Connecting Cameroon: Equity in Research Sharing through Open Access

Roseline Bawack

Funding Area: Critical shared infrastructure / Infraestructura compartida critica

Problem Statement: Cameroon has ten public universities, more than 100 private institutions of higher education, and approximately 700 laboratories. Unfortunately, none of Cameroon’s major universities currently provides comprehensive online access to their research output because they lack robust, open source digital repositories solutions (Bawack & Shafack, 2022). All institutions have online library catalogs for their print collections, but there is an urgent need to update their current systems to manage and disseminate digital content. It is unacceptable that in the information age, none of the ten public universities has an institutional repository, and neither do most of the private and research institutions in Cameroon. Across Cameroon, researchers are conducting groundbreaking research on topics that address local and global challenges. However, researchers cannot always participate in the global research network because their scholarship is unavailable online. The urgency and complexity of global challenges requires full participation by all researchers and global access to all research. Moreover, Cameroon’s own economic development is dependent on the creation of a strong higher education research network where research is openly shared.

Proposed Activities: Connecting Cameroon will work collaboratively with technical staff to build research-sharing infrastructure (using an open source solution, DSpace*) at the University of Yaoundé II and University of Buea in Cameroon's francophone and anglophone regions respectively. The launch of these two digital repositories will serve as a catalyst to engage stakeholders and funders to support the creation of much needed infrastructure across the rest of Cameroon. Hands-on training will be held at University of Yaoundé II and University of Buea. Participants from other universities will be invited to attend. There will not be any charge for attending, though participants will have to cover the cost of their travel. (A note regarding in-person vs. online training. From experience, we have learned that when training on technical implementation, in-person training is more effective than online. On a practical level due to connectivity issues, online multi-day training is extremely challenging and the ability to individually help each student is more effective in-person.) During this project, we will also work with next-generation librarians at the School of Library and Information Science at University of Yaoundé II to provide them with hands-on experience on a specific real-world project. After the infrastructure is launched, the Connecting Cameroon Program Manager will oversee an outreach campaign to all major universities and stakeholders in Cameroon and (through our pan-African partners and ADLSN Country Coordinators) across the continent. *DSpace is the standards-based, open source solution that is widely used and actively supported with regular code updates and upgrades. Resources Required Personnel Project Manager Technical Expert Ms. Bawack will serve as Project Manager responsible for overall project management, communications, logistics, and grant administration. Walusungu Simbeye will be responsible for training and supporting universities as they implement digital infrastructure. (ADLSN pays its staff as consultants) Other cost centers Schedule Month 1: Kickoff meeting. Month 2-3: Prepare training materials. Month 3: Conduct in-person, hands-on training. Month 5-10: University technical staff implement Dspace and upload content. Connecting Cameroon team provides support as needed. Month 11-12: Write final report.

Openness: The focus will be on using open source, standards-based software so that published content can be easily shared in OA aggregation services, such as Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Throughout the project, we will engage in outreach to ensure full attendance and also inspire others by sharing successes broadly. The Consortium of Cameroon Universities and Research Libraries (COCUREL) is well connected with higher education institutions across Cameroon, so they will partner with us to promote the project. Association of African Universities (AAU), African Union (AU), and Association for the Promotion of Open Science in Haiti and Francophone Africa (APSHOA) will also support our outreach efforts on a regional and pan-African level.

Challenges: We could face the challenge that researchers might not be willing to share their research output. The University of Buea has adopted an OA Policy so we can use that as leverage with researchers to support research sharing. Although University Yaoundé II does not have OA Policy now, they are engaged in OA advocacy and have been supporters of OA week activities. We will work with the administration to adopt an OA policy. To keep the cost of the budget lower, we did not include costs for local travel and for hardware. In Cameroon universities, there remains the challenge of lack of hardware, including laptops. If there were additional funds available, we would ask for the purchase of 2-3 laptops for each university. Cost of travel across Cameroon is expensive for the average university employee. In order to keep the costs lower, we have not included travel costs for staff who are not from the University of Yaoundé II and University of Buea. If we receive additional funding we could increase the number of attendees.

Neglectedness: We are not aware of funding sources that will fund digital repository infrastructure in Cameroon. We approached Google.org for funding and were told that funding digital repository infrastructure in higher education institutions was not a priority for them. We applied to the Mozilla foundation for funding. We did not receive funding because of their requirement that the grant recipient organization be registered in Africa. ADLSN is currently registered in the Netherlands.

Success: ​At the end of the project, two universities will have upgraded infrastructure used by researchers to share their research output. Staff from other universities who attended the training will also be trained and able to upgrade their current library systems. After our outreach campaign, we will have other universities in Cameroon and across the continent interested to implement similar infrastructure. We will also have attracted the attention of external and internal government funders to provide the resources to expand the efforts to other universities in Cameroon (and elsewhere).

Total Budget: $10,962

Affiliations: African Digital Library Support Network (ADLSN) is uniquely suited to take on and succeed at this project. ADLSN’s team brings a range and depth of expertise as well as the connections to tap into its larger network across Africa. All ADLSN country coordinators live in Africa. All ADLSN projects and partners are in Africa. ADLSN’s projects have been focused on improving access to knowledge of African-created content. Some of our projects include: Building an information management solution for South Africa Sugarcane Research Institute. Conducting training events in Ghana and Ethiopia for how to build open source solutions. Building repositories for universities across Ethiopia, which led to the creation of the National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia (NADR). (https://nadre.ethernet.edu.et/) Implementing a knowledge management system for the Rwandan government. In partnership with KIT Royal Tropical Institute, conducting a study on building a Knowledge Platform for East Africa Community (EAC). Defining and implementing improvements for the African Union archive platform for its member states. We have already done the legwork to secure partnerships with key stakeholders that will help to make Connecting Cameroon a success. We have secured memoranda of understanding (MOU) and letters of interest from pan-African, regional, and national stakeholder organizations, including: Association of African Universities. African Union’s Cameroon Regional Office. Association for the Promotion of Open Science in Haiti and Francophone Africa (APSOHA), an organization focused on the promotion of open science. Consortium of Cameroon Universities and Research Libraries (COCUREL), a non-profit organization authorized by the Cameroon Ministry of Higher Education. The Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Yaoundé II. International Centre for Research and Documentation on Traditions and African Languages (CERDOTOLA).

LMIE Carveout: Our Connecting Cameroon project fits within the LMIE carveout. The Project Manager for Connecting Cameroon project team lives and works in Cameroon. The technical expert lives and works in Malawi. All participants will be from Cameroon and all training sessions will take place in Cameroon.

Team Skills: Roseline Bawack will be responsible for project management. Ms. Bawack is ADLSN’s Cameroon Country Coordinator and a Librarian and Lecturer at the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Yaoundé II, Catholic University of Central Africa and Protestant University of Central Africa. The project technical expert will be Walusungu Simbeye, ADLSN’s Malawi Country Coordinator. Mr. Simbeye has 7+ years of web development experience building database-driven interfaces. As Senior Web Developer at ADLSN, Walusungu designs and builds websites and other online applications specializing in open source information management solutions, including Koha and DSpace.

Submission Number: 70