Information and Communications Division (INFOCOMM)

During 1987, the Information and Documentation Programme went through a series of internal structural changes that saw it end the year as the Information and Communications Division (INFOCOMM), with a new Director, Mr R.D. Huggan, who had joined ICRAF from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada, where he had been Acting Director, Communications Division. The Division now consists of two units: the Information and Documentation Unit and the Communications Unit.

Mandate

The basic mandate that drives INFOCOMM's new strategy and leads to the priorities, organization, and methods of its two units also underlies the work of ICRAF's other divisions:

The promotion of agroforestry systems and practices toward their incorporation into existing institutions and national government development programmes, with specific emphasis on those institutions and programmes in the developing countries of the world. In other words, a mandate that is itself driven by the needs of the client institutions of the Collaborative Programmes Division's (COLLPRO) outreach programmes such as the Agroforestry Research Networks for Africa (AFRENA) and by the output of the Research Development Division (RDD).

Objectives

The general strategic objectives of INFOCOMM were confirmed in the latter half of 1987 as the identification, acquisition, analysis, interpretation, synthesization, and dissemination of information on agroforestry that is relevant to development; the promotion of agroforestry systems and practices as tools for national development; and support for the training of information, documentation, and communications personnel in the national institutions with a view to strengthening their capacity in these areas. The Division's specific objectives were thus defined under the following headings:

A sample of the diversity and extent of ICRAF's expanding publishing programme.

Identification and Acquisition The Library's main objective is to identify and acquire those documents that are relevant to the needs of the agroforestry researchers, development planners, and other users with a direct interest in the application of agroforestry practices who utilize its services.

Analysis, Interpretation, and Synthesis Documentation Section's main objectives are to complement the Library's efforts in identifying and acquiring information relevant to agroforestry by analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing the information for easy dissemination through a variety of bibliographic and other information methods.

Dissemination Dissemination objectives of INFOCOMM were identified in the second half of 1987 in even more specific terms by pinpointing the varied audiences who are seeking or who should be provided with information on agroforestry via several categories:

• Scientific/ technological (e.g., international, regional, and national agricultural research centres; individual researchers; senior practitioners; senior extension officers; the development scientific community; research donors);

• Decisionmaking (e.g., national government ministries, senior administrators in national research and extension organizations, national and international NGOs, international development agencies, donor community in general);

• Grass roots (e.g., extension workers, field personnel, rural development projects, schools, etc.);

• Trainers (e.g., COLLPRO's training unit, training staff at agricultural research centres, curriculum developers at educational institutions, etc.); and

• General public (in both developing and industrialized nations).

ICRAF's Library is recognized worldwide as a main source of information on agroforestry.

It was also recognized that each of these separate and often disparate audiences would require different dissemination approaches to ensure absorption of the agroforestry "message". These approaches were identified in late 1987 and form the basis for a Divisional strategy paper to be presented to the Board of Trustees in April 1988.

Information and Documentation Unit (INFODOC)

Toward the end of the year, Richard Labelle was appointed Head of this unit.

The question-and-answer service received more than 280 written requests during the year for information on agroforestry. This was up dramatically (75%) over the 1986 total of 160 requests.

The Library ended the year with more than 11,000 bibliographic units, most of which are included in the computerized library catalogue. This is up from 10,200 at the end of 1986. It also receives about 100 journals. This makes it the most important single collection focused on agroforestry in the world.

Because of the extra workload on the small InfoDoc professional staff occasioned by preparations for the 10th anniversary of ICRAF in September 1987, and other unusual pressures during the year, the IDRC-funded project "Agroforestry Information for Sub-Saharan Africa" had to be delayed. Work is scheduled to begin again on this project in April 1988.

The main phases for work on the Agroforestry Abstracts journal, a joint ICRAF/CABI project, were outlined by the Commonwealth Forestry Bureau in early 1987. Although the personnel constraints mentioned earlier also resulted in delays with this project, CABI work did go into (a) defining the scope and chapter headings for the journal; (b) constructing a suitable profile to select records from the CAB ABSTRACTS database; (c) estimating the number of relevant records available from CABI each year; (d) evaluating literature coverage (by CABI/ICRAF); (e) data preparation, including possible arrangements for input by ICRAF; and (f) planning for production of volume 1 in 1988. The first issue is expected to be published in June 1988.

Information retrieval from more than 11,000 bibliographic records is made easier by ICRAF's library database.

The Micro CDS/ISIS software, which was installed in the last quarter of 1986, encountered a bug in the maintenance of the index. UNESCO was most receptive to our inquiry for help and the bug was repaired and an updated version of the software was received. Later in the year, UNESCO released version 2.0 of this software, and it was evaluated by InfoDoc with a view to installing it in 1988. This version, which has a built-in programming language and can deal with 16 million records and many users through a network of microcomputers, will greatly facilitate batch processing and maintenance of the divisional databases.

The integration of ICRAFs databases, to improve ease of access by ICRAF staff and outsiders, was discussed, but personnel constraints prevented action being taken. This is a priority for 1988.

The ICRAF slide library (to be transferred to the new Communications Unit in January 1988) increased by 250% because of the photography necessitated by the agroforestry slide/ video production, posters, and other activities related to the Council's 10th anniversary. More than 3500 new slides and photographic prints were acquired. In the absence of a photo librarian, no cataloguing could be done. This was to begin in early 1988 with the arrival of an Audio-Visual Coordinator.

A major result of having a professional photographer produce these slides was an increase in the quality of photographs and the range of agroforestry activities in Kenya that are now photo-documented.

Communications Unit (COMM)

Although the structure of this unit was agreed to in the second half of 1987, no personnel could be hired for it during the year. Thus, in effect, its professional staff consisted of the Publications Officer and the Editorial Assistant. Public affairs activities were handled mainly by the divisional director.

The following publications were produced in 1987:

• ICRAF Newsletter, nos 19 and 20;

• Agroforestry Systems, vol 5, nos 1-4;

• Six ICRAF Working Papers;

• Six ICRAF Reprints;

• Two books — Professional Education in Agroforestry (proceedings of an international workshop) Ed: Ester Zulberti, and — Agroforestry: A Decade of Development (the 10th anniversary commemorative publication) Eds: H.A. Steppler and P.K.R. Nair,

• Annual Report for 1986;

• "Agroforestry Research, and Development: ICRAF at Work" (revised information brochure);

• Publications list 1977-87.

• Illustrated brochure on the Field Station, Machakos;

• Various lOth-anniversary documents;

• A series of five colour posters; and

• A set of six ICRAF postcards.

Written inquiries regarding ICRAF publications jumped significantly from 682 in 1986 to 952 in 1987, an increase of 40%. At the end of the year, the ICRAF mailing list stood at 6936 records.

It was recognized in the latter half of the year that the promotion, mailing, and distribution of ICRAF publications required systemizing and improving. This decision is reflected in the INFOCOMM strategy paper to be presented to the Board in April 1988.

A display of agroforestry-related publications from ICRAF, lARCs, development agencies, international and local NGOs, and commercial publishers was exhibited during the 10th anniversary celebrations. A total of 114 titles (excluding ICRAF publications) from 16 institutions were displayed. These were later donated by INFOCOMM to the Library of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).

Public affairs activities focused on the 10th anniversary and its "follow-up".

There was excellent media coverage of ICRAF in Kenya:

• All three daily newspapers ran stories and photographs on the anniversary, the opening of the 2-day conference, and the inauguration of the new building;

• All three dailies, plus the national weekly new* magazine, carried paid information supplements on ICRAF and agroforestry,

• VOK radio news covered the anniversary;

• VOK-TV covered the week in its news broadcasts and, in addition, ICRAF and some of its personnel were featured on such TV programmes as: "Press Conference", Bjorn Lundgren; "Mambo Leo", Bashir Jama and Simeon Kanani; "Professional View", Bjorn Lundgren, P.K. Nair, and David Ngugi; and "Feature Documentary", Machakos Field Station (this was repeated three times on VOK-TV between September and December 1987).

Regionally, ICRAF was covered in the African media by:

• Six feature articles, distributed by the Pan-African News Agency in English and French to its national news agency members in 46 countries;

• A feature transmitted by the All-Africa Press Service to its 400 subscriber publications;

• An interview with David Ngugi on the Voice of Germany broadcast to Africa; and

• A front-page cover article in African Farming magazine.

Internationally, ICRAF's anniversary was written up in:

• The IDRC Reports, Ottawa, Canada;

• The Depth News Science Feature Service of the Press Foundation of Asia, distributed to newspapers and radio stations in South and Southeast Asia;

• The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) magazine, Development; and

• Other institution-based publications.

The media exposure also led to more contacts being made for future public-affairs activities. The most promising of these is a proposed 1-hour TV documentary on agroforestry to be researched at ICRAF and produced by TVE (Television Trust for the Environment), a UNEP-funded organization, for worldwide distribution. BBC radio (both national and overseas) showed interest in producing a 30-minute documentary on agroforestry with technical input from ICRAF.

The Librarian can query the database to satisfy user requests directly.