HINARI-AGORA-OARE - Long Term Future

[Kimberly Parker <kimberly.parker@yale.edu>]

Posting on behalf of Maurice Long.

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*Apologies for cross-posting*

THE LONG TERM FUTURE OF HINARI, AGORA AND OARE

Representatives from a large number of publishers met with their 
colleagues from the FAO, WHO and UNEP, Yale and Cornell Libraries 
and other partner organizations at the National Academy of 
Sciences in Washington for the annual HINARI-AGORA-OARE Partners 
meeting on July 20th 2006.  A major theme of the meeting was to 
consider the results of two specially commissioned independent 
reviews of the current status of the HINARI and AGORA programmes, 
five years after the launch of the first programme, and to decide 
upon their longer term future.

I am delighted to report that the partners accepted the 
recommendation of both Reviews that HINARI, AGORA and the soon to 
be launched OARE programme should be continued at least to meet 
the time scale of the United Nations' Millennium Development 
Goals. This means that the partners, under the present terms of 
participation, have made a commitment to continue and develop the 
programmes at least until 2015. In this, they will seek increased 
participation from users, librarians and information specialists 
in the beneficiary countries.

The Reviews, funded largely with a grant from the UK's Department 
for International Development, looked at user feedback, publisher 
experiences, training and infrastructure issues, five years after 
HINARI first launched.  The reviews were conducted by John Scott 
(Center for Public Service Communication, Arlington, USA) and 
Mark Ware (Mark Ware Consulting Ltd, Bristol, UK).  Other 
recommendations which came from the Reviews, and which we will be 
following up on, included the need for improved authentication 
processes which would make it easier for users to access the 
3,600+ journals from almost 100 international publishers in the 
HINARI and AGORA catalogues, the need for increased training and 
promotion, and a more formal organization structure.

KEY DECISIONS OF THE PARTNERS MEETING:

* The Partners accepted the recommendations of the Usage and 
Infrastructure (Partners) Reviews.

* HINARI-AGORA-OARE will continue and will be linked to the time 
scale of the UN's Millennium Development Goals, with a review 
date of 2015.

* Guidelines for publishers to participate in HINARI-AGORA-OARE 
will continue as present.

* The partners will develop a long term Strategic Plan.

* AGORA Phase 2 (access for countries with a GNP between $1001 
and $3000) will launch in September 2006.

* It is planned that OARE (Online Access to Research in the 
Environment) will be launched in October 2006.

* The partners will continue to seek support funds for training, 
outreach and other programme related activities.

* Access will continue to be free to more than 2,100 institutions 
in 69 of the least developed countries

* The publishers will continue to remit all access fees ($1000 
per institution) from 44 "Phase 2" countries to WHO and FAO for 
training and outreach in order to increase usage of the 
programmes.

Maurice Long

Publisher Coordinator, HINARI-AGORA-OARE
International Association of STM Publishers
344 - 354 Grays Inn Road
London EC1X 8BP
long@stm.nl