The Internet as a source of reproductive health information among adolescent girls in an urban city in Nigeria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There exists some research evidence regarding how adolescents utilize the Internet for health information seeking purposes. The purpose of this study is to understand how in-school and out-of-school adolescent girls in Owerri, Nigeria use online resources to meet their reproductive health information needs. The result could be considered very crucial in assessing the potential role of the Internet in providing health information to adolescent girls in a typical Nigerian urban city.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A questionnaire was used to collect data from 1011 adolescent girls in selected secondary schools in the communities, and also from 134 out-of-school girls selected from the same communities.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>More than 73% of the girls reported having ever used the Internet; more than 74% and 68% of them being in-school and out-of-school respectively. The in-school girls (43.9%) reported having home access more than the out-of-school (5.6%) although the out-of-school have used the Internet for finding reproductive and related information more than the in-school. While parents (66.22%) and teachers (56.15%) are the two sources most used to the in-school girls, friends (63.18%) and the Internet (55.19%) were reported by the out-of-school youth as the two most used sources of information to them.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Internet is not a first choice of source of reproductive health information for both the in-school and out-of-school adolescent girls in Owerri, Nigeria. The source is however, more commonly used by the out-of-school than the in-school, but the in-school have a more favorable assessment of the quality of information they obtain from the Internet.</p

ICT Use in Livestock Innovation Chain in Ibadan City in Nigeria

Using data collected from 300 goat/sheep, poultry, cattle, piggery, aquaculture and dog rearing farmers, this study examined ICT awareness, and its use in innovation chain by livestock farmers in Ibadan, an agrarian community in Nigeria. The study also examined the relationship between ICT use, awareness, and uses in the various innovation links as well as how demographic characteristics of the farmers relate to their ICT use. For all the technologies, listed number of respondents reporting awareness is higher than those reporting use, except for mobile phone where equal number of respondents reported both awareness and use. Marketing is the purpose for which most of the respondents reported using ICT. Computers were used by large famers for feed formulation and knowledge management; mobile phones served the purpose of managing animal health, linking customers, managing of farms and marketing of goods while internet/email was scarcely reportedly used for farming purpose. The findings of the study raises the question of building electronic livestock farmers network as well as training farmers on how ICT could used to meet production and animal health needs

Exploring the usage of social media in public libraries

Social media is one of the innovations which expands the option of web-based technologies to meet the needs of library users without access cost to them, and many public libraries in South Africa have embraced this technology. Against this backdrop, the purpose of the study was to examine the use of social media in the 8 public libraries in Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in South Africa. Mixedmethods approach and a descriptive and case study research designs guided the study. Quantitative data was collected from 264 respondents using a questionnaire, and qualitative data from 16 library officials using an interview schedule. The study revealed that social media applications were used for conventional and web-based services such as Online Public Access Catalogue (WebOPAC), Prolib and Millennium Library Management System and free Internet access. However, lack of training activities, restrictive Wi-Fi access, low bandwidth, poor library officials’ attitudes and short time allocation to access the Wi-Fi make itdifficult for the library users and officials to fully benefit from the web-basedservices available and offered by these libraries. Mangaung MetropolitanMunicipality libraries should deliberately implement social media platforms, as this will contribute to how effectively their patrons can use and rely on their web-based services and other services. This study has implications to social media research, development and usage in public libraries.Keywords: social media, public libraries, library services, information access, Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, South Afric

Public Libraries and Knowledge Commons in a Municipality in the Free State, South Africa

The purpose of the study is to examine the emergence of Commons in the public libraries in the Free State in South Africa using the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework. The study examined the roles of the libraries and communities, the linkage of the new library with open access to knowledge, level of awareness of both users, and the community and administrators. Also, the study examined the role of library users and their communities in the maintenance of the new library. The study adopted a qualitative research design to study 16 community leaders and 17 library staff using an interview schedule. The interview schedule was developed following the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework and administered by the researchers. Data analysis was conducted by a narrative approach to highlight the voices of the participants. Knowledge commons is emerging in the communities studied in a serendipitous manner; there is no formal national or regional policy that spells out what knowledge commons is and their entailments. There is strong evidence of community ownership and governance of human knowledge and other resources that are associated with learning and innovation in the communities

Application of Geo-Information Technology to National Security, Conflict Resolution and Transborder Cooperation: A Case Study of Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe

This paper examines the evolution of boundaries in Africa with emphasis on Nigeria and São Tomé. It also appraises the existing bilateral relationship (treaty) between Nigeria and São Tomé with particular interest on the need for trans-border cooperation and peaceful co-existence as a panacea for conflict resolution. It further relates the importance of monitoring and managing the border and the territorial maritime space between the two countries using geoinformation science and technology (Satellite imaging/Remote Sensing, GIS and GNSS). Using documents appraisal and geo-spatial methodologies, Nigeria’s mile stone in space programmes was identified as a veritable area of joint partnership that can bridge the gap of conflicts arising from territorial spatial coverage, technical know-how, socio-cultural and political ventures. It was further highlighted that Strict adherence to the law of the sea and the already signed treaty would prevent possible conflicts considering the provisions inherent in it. This combined with an up-to-date digital map and satellite monitoring of the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) will ensure peaceful co-existence and respect for contiguous sovereign nation’s territorial right over the bordering waterways. The paper concluded that the fact that conflict exists, however, is not necessarily a bad thing: as long as it is resolved effectively, it can lead to national and international growth and development and this can be achieved chiefly through geoinformation science and technology. Keyword: Border, Geoinformation, Joint Development Zone (JDZ), Treaty,  Satellite

Envisioning a World Beyond APCs/BPCs

This archival page includes documents and recordings related to the international symposium, “Envisioning a World Beyond APCs/BPCs,” held in Lawrence, Kansas, on Thursday and Friday, November 17-18. The presenters were a group of 18 internationally respected scholars, publishers, university librarians, and executives from foundations and organizations, who were asked to participate in a discussion about current models available for achieving an expansive, inclusive, and balanced worldwide open publishing ecosystem. The symposium was co-sponsored by the University of Kansas Libraries, Open Access Network (a project of K|N Consultants), Allen Press, SPARC, and ARL. The materials included here are the symposium schedule, recordings of Parts 1 and 2 of the Nov. 17 livestream, a transcript of the livestream, and team proposals originating from the Nov. 18 morning session.This symposium was sponsored by the University of Kansas Libraries, Open Access Network (a project of K|N Consultants), Allen Press, and SPARC

Webometrics benefitting from web mining? An investigation of methods and applications of two research fields

Webometrics and web mining are two fields where research is focused on quantitative analyses of the web. This literature review outlines definitions of the fields, and then focuses on their methods and applications. It also discusses the potential of closer contact and collaboration between them. A key difference between the fields is that webometrics has focused on exploratory studies, whereas web mining has been dominated by studies focusing on development of methods and algorithms. Differences in type of data can also be seen, with webometrics more focused on analyses of the structure of the web and web mining more focused on web content and usage, even though both fields have been embracing the possibilities of user generated content. It is concluded that research problems where big data is needed can benefit from collaboration between webometricians, with their tradition of exploratory studies, and web miners, with their tradition of developing methods and algorithms

Patterns of authorship in the biomedical literature of Nigeria

In this paper, the significance of authorship in biomedical literature is generally described, followed by an empirical illustration using data collected from papers listed in MEDLINE of the National Library of Medicine (USA) on Nigeria. The paper provides an answer to the following question: what is the trend in authorship of biomedical literature on Nigeria since 1967? Addressing this question will contribute to our knowledge of the development and growth of biomedical research and its literature on Nigeria, which in turn is indicative of the productivity of the authors.Published versio

Bibliometric analysis of quantity and quality of Nigeria’s biomedical literature

The empirical evidence on the biomedical literature of Nigeria was drawn from 295 journals in Medline through which papers on Nigeria were published during the period 1967-2002. We categorized the journals according to their subject heading and examined the potential impact factors of a sample of the journals based on Thomson’s ISI Journal Citation Reports. Multidisciplinary journals and papers dominated the source types and were also more highly co-authored than the other subject headings; they also have the highest potential impact factor. The implications of this pattern of journal choice on biomedical research in Nigeria are highlighted.Published versio