Widening access to serials in the developing world: the role and philosophy of INASP :
“The International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) has been working for many years with partner countries in the developing world to support all aspects of the scholarly research and communication cycle – by facilitating access to international scholarly e-journals, supporting the creation of indigenous e-journals, equipping librarians with the skills to support research, and
helping libraries to create the infrastructure to enable them to deliver services in the digital library environment and provide integrated management of digital resources.
For a philanthropic organisation such as INASP sustainability is central as without a plan for self-sufficiency all philanthropic work will ultimately fail. This paper describes our Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERii) approach to supporting sustainable availability, access and use of research that is owned by and embedded within researchers’ own institutions. PERii has been described by Chan and Costa (2005)1 as “the most comprehensive initiative of access to worldwide research” and as well as the learning and successes, this paper will also set out some of the challenges that have arisen in building capacity to enable libraries to take charge of their own futures.
These challenges are significant. There are the obvious obstacles of funding and limitations of ICT and related infrastructures, but in many ways the real sustainability challenges relate to people: how to build on existing strengths and assets and enhance local ability to solve problems; encouraging and stimulating individuals to act either alone or, more effectively, together; and understanding the country context.”
URL : http://conference.ifla.org/sites/default/files/files/papers/ifla77/164-belcher-en.pdf