Community Information Centres Research Articles

University Students’ Perception of Community Information Centres as a Vehicle for Climate Change Awareness Creation in Ghana.

Information has a significant role in the growth of people and societies. Yet access to information is unequal across communities, particularly in rural areas in developing countries. Given this, people’s consciousness of climatic change differs by several factors including location and the type of medium employed. This paper examines community information centres as a vehicle for climate change awareness creation in Ghana. The paper adopted a quantitative approach with 205 participants randomly chosen from six public universities. The finding shows that selling of traditional medicines dominates information centres’ activities. Environmental health and climate change education occupy infinitesimal place in these centres’ activities with climate change occupying the very bottom. The study also shows that using local language, providing a platform for grassroot education, integrating scientific and indigenous knowledge, etc. are some of the ways these centres can be used to promote climate change consciousness. The results also disclose that community information centres face the problems of limited resources, lack of interest, unreliable power source etc. Regarding how to manage these challenges, the majority of the participants proposed the role of government in providing resources, community sensitisation, an alternative power source, among others. The paper concludes that although proper attention has not been given to climate change awareness creation in information centres’ activities in Ghana, these informational hubs can be a medium to raise climate change awareness in the disadvantaged and marginalised rural communities in which they are situated to facilitate local adaptation.

A Training on Ecobrick Making at the Community Information and Counseling Center for Youth Bukit Gado-Gado Padang

Training the community to process plastic waste using ecobrick techniques can be useful and one of the keys to the success of a plastic waste recycling program. Gado-Gado Hill is one of the sub-districts in Padang, which has now become a magnet for tourists who want to see the natural beauty of Padang from above. As a tourist destination, this area has the potential to experience environmental damage due to plastic waste if the community is unable to manage plastic waste properly. In Bukit Gado-Gado Village, there is a community called the Bukit Gado-Gado Youth Information and Counseling Center. This community has a challenge, namely the lack of volunteers to develop the creativity of teenagers and children. The aim of this community partnership program is to provide training to community members in efforts to deal with plastic waste using ecobrick techniques. The long-term goal of this program is independence for community members in the economic sector as a new business opportunity to create a product with high marketability.

Provision of Information Services and Resources for Enhancing performance of Class 8 Pupils in Kimilili Community library, Bungoma County, Kenya

Information centers play a very crucial role in ensuring that the community has access to the right information to suit its various information needs evidenced by several research carried out on information centers. The rolling out of Free Primary Education (FPE) in Kenya, in January 2003 led to overwhelming increase in primary school enrollment. This exerted pressure on educational facilities and created new challenges including inadequate information material for educational purposes. Community information centers whose role is to provide information services and resources to their respective communities have therefore an important role to play including provision of information services to supplement what the schools in these areas have including giving specific services and resources aimed at enhancing the performance of those pupils doing exams. Thus, this study purposed to assess provision of services and resources at Kimilili Community Library in Bungoma, Kenya for enhancing the performance of class 8 pupils. The study assessed the services and policies, available resources and the challenges encountered. The study was anchored on S. R. Ranganathan's laws of library science and Piage. Descriptive research design was used, and questionnaires and interview schedules were employed in data collection from 84 pupils, 2 librarians and 2 Ministry of Education officers. The study used statistical package for social science (SPSS), version 1.0 2023 for data analysis. The findings are presented in tables. The study established that Kimilili Community Library has various information resources including textbooks, novels, and atlases some in print and others in digital formats. If well utilized these resources would enhance the performance of class 8 pupils. The library also provides various services to pupils, including organized library visits and information literacy.

DIGITALISATION OF LIBRARIES (DIGITAL LIBRARIES) AND ITS SCOPE

In comparison to traditional libraries, digital libraries provide efficient and qualitative services by collecting, organizing, storing, disseminating, retrieving and preserving the information. Digital libraries support preservation besides making information retrieval and delivery more comfortable. It provides online access to historical and cultural documents whose existence is endangered due to physical decay. The major areas which offer digital libraries great exploitation are: Information retrieval, multimedia database, data mining, data warehouse, on-line information repositories, image processing, hypertext, World Wide Web and Wide Area Information Services (WAIS). Digital libraries necessarily include a strong focus on the management of digital content, just as traditional libraries have focused for long on the management of content in physical forms. Most of the digital content that is being managed includes human language, either in the form of character-coded electronic text, scanned versions of printed or handwritten text, or digital representations of human speech. Language technology therefore plays a major role in managing digital content. This comes as no surprise, of course. Digital libraries today make good use of what we know about searching large collections, and techniques such as machine-assisted indexing are employed increasingly often as we strive to extend our reach to progressively larger collections. But we are on the verge of a new era, one in which our machines will learn from what we do and then apply those capabilities to enable the management of digital content at a far larger scale than we could ever hope to do ourselves. Few advantages of digital libraries according to Haddouti are:User can access the information anywhere Reduces bureaucracy by providing access to the information The information is not necessarily located in same place Understanding the catalogue structure is not necessary Cross references to other documents speed up the work of users Full text search Protected information source Wide exploration and exploitation of the information The knowledge dissemination is an integral part of the success story of the popularity of creating digital libraries. The aim is to provide universal access to human knowledge, and given the advancement of digital storage and communications this goal is now achievable. KEY WORDS: Digitalization of Libraries, Role of community information centers in digitalization of libraries.

Community Flexible Load Dispatching Model Based on Herd Mentality

In the context of smart electricity consumption, demand response is an important way to solve the problem of power supply and demand balance. Users participate in grid dispatching to obtain additional benefits, which realises a win-win situation between the grid and users. However, in actual dispatching, community users’ strong willingness to use energy leads to low enthusiasm of users to participate in demand response. Psychological research shows a direct connection between users’ herd mentality (HM) and their decision-making behavior. An optimal dispatching strategy based on user herd mentality is proposed to give full play to the active response-ability of community flexible load to participate in power grid dispatching. Considering that herd mentality is generated by the information interaction between users, by calling on some users to share the experience of successfully participating in demand response in the community information center and using the Nash social welfare function to model herd mentality to explore the impact of the user. The analysis of an example shows that the proposed strategy gives full play to the potential of community flexible loads to participate in demand response. When users have similar electricity consumption behavior, the herd mentality can effectively improve users’ enthusiasm to participate in demand response, and the user response effect meets managers’ expectations.

The Role and Awareness of E- Governance in Kashmir A Study of Kupwara District

Situated at a distance of 90 kms from Srinagar, Kupwara, a Kashmir Valley frontier district, has lush forests and a diverse wildlife. This makes it important for tourism and wildlife. The NIC centre established E-Government in 1996. In 2004, community information centres were established in each Kupwara block, bringing egovernance to the rural masses. E-Government is the process of modernising traditional governance to better serve citizens and run government using ICT applications. Digital governance, leadership, delivery, investment, and transparency are all new concepts. Good governance requires e-Governance. A wide range of organisations around the world are implementing e-governance initiatives to better serve their constituents. Changing with the times, the District Kupwara administration has implemented egovernment in various departments for better and faster delivery of goods and services to their citizens. The goal of e-governance is to improve governance. The present aim of the study is to investigate the role of administration of district Kupwara for implementing e- governance for residents and its level of awareness and challenges among the citizens of Kupwara district

FINDING'S AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE GROWTH OF LIBRARY SCIENCE AND COMMUNITY INFORMATION CENTRES IN THE STATE (WITH SPECIAL REFRENCE TO THE KARNATAKA STATE)

Library and the information science can be said as the right of the Indian citizens to know by getting the information through the information science or library science. Although Government of India and Government of Karnataka have made efforts in developing e-governance projects with a noble mission to provide right information to the right user pertaining to social, economical, political, cultural and educational aspects using Information and communication Technology in the form of kiosks or community Information Center’s website. In spite of all these efforts, on the country, the present result of the study shows lack of automated Community Information Centers to support the rural society in meeting their timely information needs pertaining to agriculture, education, health and family welfare and women and child welfare. The Government agencies have family welfare and women and child welfare .The Government agencies have been providing huge amount of resources but for the implementation of the pragrammes have not been up to the mark. And the lack of information science infrastructure in rural and remote parts of Karnataka has been hurdle for the poor regions of the state.

The Role and Awareness of E- Governance in Kashmir A Study of Kupwara District

Situated at a distance of 90 kms from Srinagar, Kupwara, a Kashmir Valley frontier district, has lush forests and a diverse wildlife. This makes it important for tourism and wildlife. The NIC centre established E-Government in 1996. In 2004, community information centres were established in each Kupwara block, bringing e-governance to the rural masses. E-Government is the process of modernising traditional governance to better serve citizens and run government using ICT applications. Digital governance, leadership, delivery, investment, and transparency are all new concepts. Good governance requires e- Governance. A wide range of organisations around the world are implementing egovernance initiatives to better serve their constituents. Changing with the times, the District Kupwara administration has implemented e-government in various departments for better and faster delivery of goods and services to their citizens. The goal of egovernance is to improve governance. The present aim of the study is to investigate the role of administration of district Kupwara for implementing e- governance for residents and its level of awareness and challenges among the citizens of Kupwara district.

Minding the Design Reality Gap

This paper focuses on evaluating an information and communication technology (ICT) intervention promoted as a pro-poor telecentre initiative in rural Ghana. Our evaluative tool is the Design Reality Gap (DRG) framework used to analyse the Community Information Centre (CIC) initiative in Ghana. Data were collected through a qualitative multi-site case study. By tracing the linkages between the investment and outcomes, we found a worrying trend of failed implementations and sustainability, although implementers did sustain efforts at planning new initiatives. Based on the findings, we argue that the CIC initiative in Ghana is a failing ICT intervention. We also found that the tailored DRG approach allowed us to tease out the nuances that account for the CICs' status. We conclude by proposing gap closure measures for the failing intervention. This paper contributes to ICT evaluations by demonstrating the utility of the DRG framework in evaluating one of the most significant pro-poor ICT initiatives in lower-to-middle-income communities: telecentres. This research also contributes to the current ICT literature by enhancing our current knowledge about publicly accessible ICT facilities in an under-investigated setting, and further offers an approach to telecentre evaluations in similar contexts inspired by the DRG model.

Developing Community Information Group Website to Improve Digital Literacy

Community Information Group is a public service institution as a community information center at Biting Ponorogo. Dissemination of information to the public is often an obstacle due to limited communication media. Then, word of mouth is often inaccurate, causing miscommunication. This research aims to develop a website as a community information center. As well as being a communication and information medium, this website development also aims to improve community digital literacy. This research used the System Development Life Cycle method. This study succeeded in developing a website for the Biting Community Information Group. The feedback from Biting Community Information Group peoples expected that these websites could be developed as a medium of communication and information for the community. This website can be accessed via a search engine (https://kimbiting.com/). The next research can measure the effectiveness of the Biting Community Information Group website as the communication media. Besides, future research also can develop another communication medium based on information and communication technology.

Communication Network Structure in Building Environmentally Friendly Behavior (The Case of a Dense Community in Bogor City)

Efforts to solve environmental pollution in densely populated communities in urban areas are not only the responsibility of the government. Communities as part of social system also have an important role to control the environmental impacts of pollution. One way that community members must do in reducing environmental damage is familiarize environmentally friendly behavior. This research focuses on the analysis of environmentally friendly behavior of Pulo Geulis community members in Bogor City. Pulo Geulis is a Delta in the middle of the Ciliwung River which more or less contributes to whether or not the Ciliwung River is polluted in Bogor City. The communication process is an important factor in changing individual behavior. This study aimed to analyze the structure of community communication networks in developing environmentally friendly behavior. Primary data was obtained through a survey of 100 respondents and in-depth interviews with several informants. Data were analyzed using sociometric methods. The results of sociometric analysis showed that the structure of the community communication network in building community-friendly behavior is a radial personal network. This structure illustrated that community information centers are located in certain individuals such as head of RW, head of RT, or Posyandu cadres. The radial personal network in this study also described the formation of clique, star, bridge, and isolates in the community communication network at Pulo Geulis.

PELATIHAN PENINGKATAN ABSTINENCE SELF EFFICACY PADA PENGGUNA NARKOBA DI PUSAT REHABILITASI

PKM Activities Drug Users are conducted in two institutions in Medan City, which referred as Drug Rehabilitation Center are Narcotics Prevention Rehabilitation Agency (LRPPN) and Rumah Ummi, according to the guidance of the dedication partner of the North Sumatra Narcotics Community Information Center (PIMANSU) each involving 10 drug users from LRPPN and 5 drug users from Rumah Ummi. The problem in both centers is the high number of relapse from drug users because of the lack of attention into build stronger mind and behavior patterns to return to vulnerable communities. This relapse problem can be minimized by increasing abstinence of self efficacy (ASE) that is a belief to refuse using drugs again. Therefore, the main objective and target of PKM Drug Users activities is to enable drug users to face high risk situations through increasing ASE. Target activities include restructuring the irrational mind to be rational as well as understanding the techniques on facing high risk situations. Several methods are used in the achievement of the objectives of field surveys as well as group discussions, frequently asked questions, assignments and reviews. The solutions offered consist of (1) training to recognize the irrational thoughts of drug-related behavior, (2) training to test the truth of the benefits of using drugs, (3) training to recognize high risk situations common to drug users and (4) training using 5 techniques when dealing with situations that potentially trigger relapse.

Community Information Services in Public Libraries: A Case Study of KNLS Nairobi County

Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) has been providing community information services based at the Community Area for a quite a long time. The services have benefitted all categories of the public. Despite this effort, no study has been carried out to establish the kind of information services and details about the people who use these services. In this regard, this study endeavored to investigate the provision of community information services by Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) in Nairobi County with a view of proposing strategies to improve its services. The objectives of the study were to: explore what information resources and services were available; establish the information needs of the users; identify the forms of community information services available; establish the users of community information services; examine the challenges faced in accessing and using need information; and to propose ways to improve the provision of community information services. The study used qualitative research method. The interview schedules were the main data collection instrument. The interviews were administered on 100 respondents Data was qualitatively analyzed by means of pie charts and tables. The study found that majority of the respondents use community information services, mobile services, children reading tents that provides relevant information that meets the needs of the community, libraries and other information centers where the users access the information which is relevant to the users were some of the Constitutes of community information services. Further, the study found that community information services improved the living standards of the rural people, it takes the information resources to those who do not have access to the libraries due to long distances, it saves the users time and enhance the reading culture among the communities, it educates the users on their way of living and improves the economic resources and it also promotes good governance. The study concludes that resources are available to support community information services at KNLS and at Nairobi County also Kenya National Library Service has laid down procedures of conducting community information services. The study recommends that library staffs who are not computer literate should take positive steps to remedy their deficiencies since Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have come to stay. Short computer training and retraining programs should be organized from time-to-time to assist Librarians who do not have knowledge and computer skills.

Provision of Business Information Services by Public Libraries to Small- Scale Business Enterprises

This study explored the business information services offered to small-scale business enterprises (SBEs) by public libraries in Meru County, Kenya. Public libraries are community information centres, hence well-placed to serve the small-scale business community. A quantitative approach and survey research design were adopted. Data were collected from 296 SBE traders and 20 staff members from three public libraries in Meru County using well-structured questionnaires and interviews. Quantitative data were analysed with the help of SPSS software while a thematic analysis was used on qualitative data. The provision of business information services to SBEs in public libraries was in a desolate state owing to inadequate business collections, the lack of sufficient information and communications technology (ICT) facilities, poor awareness of business information services, a poor reading culture, and weak collaborations of public libraries with stakeholders. There is an indispensable need to establish insightful and holistic business information services at public libraries and to institute measures that would foster their utilisation by SBEs. This can be achieved by elevating library facilities, enhancing outreach programmes, ensuring adequate funding, engaging knowledgeable business services librarians, embracing ICT in service delivery, and by having an appropriate policy framework.

Poultry Farmers' Information Needs and Sources in Selected Rural Communities in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana

ABSTRACTA survey was conducted to assess poultry farmers' information needs and sources in selected rural communities in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Data were collected from 150 poultry farmers in 13 communities. Information on disease management, egg storage, feeding and nutrition, vaccination, shelter, pesticide application, marketing of poultry products, and debeaking were the major information needs of the poultry farmers in the study area. The major sources of information for the poultry farmers were from family and friends, the Internet, books, the veterinary office, leaflets, television, researchers, and newspapers. Some of the major constraints faced by poultry farmers when accessing information include lack of skills to access information, inadequate information resources on poultry, inadequate veterinary officers, lack of information centers, and inappropriate airing time of agricultural program on radio stations. The study recommended that community libraries and information centers should be established: It is important that such rural libraries and information centers should contain simple agricultural reading materials, such as leaflets, agricultural magazines, books, and research reports that are written in non-technical language. The veterinary service department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture should identify relevant sources and use them to deliver information to the poultry farmers.

Capacity building modules for public libraries to support small-scale business enterprises in Meru County, Kenya

The lack of well-structured capacity building programmes is a serious drawback to the effective development of small-scale business enterprises (SBEs) in Kenya. Public libraries as community information centres can collaborate with other stakeholders in facilitating the required skills. This study investigated the training needs of SBE traders and public library staff with the aim of proposing capacity building modules that can be considered by public libraries in Meru County, Kenya in their endeavour to support the SBEs. In implementing the study, a mixed methods approach was used and the survey research design adopted. Cluster and systematic sampling techniques were used in getting 355 SBE traders while census was used on twenty-one library staff and on two staff from Meru County government. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect the required data. The response rate was 83.4% and 95% for SBE traders and public library staff respectively. Descriptive statistics and thematic techniques were used to analyse the data. We used the findings of this study and the scholarly insights from previous studies to propose two sets of capacity building modules: for SBE traders and for the public library staff. The training areas comprise business information literacy, technology competency, and nature of information in the business domain. We recommend the adoption of the proposed modules in public libraries in Kenya in elevating support and value contribution in the development of the small business community. We further recommend a training policy for SBEs and the recruitment of experienced, skilled and knowledgeable business librarians.

Delivery of community information service as corporate social responsibility by librarians in Nigerian tertiary institutions

Various scholarly works have reported the absence of library and information services provision to rural dwellers for addressing their information needs for sustainable development. Coupled with this is the absence of community information centers in the rural areas. Thus, a key question that keeps arising is: whose job is it to provide effective community information services (CIS) to rural dwellers in the country? This necessitated the study, with a view to ascertaining if librarians in academic institutions, considering their location in rural areas, are involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) by way of providing library and information services in communities? Using four federal tertiary institutions in Imo and Ebonyi states, South East, Nigeria, which are located in rural areas, it was discovered that librarians perceived such idea in the positive direction and also responded positively to the types of CIS that could be rendered as CSR. Possible challenges that may affect the planning and delivery of such CIS programme were also discovered, among which are financial implications, unavailability of communication gadgets and other requisite resources, absence of approval and support from the management of parent institutions, librarians may see such as additional responsibility without financial reward which may lead to resistance, and possible resistance or non-acceptability by leaders and traditional rulers in the communities involved. Recommendations were made for academic librarians to take up provision of CIS as CSR for actualization of sustainable development goals in rural areas in the country.Keywords: community information services, corporate social responsibility, sustainable development goals, librarians

The Influence of Intangible (‘Soft’) Constructs on the Outcome of Community ICT Initiatives in Ghana: A Gap Archetype Analysis

AbstractThis paper applies the gap archetypes framework as an analytical tool to evaluate the Community Information Centre (CIC) initiative (also widely referred to as telecentres) in Ghana. It critically examines how the interaction of ‘soft’ constructs (politics, culture, emotions, people, partnerships and context) influenced the outcome of the initiative. This paper is a response to recent calls for the evaluation of such intangible constructs and the extent to which they affect the implementation and utilisation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiatives. Adopting a qualitative approach, this study investigated eight government‐owned telecentres to highlight how these ‘soft’ constructs influenced the implementation and governance of the CIC initiatives. The results indicate that these ‘soft’ constructs were overlooked throughout the process of implementation which consequently negatively affected the suitability of the telecentres. The study also demonstrates the usefulness of the gap archetypes framework as an analytical tool for the evaluation of telecentres and ICT projects in general.

Users and Uses of Internet Access Points in Bangladesh: A Case Study of Community Information Centers (CICs)

This study through a theoretical framework and using the case study and survey approaches investigates the uses and benefits of these Community Information Centers (CICs) and the several ways in which these CICs are impacting the lives of the rural people. Two thirds (69%) of the users come to the centers to send emails. The other purposes are browsing for any information (63%), entertainment (60%) and voice chatting (47%). The types of information people sought from the CICs are news (88%), education (59%), entertainment (55%), business (47%), health (27 %), government (23%), agriculture (9 %) and other (3%). most of the users (87%) mentioned that the information and use was leading to their personal development. In terms of satisfaction about the CICs, more than one third of the users (36%) were satisfied.

Enhancing the Wellbeing of Base of the Pyramid Entrepreneurs through Business Success: The Role of Private Organizations

This study examines the relationship between base of the pyramid (BoP) entrepreneurship success and wellbeing. The major contention is that the success of the BoP entrepreneurs is influenced by information and training support provided by large private organizations. A total of 134 BoP entrepreneurs, who run community information centres in remote areas of Bangladesh with the support of a leading private telecommunications company, participated in this research. The result revealed that support from a large private organization is important to ensure business success, and that this subsequently enhances the wellbeing of BoP entrepreneurs. Not only has this study empirically confirmed that assistance provided by large private organizations to BoP entrepreneurs influences business success, assistance also enhances the wellbeing of this vulnerable group and thus facilitate to reduce poverty within the local community. This study therefore can be a guideline for large private organizations that are willing to carry out pragmatic corporate social initiatives.