March 31, 1997

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences OnLine at Michigan State University has received a $135,000 grant from the United States Information agency to train West African scholars and librarians in the pedagogical and research uses of the Internet. The project entitled "West African University Development: Solving the Problem of Communication through the Internet," will bring a select group of scholars and librarians from Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Senegal to the United States over the next two years. Participants will spend three weeks at Michigan State where they will participate in intensive workshops on the uses of the Internet and one week in Washington DC where they will participate in seminars at Howard University and the Library of Congress.

H-Net is partnering with the African Studies Center at Michigan State University in directing this project which involves close collaboration with the West African Research Association (WARA) based at Howard University and the West African Research Center (WARC) headquartered in Dakar . The first American overseas research center in Sub-Saharan Africa, WARC, is developing branches and projects throughout West Africa.

The project is directed by Professor David Robinson, Professor of History at Michigan State and Vice-President of WARA and Professor Mark Kornbluh, Assistant Professor of History at Michigan State and Chair, H-Net Executive Committee. The goal of the project is to facilitate the use of the Internet by West African scholars. To this end, H-Net and Michigan State will provide intensive training and support for key personnel at various West African Universities who will then serve as trainers for faculty, graduate students, and staff at their home institutions. A team of faculty from Michigan State will travel through West Africa in 1998 following up on the training done here and help establish on-site training programs.

Professor Kornbluh explains that "the growth of the Internet and its potential to enhance both research and teaching presents exciting new opportunities for African higher education. Our hope is that creative use of the Internet can help compensate for the relative paucity of library resources and other research and teaching materials at these universities and also enable scholars and students from Africa to participate more fully in an increasingly international world of scholarship. With H-Net, many African scholars are already in daily contact with their counterparts in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world. This project goes a step further by involving Michigan State and H-Net directly in the training of West Africans to take advantage of the new opportunities that the Internet provides."

"West African University Development: Solving the Problem of Communication through the Internet," is a pilot project that H-Net hopes will serve as a model for further training programs throughout Africa.

For more information, contact H-Net at 517-355-9300.