improved access to information and a capacity for members to respond to the information needs of Malawi.

April 2007