By
Dr. Mboni A. Ruzegea
Head
Periodicals and E-Resources
Defining TEEAL
TEEAL stands for The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL). It is a
searchable, offline, digital library which gives access to thousands of peer
reviewed journals in agriculture and life related sciences. TEEAL is a project of Cornell University's Albert R. Mann Library in cooperation with over eighty major publishers, societies and index providers. The project is administered through Mann Library's Collection and Service Department in collaboration with Information Training and Outreach Center for Africa (ITOCA) in Centurion, South Africa to conduct awareness and training missions in Africa.
Accessibility
TEEAL is offline. You
can discover access and download full-text articles and abstracts without the
use of the Internet. It
contains a growing number of prestigious full-text journals (all in PDF ) from
leading publishers such as Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. You can access a wealth of information in the following
subjects:
Agricultural economics,
Agricultural engineering, Agroforestry, Biotechnology, Nutrition and Food
Sciences, Crop Science, Aquaculture, Entomology, Genetics and genomics, Horticulture,
Microbiology, Natural Resources, Phytopathology, Plant Breeding, Pest
control, Soil Science, Veterinary Medicine and Environment.
Ongoing TEEAL initiatives
at MUHAS Library
TEEAL project in Tanzania is under MUHAS Library. The project runs Training
of Trainers (TOT) workshops to create understanding about TEEAL resources and build
capacity of Tanzanian researchers, academicians, information professionals, librarians and students to discover access, utilize and promote TEEAL to improve their research
works and academic activities. The main objective is to equip trainees with skills and
knowledge in order to increase the quality and effectiveness of research and academic output within their institutions.
MUHAS Library has been conducting a
number of TEEAL workshops since 2012 . TEEAL
trainers present TEEAL resources alongside other Research4Life programs such as
AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in
Agriculture), ARDi (Access to Research for Development and Innovation), OARE (Online Access to Research in
the Environment) and the
AgriKnowldge. They also assist TEEAL beneficiaries (the institutions that
acquired TEEAL) to install the TEEAL set. To achieve cascading effect, the
MUHAS library TEEAL trainers ensure the conducting of TEEAL follow-up workshops
at all TEEAL institutions in the country and offer their help when necessary.
In this year 2016 so far, up to date, 6 TEEAL institutions were involved in the
trainings between January and August 2016, and more than 100 participants were
trained from those institutions namely Muhimbili University (MUHAS), University
of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Mikocheni Agricultural institute (MARI), and the Ministry
of Agriculture DRD in Dar es Salaam; Naliendele Agricultural institute in
Mtwara; Makutupora Agricultural Institute in Dodoma. Other institutions to be
reached before the end of this year include Ukiriguru Agricultural Research
Institute in Mwanza, Mwalimu Nyerere University and ARDHI University both in
Dar es Salaam.
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| Opening of TEEAL Workshop Training by Dr Omari Mponda (on black), Director at ARI Naliendele, Mtwara. |
ARI Naleindele Workshop Participants
TEEAL Updates and Ownership
New journals are sent to beneficiary institutions every year so that they are updated and get in touched with new developments and new contents with small amount of annual subscription fees. However, if for some reasons the institution cannot afford, they can still keep TEEAL contents as an asset for themselves with issues going all the way back to 1997. TEEAL offers ownership not just
access! Unlike the case of online journals where when you are disconnected to
the Internet you can no longer get ownership of the journal contents. Moreover, TEEAL is proved
to be of beneficial value to many researchers, academicians, students and
librarians particularly those residing in remote areas (away from cities) where
the Internet is not fast.
TEEAL and Fair Use
Policy
The issue of “fair use” in TEEAL is
related to intellectual property that is owned by publishers. Therefore, when
using TEEAL resources we must be vigilant of issues of ‘fair use’ or ‘fair
dealing’. TEEAL users are encouraged to always make use of fair use of contents
that is available in TEEAL. As a rule of thumb, a user is required to use 15%
of the journal issue and not to download the whole issue either for
repackaging, resell or commercial profit. You can use TEEAL contents for
educational purposes such as making lecture notes or writing thesis (citations)
and the like.
To access TEEAL click the link: http://teeal.muhas.ac.tz.
Do not forget to sign up by using your MUHAS email to be able to access the
database and download full text-PDF articles.
REFERENCES:
The Fair Use/Fair Dealing Handbook.
The Fair Use/Fair Dealing Handbook.
http://infojustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/band-and- gerafi- 2013.pdf
Stim, R. (2013). Getting Permission How to License & Clear Copyrighted Materials Online & Off. 5th Edition. http://www.nolo.com/products/getting-permission-riper.html
Stim, R. (2013). Getting Permission How to License & Clear Copyrighted Materials Online & Off. 5th Edition. http://www.nolo.com/products/getting-permission-riper.html
