INASP Meeting in Bangladesh

The International Network for the Availability of Scientific Information (INASP)'s work focuses on communication, knowledge and networks, with particular emphasis on the needs of developing and emerging countries.
INASP responds to national priorities for:

• . Access to national and international scholarly information and knowledge
  . Capacities to use, create, manage and communicate scholarly information and knowledge via appropriate ICTs
  . National, regional and international co-operation, networking and knowledge exchange
• INASP also advises and advocate for improved policy and practice in achieving sustainable and equitable development through effective communication, knowledge and networks.
  
  

The meeting, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh was a good opportunity to re-align our thinking towards sustainability of our consortia.

The session on preparing grant proposals was enriching and worthwhile. To be sustainable we need to write grant proposals.

My major highlight of the meeting was case study presented by Cuba Country Coordinator. Too often librarians measure the impact of their service by the number of resources they make available to library users. The Cuba case study goes beyond to look at the contribution of resource subscribed to through INASP's PERii project contribute to socio-economic development. The study used scientometric and bibliometric analyses. By way of extension, it would be interesting to compare the attainment of MDGs and the level of utilisation of e-resources.

A visit to the National Monument was both a relaxer and an adventure. We were all socked in rain after avoiding it for some time.