What were the obstacles that had to be overcome?

Anna Stockman: First, let me say that not all of the obstacles have been overcome. The remaining ones include some that are purely technical, such as insufficient or badly managed bandwidth, equipment in short supply, and power failures.

Another type of obstacle is those related to attitudes. New technology is not always easily accepted by users and library staff. Users may have found their own way to retrieve information and could be reluctant to learn new ways. Library staff has to be convinced to work with new tools, which means more work for them but hopefully it also means greater user satisfaction.

What can others learn from your experience?

Anna Stockman: When you start to supply digital resources, I would say - in a few words - that it's important for the library to:

• create awareness (both among users, university management, and library staff)
• promote resources and create alliances with -œdigital friendly- groups and individuals
• have good contacts with the responsible ICT staff
• keep up the databases and the links on a user-friendly website
• constantly train users and library staff

How do you see the role of libraries as access providers to digital resources and distributed expertise in Africa?

Anna Stockman: Libraries have a long history of making resources available to the users. Scarce materials and minimal budgets have been used in this way for the benefit of many rather than a few. The libraries used to provide print resources, but nowadays, digital resources are just as important or even more important. Making these resources available for as many as possible is a question of having a democratic attitude towards information.

What did you personally learn from your work with the National University of Rwanda?

Anna Stockman: Working with the National University of Rwanda (NUR) has been very rewarding for me. The enthusiasm and skills of many of the people working at the University have impressed and inspired me. On the other hand, I have also realized that I really can't take my own experiences at my Swedish university library and expect them to translate entirely to the situation in Rwanda.

I'm used to a less hierarchical organization, and I had to learn to be more patient. During the course of our cooperation, I have increasingly come to appreciate the importance of team building and knowledge sharing.

Could you please give us a brief description of the Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI)?

Anna Stockman: PERI - the Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information, is one of the programs run by INASP - a charity formalized as an Interdisciplinary body of the International Council for Science (ICSU).

INASP has helped Rwanda to negotiate with providers of electronic journals to get access to journals from Blackwell, Cambridge journals, Emerald, IEEE, JSTOR, etc. According to the agreements, these resources are available to anyone in an educational, research, or non-profit environment in the entire country.

The objectives of PERI are to:

• facilitate the acquisition of international and local information and knowledge;
• improve access to local research through the improved preparation, production, and management of local journals;
• provide awareness or training in the use, evaluation, and management of electronic information and communication technologies (ICTs);
• support problem-solving in regard to regional and local information access and dissemination challenges

Training in areas relating to these objectives is a very important part of the work done within PERI.