Browsing by Author "Dulle, F.W."
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Item Acceptance and usage of open access scholarly Communication by Postgraduate students at the Sokoine university of agriculture and the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania(2011) Dulle, F.W.Thisstudy assessed the awareness and usage of OpenAccess (OA)for scholarly communication by postgraduate students at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM). A semistructured self-administered questionnaire survey was undertaken using a convenience sample of 230 postgraduate students of whom 128 (55.6%) participated in the study. The open access concept was familiar to 58.6% of the respondents; however, although 60.9% of them acknowledged having accessed OA content, only10.9% of them had disseminated research findings through ~A. The respondents' perceptionstoward OA were generally positive. Lowawareness of the OA concept, inadequate onlinescholarly communication skills, and the slowInternet connectivity 'H'erepossible factors affecting the exploitation of OA in the study area. The review and formalisation of the existing postgraduate information literacy training modules at the two universities is recommended in order to improve the adoption of OA and exploitation of the online resources in general.Item Application of information and communication technologies for documentation and dissemination of scholarly output among inter university council for East Africa member institutions(2013) Dulle, F.W.; Kaane, S; Nyamboga, CAfrican and other developing countries face problems of making their scholarly output widely visible and accessible. This is partly attributed to the fact that most scholarly output from this part of the world is documented in low circulating journals and grey literature in print format. Information and communication technologies (lCTs) have been acknowledged to have the potential to reduce that problem. A study was conducted to examine the extent of lCT application by Inter University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) member institutions in documenting and disseminating scholarly output. The research involved 28 (10 private and 18 public) institutions selected from among 67 IUCEA member institutions from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ugandaduring the 200912010 academic year.A combination of approaches including face-to-face interviews, self-administered questionnaires, and analysis of institutional web-sites were used for data gathering. Sixty-one respondents (14 deputy vice chancellors/vice rectors, 22 directors of research and 24 directorslheads of institutional libraries) participated in the study. Content analysis was adopted for analysing data from open ended questions whereas data from structured questions was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) VI6 software. It was established that most institutions in the region were still documenting and disseminating their scholarly output using conventional methods with little exploitation of ICTs. The study recommends the need for the IUCEA and its member institutions to spearhead effective exploitation of ICT developments to facilitate the documentation and dissemination of scholarly output among researchers in the East Africa region and beyond.Item Application of information technology for research in Tanzania: feedback from agricultural researchers(2002) Mulimila, R.T.; Matovelo, D.S.; Lwehabura, M.J.F.; Dulle, F.W.This paper reports results of a study aimed at assessing agricultural researchers' access to information technology facilities. It also examines to what extent such facilities are used in facilitating researchers' access to scientific information. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey to 321 agricultural researchers selected randomly at 13 research centres throughout the country. The response rate obtained was 76.3%. Out of 244 respondents, 170 (69.7%) reported having access to internet or e-mail facilities. While 79.3% of the respondents having access to the internet reported using the facility frequently for information search, the e-mail facility was not popularly used by the respondents for information requests to sources outside respondents' institutions. CD-ROMtechnology was found not to be readily available to many respondents because of the unavailability of such facilities at their research centres and minimal use of e-mail facilities for resource sharing with other centres' CD-ROMdatabases. It is concluded that, along with a low level of information technology development in the country, the available information technology facilities have not been fully exploited to facilitate agricultural researchers' accessto information. Some measures to improve information technology infrastructure and its use for improvement of research productivity are recommended.Item The extension triad approach in disseminating agricultural information to extension workers: some experiences from the Southern Highlands Dairy Development Project, Tanzania(2000) Dulle, F.W.The agricultural extension services in developing countries have been widely criticised for their ineffectiveness. The extension triad is considered to be an alternative and promising approach in an attempt to improve the extension services in such countries. This study investigates the information- seeking pattern of extension workers and the ways in which the Southern Highlands Dairy Development Project disseminates information to such workers, as well as the extent to which it addresses some of the common problems reported to hinder the extension services in developing countries. Out of 66 copies of a semi-structured questionnaire distributed to dairy extension supervisors and field extension workers within the Project area, 49 responses (69.7% response rate) were received. The use of personal sources, attendance at professional meetings, seminars, short courses and conferences and the reading of newspapers were found to be the three main information sources consulted by the respondents, while contact with researchers and the use of agricultural libraries were very unpopular. The Project extension services proved superior in comparison to the traditional extension services. For sustainability purposes, it is recommended that the Project, in collaboration with the Government and farmer groups, launches an alternative organisation to pursue activities run by the Project before it comes to an end.Item The information needs of small scale dairy farmers in Tanzania(1999) Dulle, F.W.; Aina, L.O.The study was undertaken to investigate the information needs of small-scale dairy farmers and various information sources they consulted to resolve their information needs. It involved 71 small-scale dairy farmers from five villages, which were selected through a systematic random sampling from Mbozi district. Personal interviews were used to gather data from small-scale dairy farmers. Small scale dairy farmers were found to be in need of information on livestock feeds availability and feeding techniques (97.2%), parasite and disease control (83.1%), general animal husbandry (81.7%), heat detection and breeding techniques (43.7%) and information on milk marketing (39.4%). In resolving their information needs it was found that attending extension meetings and extension worker visits were the most dependable information sources used by the majority of farmers. The use of agricultural libraries as an information source was very uncommon to the majority of the respondents with the major reason being lack of such a service.Item Researchers' perspectives on agricultural libraries as information sources in Tanzania(2001) Lwehabura, M.J. F.; Mulimila, R. T.; Matovelo, D. S.; Dulle, F.W.This paper reports results based on a study aimed at assessing the capability of agricultural libraries in meeting researchers' information needs, finding out means used by researchers to cope with the scarcity of scientific information, and based on study findings, give some recommendations on how to improve agricultural library services in Tanzania.Item Understanding the knowledge sharing process among rural communities in Tanzania: a review of selected studies(2013-01) Mtega, W. P; Dulle, F; Benard, R; Mtega, W.P.; Dulle, F.W.; Benard, R.The study investigated how knowledge sharing process takes place among communities in rural areas in Tanzania. Specifically, the study determined how knowledge was created; assessed how rural people shared knowledge; and evaluated the impacts of social-cultural practices, individual and institutional factors on knowledge creation and sharing. The study also assessed how ICTs were used in knowledge creation and sharing among rural people. The study employed a meta-analysis where studies on knowledge acquisition and sharing among rural people in Tanzania were critically analysed. The findings reveal that rural people created and shared knowledge in need for their day to day activities. Knowledge was created through observations, personal experiences and social interactions and shared mainly through discussions and conversations held on several occasions. Individual, institutional, social-cultural practices and technological factors influenced the knowledge creation and sharing process. It was further established that rural people consulted some knowledge sources more and shared knowledge through formal and informal groups. Decisions on sources consulted were influenced by socio-economic, demographic and geographical factors surrounding rural people. However, the poor link between the knowledge-rich and knowledge- poor units limited the knowledge sharing and creation processes. It is recommended that the link between units creating knowledge and those using it should be improved so that rural communities can easily acquire and share it. Because rural people depend on exogenous knowledge from other institutions, institutional knowledge creation and sharing capacities should be improved to enhance knowledge sharing in rural communities. Rural communities should try to eliminate the individual factors and social-cultural practices hindering knowledge creation and sharing process.