TEEAL and AGORA: Improving Access to
Agricultural Journals in Low-Income Countries
Olivia Vent
The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) and Access to Global Online
Research in Agriculture (AGORA) are programs that will provide low-income
countries with access to agricultural journal literature that advances their
agricultural research and education objectives. Developed by Cornell University’s
Mann Library and launched in 1999, TEEAL is a self-contained agricultural research
library with full-text articles and graphics of 140 major journals related to
agriculture from 1993 through 2003, stored and indexed on over 400 CD-ROMs.
In mid-2005, most of the collection also became available for use over local area
networks. Launched in October 2003, AGORA is an Internet-based journal delivery
system led by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with Mann Library
as a principal partner. AGORA offers almost 800 journals from twenty-seven
international publishers to 113 low-income countries and territories for free or a
nominal fee. Serials Review 2005; 31:266–269.
D 2005 Published by Elsevier Inc.
TEEAL
institutions, almost 80 percent indicated that being able
to access the journals in TEEAL had improved the
quality of their research and their productivity.
To create the TEEAL collection of journals, titles were
first selected by citation analysis and then reviewed by
scholars from all over the world to identify the journals
that were of fundamental importance to developing
countries. Then the publishers, which included societies
and commercial publishers, had to be approached to
grant copyright permission for the journals to be
included. Initially, twenty-three prestigious international
publishers agreed to contribute 120 journals. Currently,
sixty-eight publishers are contributing 140 journals.
For the very first TEEAL set, issues published from
1993 to 1996 were scanned and stored on compact
discs, then the most durable and easy-to-use medium for
use with standard microcomputers. The product could
not require Internet access, which was only rarely
available in most low-income countries at the time.
TEEAL includes a powerful search-and-retrieval software that makes it easy for students and researchers to
find and read complete articles. A TEEAL user sitting at
a standard personal computer (PC) uses the index to
locate a journal issue, information on a specific subject,
or articles by an author. The TEEAL system retrieves the
abstract(s) and directs the investigator to the compact
disc containing the full-text article. The designated disc
Its Beginnings and Expansion
In 1998, Cornell University’s Albert R. Mann Library
and the Rockefeller Foundation initiated a partnership
that resulted in a groundbreaking information product:
The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library, or
TEEAL. This electronic library, stored on compact discs,
contains the full text of 140 agricultural journals,
complete with all graphics and illustrations. Designed
to support agricultural research in regions where there is
an urgent need for increased food production, TEEAL is
available to 108 of the lowest income food-deficit
countries (as listed in the World Bank’s World Development Report).
In the Cornell Chronicle (February 5, 1998), Dr.
Robert Herdt, then Senior Agricultural Officer at the
Rockefeller Foundation, predicted, bThis project has the
ability to change the quality of research and instruction
in developing countries more than almost any other
project.Q Dr. Herdt’s prediction proved to be accurate. In
a 2004 survey of 1,000 TEEAL users at sixteen
Vent is TEEAL/AGORA Outreach Coordinator, Albert R.
Mann Library, Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-4301,
USA; e-mail: [email protected].
0098-7913/$–see front matter D 2005 Published by Elsevier Inc.
doi:10.1016/j.serrev.2005.09.009
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TEEAL and AGORA
then has to be inserted into the computer’s compact disc
drive so that the article can be read from the screen or
printed on a local printer. The recently released local
area network (LAN) version of TEEAL eliminates the
need to swap discs in order to view the full-text articles.
Initial plans called for TEEAL to be offered for about
eight years, with annual updates being produced through
2006. After that, advances in information technology
would require different delivery strategies. In January
1999, the University of Zimbabwe purchased the first
TEEAL set. Since then, 100 TEEAL CD sets have been
acquired by institutions in forty-nine countries in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America. About half of the sets are in
Africa. Even though TEEAL was priced to cover only the
cost of production, and that price represents a small
fraction of what it would cost to subscribe to the
journals, the price has generally still been more than
most libraries in eligible countries can afford. So,
external donors like the World Bank, Rockefeller
Foundation, USAID, Technical Centre for Agricultural
and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in the Netherlands, and
others have provided funding. Recent technological
advances have allowed TEEAL to reduce production
costs, so the current price for TEEAL is significantly
lower than in the early phases of production.
A key feature of the TEEAL strategy has been
outreach and training. A two-person office was opened
in Harare in 1999 to familiarize eligible African
institutions with TEEAL, conduct training workshops
and help interested institutions in writing grants to
purchase TEEAL sets. Since 1999, the TEEAL Africa
Office has been involved in placing TEEAL sets in Africa
and training over 800 librarians, information specialists,
and researchers. The office has been extremely successful in creating a loose network of contacts at libraries
and information centers at major agricultural universities and national agricultural research institutes
throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This infrastructure
now makes training in AGORA and HINARI (the
health portal counterpart to AGORA described later)
in Africa much easier than before its creation.
users responded that they would use TEEAL more if
they had better access. Data from the survey showed
that use of TEEAL would increase dramatically if
constraints, such as restricted hours of use, not enough
computers and printers, and expensive printing
charges, were addressed. Most TEEAL sets are housed
in a library or information resource center. Often the
discs containing the full-text articles are kept under
lock and key, and only the librarians can retrieve them
for users.
The study further confirms that access to the Internet
continues to be limited both on university campuses and
at research institutes in Africa. Thus, until Internet
technology is more widely available and affordable,
Web-based programs to deliver scientific literature need
to be complemented with more reliable and more easily
accessible systems like TEEAL.
New Developments
To create a bridge between online programs and the less
convenient delivery of information via CDs, TEEAL has
produced a version that can be operated on local area
networks, greatly improving the accessibility of TEEAL
journals. In the summer of 2005, Mann Library
introduced LanTEEAL, condensing eleven years of
journal literature (1993–2003), or 2.5 million pages
valued at over $1 million in subscription fees, onto one
external drive that can be uploaded to a server and used
by researchers and students directly from their computers over a local area network.
Zimbabwe’s Africa University was once again the
venue for the recent launch of LanTEEAL. In his
introductory remarks at the launch, which included
twenty-five librarians and researchers from around
Zimbabwe, Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof. Mphuru
noted that LanTEEAL bcomes at a very good time in
view of the large group of funded Agriculture postgraduate students expected in August.Q Prof. Mphuru
referred to the university’s plans to introduce several
PhD programs in agriculture this summer and commented, bAs such, one is now able to do a full literature
review from a PC anywhere within the university
network. It is our hope that this development will
further boost the quality of the students produced by the
institution, as the library is pacing-up in the provision of
quality up to-date information.Q
Mr. Munasirei, a lecturer in the Faculty of Agriculture
and Natural Resources, echoed these sentiments. He
said the fact that the CDs were always locked in the
multimedia room was inconvenient because sometimes
he works during weekends when the library is closed.
With LanTEEAL he added that bcommitted students
and lecturers will now excel in their work.Q
TEEAL User Study
The TEEAL User Study conducted in 2004 by Mann
Library, with funding support from the Rockefeller
Foundation, demonstrated quantitatively and qualitatively the value of improving researchers’ and students’
access to scientific literature (See Figure 1).
The survey and interviews yielded many testimonials,
such as this one from an MSc student in Agricultural
Economics at Bunda College in Malawi: bIf I am looking
for literature, I go to TEEAL first.Q Some researchers in
Vietnam shared the following experience: bSometimes we
replicate experiments we read in TEEAL articles, maybe
changing some aspects of the original experiment. TEEAL
is being very useful in preparing our literature reviews.
Now we are preparing more articles for publication.Q
The survey also yielded interesting insights into
ongoing challenges that institutions face in making
TEEAL widely available to users. Fully 90 percent of
AGORA
Its Leadership and Partners
Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture
(AGORA) builds on the success of TEEAL and the
revolution in information technology that has been
267
Olivia Vent
Serials Review
taking place since TEEAL was developed and launched.
AGORA, which is led by the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), is a sister program to Health
InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI).
HINARI, developed by the World Health Organization,
is an InterNet portal providing access to almost 3,000
journals in the medical and health sciences. The two
United Nations (UN) agencies each have a major
academic partner. In the case of AGORA, the partner
is Mann Library at Cornell University, with its long
tradition of expertise in agricultural and environmental
sciences and experience with TEEAL. At FAO, AGORA
is among the programs included in the WAICENT
initiative (World Agricultural Information Centre Portal), which seeks to promote improved exchange of
information to and from developing countries. A loose
partnership group consisting of representatives of the
UN agencies, the participating publishers, and universities and other program partners comprise the steering
group for AGORA and HINARI.
Elsevier, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Nature Publishing Group, Oxford
University Press, Springer-Verlag, and John Wiley and
Sons.
Anyone can browse the AGORA collection of journal
titles and publishers, arriving at the level of article
abstracts. To be able to retrieve full-text articles,
however, potential users are required to register with
FAO, and access is password controlled. There are sixtynine countries eligible for free access based on an annual
per capita Gross National Income (GNI) of US$1,000 or
less on December 31, 2000. Institutions that are eligible
for AGORA are public sector not-for-profit agencies
and research institutes, universities, and educational
institutions. Once an institution is registered, everyone
affiliated with the organization can log on and download complete articles from AGORA.
AGORA functions as a portal with direct links to the
journals at the publishers’ sites. Through the courtesy of
CAB Abstracts, AGORA users can carry out advanced
searches for subjects, authors, keywords, and titles.
As of May 2005, 460 institutions in fifty-five
countries were registered for AGORA. In Africa, most
eligible national agricultural research institutes (NARS)
and major universities are now registered for AGORA.
The top seven countries with the most institutions
registered for AGORA are as follows: Nigeria (48), Viet
Nam (38), Tanzania (35), Ghana (23), Kenya and
Bangladesh (both 21), and Moldova (20). About
20,000 PDF articles are downloaded from the AGORA
site every month.
Its Beginnings and Access
AGORA, which was launched in October 2003, is a Webbased [www.aginternetwork.org] initiative to provide
improved access to major scientific journals in agriculture
and related biological, environmental and social sciences
to public institutions in developing countries. The goal of
AGORA is to increase the quality and effectiveness of
agricultural research, education, and training in lowincome countries, and, in turn, to improve food security.
Through AGORA, researchers, policymakers, educators,
students, technical workers, and extension specialists will
have access to high quality, relevant, and timely agricultural information via the Internet.
AGORA presently includes over 750 journals from
twenty-seven participating publishers. Founding publishers include Blackwell Publishing, CABI Publishing,
Recent Initiatives
AGORA, like TEEAL, is putting strong emphasis on
training. With generous support from CTA, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the UK Department for International Development, the former TEEAL Africa Office
Figure 1. General Satisfaction with TEEAL Registered by TEEAL Users Surveyed.
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TEEAL and AGORA
has been coordinating national training workshops for
AGORA and HINARI since April 2004. Collaboration
across the health and agriculture sectors is more
complicated to organize but has been highly successful.
National workshops have been held in Zimbabwe,
Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, and Ghana
and are scheduled for later this year in Ethiopia and the
Great Lakes region of Central Africa. The workshop in
Ghana will also be carried out in collaboration with The
Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information/ International Network for the Availability of
Scientific Publications (PERI/INASP). The workshops
average about three to four days and focus on training
trainers in order to ensure maximum impact at participating institutions. Bandwidth constraints continue to
plague most African institutions, but there is a definite
trend in increased use of AGORA, especially as the
training has an impact.
In October 2006, AGORA is expected to launch a
Phase 2. Under Phase 2, an additional forty-four
countries will become eligible to register for AGORA
for the nominal fee of $1,000 per institution per year.
These are countries in a slightly higher income bracket,
with an annual per capita GNI of $1,000–3,000.
Regions expected to be most affected are Latin
America, North Africa, and the Middle East. When
HINARI launched its Phase 2 in January 2003, there
was a significant increase in usage. This generally
reflects better connectivity and more advanced IT
infrastructure in those countries compared with Phase
1 countries and the fact that users are more experienced
with using information resources on the Internet. On
average, the number of articles downloaded by Phase 1
countries is about a third of the number downloaded by
Phase 2 countries. In July 2005, about 200,000 articles
in PDF format (some articles are in HTML format)
were downloaded from the HINARI site by Phase 2
countries.
For more information about TEEAL and LanTEEAL,
please visit www.teeal.org or contact Nicole Joos,
TEEAL Project Manager ([email protected]). The
TEEAL User Study is posted at the TEEAL Web site.
For AGORA, visit the Web site (www.aginternetwork.
org) or email [email protected] (Fig. 1).
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