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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.
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