The Impact of TEEAL on the usage of AGORA in Academic and Research Institutions in Uganda

The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) and the Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) are key information support programs in learning, teaching, and research. They provide access to relevant scientific evidence, in agriculture and related sciences. While AGORA was introduced in Uganda in 2005, TEEAL was introduced earlier as a “Library in a Box” and later as LAN-TEEAL. With the recent increase in acquisition of TEEAL sets at a number of academic and research institutions in Uganda and with the TEEAL and AGORA campaigns through the training organized under the Information Training and Outreach Center for Africa (ITOCA), it is not clear how TEEAL has impacted on Agricultural research and on the usage of AGORA as an online program in Uganda. The aim of his paper was to explore how TEEAL is used compared to its counterpart, AGORA. The key question to this study relates to respondents’ preference among the two programs and the underlying reasons. An online questionnaire was used to gather responses regarding preference and use of the two programs by students, academics, librarians, IT specialists, and researchers at the various institutions in Uganda. The study was informed by a review of literature from related studies. Findings from 59 respondents indicate that all (100%) the respondents had an idea of TEEAL while for AGORA it was 58 (98.3%) respondents. Of the respondents, 52.5% preferred TEEAL to AGORA because it required no internet access, although the majority believed that AGORA was more important than TEEAL, due to the coverage of more relevant online scientific literature. The most prominent challenges to TEEAL and AGORA were network failures and slow internet, respectively. TEEAL and AGORA were both acknowledged to be very vital resources for academic and research institutions in Uganda. TEEAL mainly had one advantage over AGORA and that is being an offline resource that can be used in institutions with unreliable and inadequate internet. AGORA was also found to have an advantage over TEEAL in that it had a wider content coverage. The most common strategy for improving the use of both programs, as stated by the respondents, was increasing awareness through training and marketing. It was thus recommended that the program hosts utilize the results of this study to improve the utilization of these vital agricultural databases through further training and awareness. It was also recommended that institutions be advised to strengthen their IT infrastructure to support the programs and ensure effective use, for increasing their academic and research output

Nursing and Midwifery Research Output in Africa: A Review of the Literature

Background: Nurses and midwives form the backbone of health service delivery and satisfaction with care often depends on the competencies of nurses and midwives who provide the care (World Health Organization [WHO], 2002). Healthcare has become complex, challenging, and demanding across diverse sociocultural and socioeconomic changes and environments. To optimize their impact, nurses and midwives therefore need to be prepared with evidence-based competences. Nursing research therefore, is the cornerstone for evidence-based practice and for establishing the professional status of nursing and building research capacity. However, although nursing research began in the 19th century, it is limited in Africa, with little evidence generated to inform policy and practice. Although nursing and midwifery education in the region has advanced with graduate and postgraduate level education, little is known about nursing and midwifery research conducted in universities and where to find such research. Objectives: The literature review aimed at quantifying and identifying the types and gaps in nursing and midwives’ research and publications in Africa. Methods: Articles published between January 1, 2007 and January 31, 2017 were retrieved from PubMed and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) with a search strategy that employed four sets of terms: (a) terms identifying published research done by nurses or midwives, or both; (b) terms identifying types of publications; (c) terms identifying filters for African countries; and (d) filters for publication dates. We also searched Google Scholar to capture nonindexed sources. Results and Conclusions: There is evidence of an increasing number of African nurses and midwives publishing research; however, much of this research may not be readily available. The promotion of nursing research and capacity building/mentorship in research for nurses and midwives is recommended to increase nurses’ and midwives’ skills to critically evaluate research and apply the best evidence to their practice

Building the Capacity of African Health Sciences Librarians in the Development and Conduct of Systematic Reviews: The Initiative of African Medical Librarians

While African health sciences librarians’ role as expert searchers is widely recognized, they have much more to contribute to supporting the development and conduct of systematic reviews. Research evidence has indicated that the librarians rarely participate in the development and conduct of systematic reviews because they are either not called upon to be part, or do not have the skills to participate. Moreover, few librarians who have participated are from outside Africa. Keeping this in mind, the Network of African Medical Librarians (NAML) conducted a pre-AHILA Conference training workshop to introduce participants, specifically the librarians, to the systematic review process. The regional conference for health librarians took place in Ibadan, Nigeria from 14-18 October 2019. This paper evaluates the impact of training of African health sciences librarians in the conduct of systematic reviews. Participants' evaluation feedback was collected using pre and post-training surveys. A mixed-method was employed to gather and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data. The results indicated that the main barriers to librarians’ participation in systematic reviews were lack of skills due to insufficient training and lack of time. This paper is expected to encourage the librarians to advocate for further skills development, in addition to their normal information searching roles. Their participation in the systematic review process would make them, not just relevant but dependable collaborators of systematic review teams, as they participate in improving systematic review reporting

Users’ knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding electronic resources and information literacy: a pilot study at Makerere University.

This paper presents a pilot study of an on-going doctoral study, addressing the knowledge, attitudes and practices of e-resources users. The study was a cross-sectional survey of graduate students, researchers, academic staff, heads of departments and college librarians at the Makerere University School of Public Health. The purpose was to test data collection methods and gain pre-understanding of users’ perceptions and use of e-resources. Conclusions: Data collection instruments had to be adjusted in terms of selection and grouping of subjects, and questionnaire rephrasing. - Users’ knowledge of available electronic resources is often inadequate, which means that they cannot utilize the e-resources fully. This in turn has a negative effect on learning, teaching and research. Most subjects had had no training in the use of electronic library resources. The users should be encouraged to participate in information literacy training

Factors affecting utilisation of electronic health information resources in universities in Uganda

90-96This article reports on a study done on electronic health information resources (e-resources) usage in three universities offering medical education in Uganda. One of the objectives of the study was to investigate factors influencing utilisation of e-resources, which this paper set out to examine. Data was gathered through interviews, questionnaires and citation analysis. Graduate students, teaching staff/ researchers, heads of departments and librarians participated. The ATLAS.ti and Excel programs were used to analyse the qualitative and quantitative data respectively. The study revealed that utilisation of e-resources was influenced by human and institutional factors. While usage was low, there was a significant relationship between usage and information literacy. Addressing factors that affect utilisation of e-resources improves study, research, and ultimately patient care. While healthcare providers will make informed clinical decisions, quality of research and student grades will improve. It will guide curriculum development and/or revision in those fields and guide policy formulation in setting up minimum standards for libraries in universities. E-resources are important in medical education because they support study and research. Addressing their utilisation therefore improves library services, study, research and ultimately, healthcare. </span

Factors affecting utilisation of electronic health information resources in universities in Uganda

This article reports on a study done on electronic health information resources (e-resources) usage in three universities offering medical education in Uganda. One of the objectives of the study was to investigate factors influencing utilisation of e-resources, which this paper set out to examine. Data was gathered through interviews, questionnaires and citation analysis. Graduate students, teaching staff/ researchers, heads of departments and librarians participated. The ATLAS.ti and Excel programs were used to analyse the qualitative and quantitative data respectively. The study revealed that utilisation of e-resources was influenced by human and institutional factors. While usage was low, there was a significant relationship between usage and information literacy. Addressing factors that affect utilisation of e-resources improves study, research, and ultimately patient care. While healthcare providers will make informed clinical decisions, quality of research and student grades will improve. It will guide curriculum development and/or revision in those fields and guide policy formulation in setting up minimum standards for libraries in universities. E-resources are important in medical education because they support study and research. Addressing their utilisation therefore improves library services, study, research and ultimately, healthcare

Efficacy of antimalarial herbal medicines used by communities in malaria affected regions globally: a protocol for systematic review and evidence and gap map

Introduction With the rising resistance to artemisinin-based combination treatments, there is a need to hasten the discovery and development of newer antimalarial agents. Herbal medicines are key for the development of novel drugs. Currently, herbal medicine usage in communities for treatment of malaria symptoms is common as an alternative to conventional (modern) antimalarial agents. However, the efficacy and safety of most of the herbal medicines has not yet been established. Therefore, this systematic review and evidence gap map (EGM) is intended to collate and map the available evidence, identify the gaps and synthesise the efficacy of herbal antimalarial medicines used in malaria affected regions globally.Methods and analysis The systematic review and EGM will be done following PRISMA and Campbell Collaboration guidelines respectively. This protocol has been registered in PROSPERO. Data sources will include PubMed, MEDLINE Ovid, EMBASE, Web of Science, Google Scholar and grey literature search. Data extraction will be done in duplicate using a data extraction tool tailored in Microsoft Office excel for herbal antimalarials discovery research questions following the PICOST framework. The Risk of Bias and overall quality of evidence will be assessed using Cochrane risk of bias tool (clinical trials), QUIN tool (in vitro studies), Newcastle-Ottawa tool (observational studies) and SYRCLE’s risk of bias tool for animal studies (in vivo studies). Data analysis will be done using both structured narrative and quantitative synthesis. The primary review outcomes will be clinically important efficacy and adverse drug reactions. Laboratory parameters will include Inhibitory Concentration killing 50% of parasites, IC50; Ring Stage Assay, RSA0–3 hou; Trophozoite Survival Assay, TSA50.Ethics and dissemination The review protocol was approved by the School of Biomedical Science Research Ethics Committee, Makerere University College of Health Sciences (SBS-2022-213).PROSPERO registration number CRD42022367073