Regional Seminar Proceedings 1993

ASIST Information Services

By David Mason, Information Specialist, ASIST, Nairobi

History

1988

The ILO and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Works in Kenya (MoPW), developed and ran an International Course for Engineers and Project Managers on labour-based road programme management.

1990

A project planning workshop identified the main objective as:

to increase the effectiveness of labour-based programmes in sub-Saharan Africa

and agreed three main outputs:

training of engineers, site supervisors, senior management staff and trainers

provision of information services

conduct appropriate research and development.

1991

In October the ASIST project was launched.

The objectives set for the Information Services (IS) component were:

labour-based roadworks information to be made available to practitioners

technology information available to labour-based programmes to be improved.

The principal component of the Information Services was seen as a Technical Enquiry Service (TES). This was set up at Kisii Training School in western Kenya and staffed by a Technology Specialist and a National Professional engineer.

During the first year, the main activities of the IS involved accessioning and cataloguing documents, and carrying out research into the Botswana method of setting out roadworks.

Very few enquiries were received during this period, apparently because few people knew of the existence of the ASIST project, let alone the IS component.

1992

At the Lesotho regional seminar in March, the operation of TES was reviewed and recommendations made:

TES should be proactive rather than purely reactive

TES should sell itself and its services

TES should publish a bulletin twice a year, each issue concentrating on s specialist subject, the first of which should be on maintenance.

1993

In January, David Mason joined ASIST as Information Specialist, and Collins Makoriwa as Data systems Specialist.

In May, the first issue of the bulletin was published. About 1500 copies were distributed, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Each bulletin contained a registration form. About 150 have been returned to date.

In September, following an SDC review of KTS, the decision was taken to relocate the main activities of TES to Nairobi to streamline the management of documents and incoming enquiries. KTS remains as a branch office, to serve the staff and students there.

The Current Position

To date, 1580 publications have been accessioned and catalogued. The records are kept in a computer database. A keyword system allows searches to be made according to topics selected by the client.

To date, about 50 formal enquiries have been received (not including requests for advice from advisory support staff carrying out their normal duties). Most of these requests have been for publications.

During the past six months, the Information Service had undergone a change of emphasis. The setup is now as follows and has four components:

Networking

To keep practitioners in touch with each other and up to date with the latest news and developments.
publication of a bi-annual bulletin
mounting of an annual regional seminar.

Technical Enquiry Service

To respond to specific requests for publications and information.
an expert "living database" of experienced advisers
a bibliographic database of reports, publications, and other literature.

Publishing

To produce material, culled and digested from the expert and bibliographic databases, appropriate to the needs experience level of practitioners.

technical briefs

training material.

Research and Development

To keep practitioners up to date with the latest R & D findings.

maintain a watching brief on research being conducted

publish and disseminate the results of research.

Enquiry procedure

request received
enquiry form opened
computer database searched
response formulated and publications copied or purchased as appropriate
response despatched.

Small quantities of photocopied extracts are sent free of charge, as are some ILO publications such as Country Technology Reports. Commercial publications and large quantities of photocopying are charged at cost.

Finally

The Information Service exists to serve you, the labour-based practitioners. Help us to serve you better by giving us feedback. Most of you were sent a copy of the Bulletin. What did you think of it? Write and let us know, and if you want to be included on the mailing list for the next issue, complete and send in the Registration Form.