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INRA's new online resource will help African researchers keep abreast of latest advances.

UNU Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) has developed a new Internet resource to help African scientists, academics and students to find information about new natural resource technologies.

This follows an institutional capacity assessment conducted by UNU-INRA at 35 universities and research institutions in 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The study exposed serious problems in access to literature and databases among scholars and scientists working on natural resource management and conservation.

Promising African scientists and scholars are disadvantaged and become discouraged because of their inability to link with the wider scientific community and stay abreast of research methods and findings in their fields.

The new UNU-INRA online subject guide on literature and database resources is designed to reduce this academic isolation. The guide contains subject-specific information, databases, bibliographies, library catalogues, journal indexes, current awareness tools and full texts of literature. It also includes a guide to help African research scientists and scholars navigate through what is available on the Internet.

The following subject guide resources are available:

1. Soil fertility restoration and maintenance; biodiversity conservation and genetic improvement of indigenous African crops and useful plants.
2. Interface between item 1 and food security.
3. Details of each source of  literature/database/information, how to search it, links to other relevant addresses.
4. Information on how to obtain a full text and the references.

The guide is also available on CD for those with limited access to the Internet.

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