Using the search engines and electronic resources for professional purposes

Information & Communication Technology ( ICT ) has made a great impact in every discipline. The availability of scholarly publications through electronic media or Internet has a greater impact on information requirements of the researchers. Technology has changed users expectations, their patience and their willingness to accept services that the LIC provides only at its own convenience. With the emerging phenomenon of ICT, the areas of education & research have made significant changes. The by-product of these technologies is the Internet & World Wide Web (WWW), which is variously used for different purposes. Internet is being widely used for Education & Research. Internet has become an effective tool for teaching & learning. Its role appears to be of paramount importance especially in the field of knowledge generation. Internet not only offers interesting sites to acquire information, but also provides with tools for acquiring knowledge.

Knowledge and use of electronic information resources by medical sciences

Today's users have their information needs met via a number of options. They need not come physically to the library to use print formats but can stay at home or the office and access online library resources and services via networks or authentication methods at any time.

Medical information should be accessible, authoritative, reliable, accurate, and timely. Due to the needs of medical professionals for high-quality information, medical libraries have been early adopters of electronic resources to provide information and services.

Electronic resources have exploded in popularity and use. They can and do enable innovation in teaching, and they increase timeliness in research as well as increase discovery and creation of new fields of inquiry [1]. Other reasons for medical faculty to use e-resources include relating to increasingly computer-literate students and keeping up to date in their fields. The latter is essential for those with clinical practice as more of their clients use e-resources to keep informed about health information.

Lecture № 15.

Subject: Information and communication technologies for development

1. Theoretical background

2. ICT access and use

3. Applications

Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) refers to the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) toward the social, economic, and political development, with a particular emphasis on helping poor and marginalized people and communities. It aims to help in international development by bridging the digital divide and providing equitable access to technologies. ICT4D is grounded in the notions of "development", "growth", "progress" and "globalization" and is often interpreted as the use of technology to deliver a greater good. Another similar term used in the literature is "digital development". ICT4D draws on theories and frameworks from many disciplines, including sociology, economics, development studies, library and information science, and communication studies.

ICT4D grew out of the attempts to use emerging computing technologies to improve conditions in the developing countries. It formalized through a series of reports, conferences, and funding initiatives that acted as key policy-making avenues: the 1998 World Development Report from the World Bank, highlighting the role of knowledge and ICTs in development; a report from the G8 Digital Opportunities Task Force, concluding that ICTs play a key role in modern human development, the World Summits on the Information Society held in Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in 2005.

At least three phases can be identified in ICT4D evolution:

ICT4D 0.0: mid-1950s to late-1990s. The focus of this earliest phase was on the use of IT (not ICT) in government and private sector organizations in developing countries. One of the earliest computers used in a developing country was a HEC machine installed in 1956 to undertake numerical calculations in the Indian Institute of Statistics in Kolkata.

ICT4D 1.0: late-1990s to late-2000s. The advent of the Millennium Development Goals combined with the rise and spread of the Internet in industrialized countries led to a rapid increase in investments in ICT infrastructure and projects in developing countries. The most typical application was the telecentre, used to bring information on development issues such as health, education, and agricultural extension, into poor communities. Later, telecentres were also used to deliver government services.

ICT4D 2.0: late-2000s onwards. There is no clear boundary between phases 1.0 and 2.0. The focus in the phase 2.0 increasingly shifts toward technologies in use, such as the mobile phone and SMStechnologies. There is less concern with e-readiness and more interest in the impact of ICTs on development. Additionally, there is more focus on the poor as producers and innovators with ICTs (as opposed to being consumers of ICT-based information). ICT4D 2.0 is about reframing the poor. Where ICT4D 1.0 marginalised them, allowing a supply-driven focus, ICT4D 2.0 centralises them, creating a demand-driven focus. Where ICT4D 1.0 –- fortified by the "bottom of the pyramid" concept –- characterized them largely as passive consumers, ICT4D 2.0 sees the poor as active producers and active innovators.

According to Carlota Perez: "this quantum jump in productivity can be seen as a technological revolution, which is made possible by the appearance in the general cost structure of a particular input that we could call the 'key factor', fulfilling the following conditions: (1) clearly perceived low-and descending-relative cost; (2) unlimited supply for all practical purposes; (3) potential all-pervasiveness; (4) a capacity to reduce the costs of capital, labour and products as well as to change them qualitatively". Information and Communication Technology is expected to fulfill these requirements and bring socio-economic and political transformation which result in a modern and developed society. This type of society is often referred to as the post-industrial society, the fifth Kondratiev, Information society, digital age and network society.

The major goal of ICT for Development is to utilize the benefits of technology for social transformation for goods. The major goal of ICT for Development is to utilize the benefits of technology for social transformation for goods. Previously when such social transformations took place (e.g. industrial revolution), the result was derived from a combined effect of a powerful technology and effective policy and strategy. In the case of ICT4D, this three-dimensional interplay has been depicted as a cube. In line with the Schumpeterian school of thought, the first enabling factor for the associated socio-economic transformations is the existence of technological infrastructure: hardware infrastructure and generic software services. Additionally, capacity and knowledge are the human requirements to make use of these technologies. These foundations (horizontal green dimension in Figure) are the basis for the digitization of information flows and communication mechanisms in different sectors of society. When part of the information flows and communication processes in these sectors are carried out in e-lectronic networks, the prefix "e-" is often added to the sector's name, resulting in e-government, e-business and e-commerce, e-health, and e-learning, etc. (vertical blue dimension in Figure). This process of transformation represent the basic requirements and building blocks, but they are not sufficient for development. The mere existence of technology is not enough to achieve positive outcomes (no technological determinism). ICT for Development policies and projects are aimed at the promotion of normatively desired outcomes of this transformation, the minimization of negative effects, and the removal of eventual bottlenecks. In essence, there are two kinds of interventions: positive feedback (incentives, projects, financing, subsidies, etc. that accentuate existing opportunities); and negative feedback (regulation and legislation, etc.) that limit and tame negative developments (diagonal yellow-red dimension in Figure).

ICT development includes many types of infrastructure and services, ranging from telecommunications, such as voice, data, and media services, to specific applications, such as banking, education, or health, to the implementation of electronic government (e-government). Each of these types has its own trends that vary across countries and regions.

One of the most positive trends has been observed in voice communications. Thus, the proportion of mobile phone subscriptions in developing countries increased from about 30 percent of the world total in 2000 to more than 50 percent in 2004 and to almost 70 percent in 2007. In India, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions reached 851.70 million in June 2011, among which 289.57 million came from rural areas, with a higher percentage of increase than that in urban areas. Only about 35 percent of the population in developing countries has access to the Internet (versus about 80 percent in advanced economies).

Access to ICTs in the developing world has been framed through the concepts of digital divide and use / non-use. Market liberalization and competition as well as various regulatory and technical solutions are believed to be useful in closing the digital divide and ensuring the universal access to ICTs. The general perception is that people who have access to ICT will benefit from it, and those who don’t would not^]. Benefits include boundless information sharing, connectivity, participation in the global economy. The use of mobile phones as part of ICT4D initiatives shows some positive effects in improving access to information and services. For example, the arrival of mobiles brought reduction in the variability of price and the amount of waste in the fishing system along the Kerala coast, India. A study in Kenya identified innovation in mobile technologies for development, in particular the success of M-PESA mobile banking through the partnerships between private and public sectors. Another analysis of mobile phone use in developing countries shows that the use of mobile phones improves access to information, helps to address market inefficiencies, and can be used in disaster relief. In contrast, evidence from Ethiopia suggests that farmers use mobile phones to connect to those who are already in their social network, which limits the usability of mobile phones for wider information sharing and change in practices. Those who don’t have access to technology run the risk of being marginalized and bypassed.

Agriculture

Farmers in the developing countries use ICTs to access price information from national and international markets as well as connect to policy makers and other farmers. There are also smartphone apps that can show you information about the status of your crops and irrigation system remotely. In livestock farming, cattle-breeding now includes scientific crossbreeding techniques that produce cattle with greatly improved fertility. Having a local radio/TV show will be a great help in informing the community on updates from the agricultural sector. ICTs can also be used for training purposes^].

For an experimental assessment of the role of mobile phones for farmers' access to agricultural information from extension agents and from other farmers see a recent article.

ICT4D initiatives in agriculture can be generally classified into direct interventions, when farmers are connected to information and opportunities that can directly improve their income or wellbeing, and indirect interventions – supportive, long-term programs that can improve established agricultural services over time through capacity building, research, and training.

In the advent of ICT it offers new opportunities to support development of the rural livelihoods. It strengthens the production and increased market coordination which are the main processes that can contribute to the future opportunity of the sector and create income for the people that depend on it.