Forestry Research Institute of Ghana's Library
The Forestry Research Institute of Ghana’s library was established as an information centre to support research activities of the institute. The Library's mission is to build a comprehensive collection of recorded information on forestry and forest related disciplines, and to make its resources available and useful to students, lecturers, scientists and the general public. It is also aimed at ensuring that these resources are sustained and preserved for future generations. The Vision of the Library is to become an excellent repository of recorded knowledge on forestry and to provide useful and timely information for effective teaching, learning and research.
In line with this, the office of the Librarian is tasked to set policies and to direct and support programmes and activities to accomplish the Library's mission. Staff of the library in collaboration with management and scientists is responsible for acquiring relevant information resources (books, journals, maps, e-resources etc) to stock the centre. Technical processing of resources such as Accessioning, Cataloguing, Filling and Shelving are done by the library staff. Staff of the library is also responsible for making materials at the centre accessible to users, maintain and preserve the resources, and direct clients to relevant resources at the centre.
Currently the library is housed at the top floor of the administrative block of the institute. It has a book stock of about 6,000 and subscribes to about 20 journal titles and many online journal articles including those provided by AGORA and EBSCOHOST. Since the year 2000, the library has gradually moved away from the use of manual cataloguing system to library automation using computer based cataloguing software known as ADLIB. The library has been able to catalogue over 4000 books and 700 journal articles of its collections using the ADLIB software. A local database on Ghana Forestry Bibliography has been developed and hosted on the institute’s Intranet. The database is being used extensively by students and researchers. The library is now gradually moving away from its traditional role as books and journal repository to that of a Forestry Information Centre where all kinds of information resources are employed to address clients’ queries. As a result of this new focus, patronage of the library’s services has increased considerably in recent years.
Proactive services such as the distribution of Journal Content List and Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) services continue to be provided for users. CD-ROM searches using databases such as FOREST SCIENCE CD, formerly called TREE CD, PROSPECTS, WOODS OF THE WORLD, FORESTRY COMPENDIUM, etc are used extensively for literature searches to support teaching and research. The library continues to provide Internet as well as e-mail services to users at a reduced cost. Over 500 students and lecturers from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology register annually with the library to enable them use the services of the library.
The library has deepened its linkages with international institutions and organization such as Oxford University, University of Aberdeen, and University of Arizona School of Forestry, International Tropical Timber Organization and others for the purpose of sharing information. The library plays host to many local as well as international Networks. Among them are the Forestry Information Network (FIN), Environmental Information Network (EIN) and the Global Forestry Information Services (GFIS).
The library is responsible for the publication of the Institute’s Annual Reports, Newsletters, flyers, Technical Notes and Bulletins as well as the Ghana Journal of Forestry (an international journal of repute in forest sciences). The publications mentioned above have wide range of information on Forest Management, Plantation Development, Processing and Utilization of Forest Products, Forest Policy and Socio-Economics as well as Non-Timber Forest Products.