In an experimental program, the IEEE is working with schools in five sub-Saharan African countries to help them access the IEEE/IET Electronic Library (IEL) at substantially reduced rates. The IEEE makes such arrangements to provide a means for schools that cannot afford their own IEL subscriptions.

The African initiative, which started late last year, is still signing up colleges and universities in five countries: Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Participation currently ranges from three schools (in Rwanda) to 17 (in Kenya).

The reduced pricing makes sense in Africa because the number of participating schools can be small and because few of them have sufficiently fast hardware and Internet connectivity to put a significant load on the IEL’s resources, according to Karen L. Hawkins, IEEE director of publication and information marketing, in Piscataway, N.J.

The IEL database contains more than a million documents—periodicals, conference proceedings, and standards from the IEEE, and periodicals and conference proceedings from the (British) Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), which comprise the former Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Institution of Incorporated Engineers.

THIRD-PARTY HELP Key to making the African program a reality were the efforts of the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications, a charitable organization in Oxford, England. The INASP was founded in 1992 with the mission of enabling worldwide access to information with emphasis on the needs of developing countries. It is an interdisciplinary body of the International Council for Science, which is headquartered in Paris.

The INASP negotiated the arrangements with representatives of the African countries, mostly librarians at large technical universities, acting as an intermediary between them and the IEEE and IET. The organization is also subsidizing the program, but according to INASP spokeswoman Lucy Barton, the hope is that the subsidies will be needed for only a short time.