Towards promotion and dissemination of indigenous knowledge: A case of NIRD

This paper describes what indigenous knowledge (IK) is and why IK is important. This paper highlights the concepts of rural technology and indigenous knowledge. It also explains the initiatives of the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) towards development, promotion and dissemination of IK to the rural community to improve their quality of life. Explained in brief are the practices of IK at NIRD like traditional mud houses, handmade paper, vermi compost, medicinal plants nursery, etc. Among the issues covered are collection, recording and documenting, storage, problems, intellectual property rights, documentation and dissemination of IK, and the role of ICTs in this regard. Finally, it also proposes a digital information resources base on IK.     

Desa Informasi: The role of digital libraries in the preservation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge

Abstract

This paper talks about Desa Informasi (Information Village), an initiative to document local information resources at Petra Christian University through the implementation of an institutional repository (IR) system. The author argues that IRs have potential and an important role in the effort to preserve and disseminate indigenous knowledge. The author also describes the relationship between institutional repositories and digital libraries, that both are interchangeable terms. The paper also describes the impacts of the project to the campus community and the society, and how projects such as Desa Informasi are important especially for developing countries.     

利用知识服务与知识传播提升学术期刊品牌影响力

学术期刊要重视知识服务与知识传播.引领学科发展,为行业服务,是学术期刊的办刊宗旨;通过多种渠道,加大知识传播,是学术期刊的重要责任.文章以《航空学报》编辑部办刊为例,通过约、组综述稿件,策划出版专刊、专栏,引领学科发展;通过开展科技论文写作讲座,提供知识服务;通过开放存取(OA)、论文推送、搭建微信公众平台等多种渠道,加速知识传播,最终提升期刊的品牌影响力.     

Challenges confronting libraries in documentation and communication of indigenous knowledge in Nigeria

Indigenous knowledge (IK) and practices are usually unwritten, relying on oral transmission and on memory. This reliance often led to distortions. IK is relevant for development especially in arts, music, language, agriculture, medicine, crafts, theatre and natural resources management. It then becomes imperative that indigenous knowledge be documented and communicated as necessary to obtain its benefit where applicable. Nigeria needs to participate fully in the global exchange and dissemination of information to develop socially and economically. The paper reviews the documentation of IK for communication in print, audiovisual and electronic forms and highlights the challenges confronting libraries in documentation and communication of IK in Nigeria. It is suggested that libraries should coordinate their activities in this area and co-operate with other stakeholders, government and other funding agencies in tackling these challenges.     

Challenges confronting libraries in documentation and communication of indigenous knowledge in Nigeria

Indigenous knowledge (IK) and practices are usually unwritten, relying on oral transmission and on memory. This reliance often led to distortions. IK is relevant for development especially in arts, music, language, agriculture, medicine, crafts, theatre and natural resources management. It then becomes imperative that indigenous knowledge be documented and communicated as necessary to obtain its benefit where applicable. Nigeria needs to participate fully in the global exchange and dissemination of information to develop socially and economically. The paper reviews the documentation of IK for communication in print, audiovisual and electronic forms and highlights the challenges confronting libraries in documentation and communication of IK in Nigeria. It is suggested that libraries should coordinate their activities in this area and co-operate with other stakeholders, government and other funding agencies in tackling these challenges.     

Untangling the web of e-Research: Towards a sociology of online knowledge

e-Research is a rapidly growing research area, both in terms of publications and in terms of funding. In this article we argue that it is necessary to reconceptualize the ways in which we seek to measure and understand e-Research by developing a sociology of knowledge based on our understanding of how science has been transformed historically and shifted into online forms. Next, we report data which allows the examination of e-Research through a variety of traces in order to begin to understand how knowledge in the realm of e-Research has been and is being constructed. These data indicate that e-Research has had a variable impact in different fields of research. We argue that only an overall account of the scale and scope of e-Research within and between different fields makes it possible to identify the organizational coherence and diffuseness of e-Research in terms of its socio-technical networks, and thus to identify the contributions of e-Research to various research fronts in the online production of knowledge.     

The role of handbooks in knowledge creation and diffusion: A case of science and technology studies

Genre is considered to be an important element in scholarly communication and in the practice of scientific disciplines. However, scientometric studies have typically focused on a single genre, the journal article. The goal of this study is to understand the role that handbooks play in knowledge creation and diffusion and their relationship with the genre of journal articles, particularly in highly interdisciplinary and emergent social science and humanities disciplines. To shed light on these questions we focused on handbooks and journal articles published over the last four decades belonging to the research area of science and technology studies (STS), broadly defined. To get a detailed picture we used the full-text of five handbooks (500,000 words) and a well-defined set of 11,700 STS articles. We confirmed the methodological split of STS into qualitative and quantitative (scientometric) approaches. Even when the two traditions explore similar topics (e.g., science and gender) they approach them from different starting points. The change in cognitive foci in both handbooks and articles partially reflects the changing trends in STS research, often driven by technology. Using text similarity measures we found that, in the case of STS, handbooks play no special role in either focusing the research efforts or marking their decline. In general, they do not represent the summaries of research directions that have emerged since the previous edition of the handbook.     

Analysing knowledge capture mechanisms: Methods and a stylised bioventure case

Knowledge transfer between science and technology has been studied at micro- and macro-levels of analysis. This has contributed to the understanding of the mechanisms and drivers, but actual transfer mechanism and process, be they through codified or tacit sources, have very rarely been mapped and measured to completeness and remain, to a large extent, a black box. We develop a novel method for mapping science–technology flows and introduce ‘concept clusters’ as an instrument to do so. Using patent and publication data, we quantitatively and visually demonstrate the flows of knowledge between academia and industry. We examine the roles of exogenous and endogenous knowledge sources, and of co-inventors and co-authors in the application of university-generated knowledge. When applied to a stylised case, we show that the method is able to trace the linkages between base knowledge and skill sets and their application to a technology, which in some instances span over twenty-five years.     

The potential of information and communication technologies in collecting,preserving and disseminating indigenous knowledge in Africa

Abstract

This paper first gives an outline of the importance of African indigenous knowledge. After that it gives the definition of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and indigenous knowledge (IK). It then goes on to highlight examples in which information communication technologies have been used to preserve IK successfully. The paper further lists projects which are still underway, in which information communication technologies are being harnessed in the collection and preservation of the IK. Lastly the paper looks at the challenges faced by African countries in harnessing information communication technologies in preserving IK and gives recommendations on the way forward.     

Managing indigenous knowledge for sustainable agricultural development in developing countries: Knowledge management approaches in the social context

This paper is based on a PhD study (Lwoga, 2009) that sought to assess the application of knowledge management (KM) approaches in managing indigenous knowledge (IK) for sustainable agricultural practices in developing countries, with a specific focus on Tanzania. This study used a mixed-research method which was conducted in six districts of Tanzania. Non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups were used to collect primary data from small-scale farmers in the selected districts. A total of 181 farmers participated in the semi-structured interviews, where the respondents ranged between 27 and 37 per district. Twelve focus group discussions were conducted in the selected districts. The study revealed that IK was acquired and shared within a small, weak and spontaneous network, and thus knowledge loss was prevalent in the surveyed communities. There were distinct variations in the acquisition of agricultural IK both in different locations and between genders. Information and communication technologies (ICT), culture, trust, and status influenced the sharing and distribution of IK in the surveyed communities. The research findings showed that KM models can be used to manage and integrate IK with other knowledge systems, taking the differences into account (for example, gender, location, culture, infrastructure). The paper concludes with recommendations for the application of KM approaches for the management of IK and its integration with other knowledge systems for agricultural development in developing countries, including Tanzania.     

Managing indigenous knowledge for sustainable agricultural development in developing countries: Knowledge management approaches in the social context

This paper is based on a PhD study (Lwoga, 2009) that sought to assess the application of knowledge management (KM) approaches in managing indigenous knowledge (IK) for sustainable agricultural practices in developing countries, with a specific focus on Tanzania. This study used a mixed-research method which was conducted in six districts of Tanzania. Non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups were used to collect primary data from small-scale farmers in the selected districts. A total of 181 farmers participated in the semi-structured interviews, where the respondents ranged between 27 and 37 per district. Twelve focus group discussions were conducted in the selected districts. The study revealed that IK was acquired and shared within a small, weak and spontaneous network, and thus knowledge loss was prevalent in the surveyed communities. There were distinct variations in the acquisition of agricultural IK both in different locations and between genders. Information and communication technologies (ICT), culture, trust, and status influenced the sharing and distribution of IK in the surveyed communities. The research findings showed that KM models can be used to manage and integrate IK with other knowledge systems, taking the differences into account (for example, gender, location, culture, infrastructure). The paper concludes with recommendations for the application of KM approaches for the management of IK and its integration with other knowledge systems for agricultural development in developing countries, including Tanzania.     

Linked-learning for knowledge acquisition: a pilot's associate case study

We developed a knowledge acquisition system that uses an Explanation-Based Learning domain theory as a knowledge repository from which general knowledge structures can be compiled and then translated by smart translators into the various specialized representations required for the separate expert system modules of a distributed pilot aiding system. We call this two-stage learning-plus-translation process linked learning. This architecture addresses learning for multiple modules with different knowledge representations and performance goals, but which must all perform together in an integrated fashion. It also addresses learning for an intelligent agent which must perform in a real-world, dynamically-changing environment with multiple sources of uncertainty. Finally, it serves as a case study offering insights into the integration of machine learning into the system engineering process for a large knowledge-based system development effort.     

Alternative press promotion and distribution: A telephone survey of literary publishers

Conclusion One of the most obvious conclusions the survey results point to is that the presses questioned are more similar than different. Differences are mainly in degrees of sophistication, no technique. The larger presses are able to orchestrate the various elements of promotion and distribution more completely than the smaller ones, which do not have the resources to do everything, and tend to focus on a limited number of areas. One press may not do much advertising, preferring to concentrate on direct mailings; another may put a lot of energy into promotion to libraries, and not into selling foreign rights. Not surprisingly, cash flow and distribution were named the biggest problems facing the presses surveyed; another major obstacle was lack of time. One might think that sufficient sums of money could solve all these problems, but even the commercial presses with their comparatively vast resources haven’t been able to come up with a way to sell literature. The most noteworthy point about this survey is the willingness of the presses to participate and to talk about promotion, marketing and distribution. This shows they are practical as well as idealistic. Though they are editorially driven, presses that want to continue to publish the books they love knew they have to master thebusiness of publishing to survive. Lisa Domitrovich, formerly of Calyx Books, undertook this survey while an Arts Administration Fellow, Literature Program, National Endowment for the Arts.     

发现服务:大学与研究机构图书馆的趋势

基于对我国大学与研究机构图书馆知识服务理论热的回顾和学科化服务实践难的反思,以及对图书馆学科特质的辨析和图书馆工作者智能特点的讨论,本文提出将技术领域的资源发现拓展到服务理论和方法的全方位发现服务,探析发现服务的概念与内涵,指出:发现服务具有图书馆学科特质和适应图书馆工作者的智能特征,以“资源发现”、“知识发现”、“用户发现”等服务内容和方式提供学科化服务和知识服务,是大学与研究机构图书馆的服务趋势。参考文献36。     

知识构建与优化知识服务研究

本文从知识构建的发展过程入手,对知识构建的涵义、条件及内容进行分析研究,进而提出知识构建对知识服务的优化作用。     

Online databases as research support and the role of librarians in their promotion: The case of Croatia

The main aim of this study was to determine the extent to which Croatian university teachers use online databases as a research support tool, and what role librarians have in their promotion. Although the results show that within Croatian higher education online databases are widely acknowledged as important, they are used less frequently than in many other countries, especially more developed ones. The differences in online database perception between certain user groups were also tested. The study has revealed the problems in database usage and indicated the ways in which librarians can respond to users' needs more efficiently and effectively.