3.INFORMATION INSTITUTIONS:

3.INFORMATION INSTITUTIONS:

          Information institutions provide a measure of the relative numbers, size and capacity of the information infrastructures in the country and indicate the intensity of the economic activities devote to information.

There is many documentation and information centres scattered throughout the country. Most of documentation and information centres located in Khartoum, only a few have good information buildings and others have no purposely built and well-furnished information centre facilities.  At the last two years, most of the institutions have just started to introduce computers and connect to the Internet in their institution but not used for information activities and services. But generally, most of providers of information services are not well equipped with necessary computers and information technology tools. A melange of equipment donated of left behind from project to project created lack of computability which made systems are more difficult to network to maintain or to use.  In addition to those most of them are run by unqualified personnel. Hereby, in this paper we mainly  deal with the information systems in the national information Node:

NATIONAL INFROMATION NODE [NIN]

Documentation and Information Centre [NCR-DIC] is a unit of the National Center for Research (NCR), was set up in 1974 to support research, development planning, decision-making and projects monitoring and evaluation. It is one of the institutions that serve as national depository of knowledge and information. It can also play important role in disseminating information and organization activities that create user awareness and understanding important national concerns.    

 So, It was designated as National Information Node for IGAD which are useful in the building of NCR-DIC systems as well as Sudan Libraries and documentation centres to discharge their functions more efficiently.

NIN OBJECTIVES

1.    To make relevant information available to researchers, students, investors etc. in the various fields of knowledge all over the country.

2.    To contribute towards formulating and developing a national documentation service and information system to the benefit of Sudan and IGAD states.

3.    To set up  national nodes and encourage use of existing mechanism for accessing information/

4.    To improve provision of equipment and facilities to The documentation centres , coupled with staff training to ensure their effective use

5.    To organize symposia, seminars, workshops etc. For the mutual exchange of experience by Librarians, documentalists and information Scientists in different institutions.

6.     To institutionalize information functions within the national development system so as to ensure that the information services are sustainable together with development projects and plans.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES:

1.Collectes, processes and disseminates information on published research findings dissertation reports, studies and conference papers as well as on current/foreign located sources relevant to Sudan, documents

2- Maintains and updates databases, national in scope which are

      ¨        National bibliographic database of over eleven thousand records;

      ¨        Ongoing Research projects in all subject fields

      ¨        Specialists in environmental health and Institutions and in this year  NCR-DIC plans to expand it for different sectors specially of IGAD interests

      ¨        Union lists of serials

      ¨         Researches  of NCR  Researchers

      ¨         Sudan Medical Researches

      ¨         Sudanese Medicinal Plants

3- Publishes "Sudan Science Abstracts", which is produced from the national bibliographic database.  It comes out twice a year, of which currently twenty-two volumes are issued. It abstracts and indexes reports, theses, dissertations, conference papers, published research findings and journal articles relating to Sudan whether generated in or outside Sudan.

4-    Links with international and regional information networks, the centre is focal point of INFOTERRA (International Information System for the Environment),  UNECA,  CEHANET (Centre for Environmental Health Activities Network), IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development), RAIN (Regional Agricultural Information Network for Eastern, Central and Southern Africa).

5-     Offers Information Services from the library resources, the existed national databases and international databases on CD-ROM and Internet, referral services to other INFOTERRA sources that is outside Sudan.

6-     Provides current awareness on  MEDLINE, CABI Abstracts, AGRIS, AGRICOLA, INIS ,POPLINE, ERIC  as well as Internet services.

7.    Contributes towards development of a national information system, activities in this regard include carrying out surveys of specialized libraries, information Centres and databases, holding conferences, conducting training courses in using CDS/ISIS and CD-ROM, e-mail and Internet services.

8.    Updates Union catalogue of periodicals, which  is produced  in 1977, contains available periodicals in Sudan, which is helpful for users, especially those of CD-ROM and Internet to identify the location of periodicals internally.

9.    Updates National Register of Current Researches, which are  updated on 1989.

11.Produces Microfiches, which provides Sudan collection with  

     microfiched materials as source of Non-conventional materials

     which, are not  available in hard copy.

12..Produces specialized bibliographies upon request such as

      bibliographies of  Sudanese Medicinal plants ; and Health

13. Plans to build DIC Electronic Network [DICEN]: DIC plans to build     

      DICEN of LAN/WAN for sharing files and accessing database to

 NIN and other institutions especially in this year of same 

 concerns, regional and international organizations.

NIN RESOURCES & FACILITIES:

     A. HUMAN RESOURCES :

The Center presently has 21 staff members: one PH.D, four have masters' degree, 11 have B.A/B.Sc. degrees and one Higher diploma with short courses training, 7 have high school certificates. 

B. CLIENTS

NIN has recognized that it is essential to determine who the clients are and what are their needs. This type of assessment carried annually so as to keep abreast of current needs. From the analysis of information requests, so the clients can be grouped into the following categories:

3%              Decision makers, consultants, Top mangers

25%           Researcher, Academics and Specialists

70%           University students mainly postgraduates

2%              corporate sector employee and pressure groups

Information needs of clients may be classified according to substance

30%           Agricultural Sciences

6%              Engineering / Technology/Industry/Energy

11%           Mathematics & Natural Science  &

                   Environment

20%           Medical Sciences

33%           Social Sciences & Humanities

Users tends to request information from the following:

50%           National databases (Sudan collection)

42%           International database available on CD-ROM and Internet

6%              Library resources

2%              referral services

NIN NETWORK

With the help of information networks, it is possible to transmit different types of service to different audiences via a single channel. This also makes possible the improved provision of education and other services to small target groups and special audiences. Through increased cooperation and by exploiting the potential of technology, regional equality can be enhanced and the opportunities for individuals to acquire information can be improved. More effective use of resources will be possible.

In IGAD society, electronic communication and information networks handle huge amounts of information, which is continuously being updated. In this flood of information citizens need to be independent, critical and analytical in their acquisition, use and production of information. Increasingly, the problem is to locate relevant material in the mass of data available.

Network building is a function of national development. In Sudan we need to:

- improve the national science and technology policy in using

 communication systems;

- Facilitate the dialogue between communication operators and the library and documentation community to use existing and improving telecommunication infrastructure for information exchange.

In addition to the Documentation & Library community all users in the country including non-governmental organizations, extension centres, the United Nations and other international and national organization with day to day information needs will benefit from the national electronic link.

          Accordingly NIN plans to link electronically at three levels which are::

        ·          Institutional level i.e. NCR units

        ·          National level which includes the libraries & Documentation Centres in Sudan (under survey)

        ·          Regional level  which links with IGAD nucleus

In this paper, we will discuss information network at institutional level.  NIN surveyed the NCR facilities and resources, which are equipment, software, human resources, and means of communications during the period from August - November 1999. The results of  this survey showed the following:

1. Equipment

                      ·          NCR consists of 16 units : 9 units in the NCR Headquarters while 7 units are far from the NIN distance around 1-16 Kilometers

                      ·          9 units have computers for the network

                      ·          8 units connects to the Internet

                      ·          Nine units  with modem

                      ·          LANs in two units

                      ·          6 units need stabilizers

                      ·          9 units need printers

                      ·          4 units have scanners

 2. Software

WINDOWS 95, 97, 98 ;SPSS; CORELL, FOXPRO, ADOPE , CDS/ISIS AND HTML WRITER

3. Human resources are trained on computers with medium qualification in word processing. Some qualified personnel in software in Documentation and Information Centre, Environment and Research Institute, Remote Sensing.

 4. Suggestions:

          Networking, training and maintenance of Equipment's, security programs are needed

NIN also consults the internal specialists from the Sudanet, Sudatel, Khartoum University, Sudan University of Science and Technology, National Council for Telecommunications, and the dealers  of computer companies, for means of communication, training courses, and estimated costs to run network with skilled personnel. So Data Cloud is recommended for discharging the network function smoothly. It suggests that one or two  researchers form each unit  to Training for trainee course  to provide NIN with their  processed information .