In mid-December, four Cornell librarians and information technologists conferred with some 65 counterparts from India and Africa in India at a workshop on information literacy. One outcome of the trip is that librarians from India will come to Cornell to enhance their information linkages and knowledge.

"Management of e-journals and e-databases brings new challenges to library and information professionals at Cornell and universities in India," said Mary Ochs, director of Mann Library who was on the trip to Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India.

The workshop, "Strengthening the Academic Library to Enhance Agriculture Education," focused on e-resource collection development, digitization of library collections, information literacy, library public computing and support for e-learning.

"In the 21st century, India's food security will depend on access to agricultural information, but electronic resources will be of no value if they are not used," said Ajay K. Srivastava, chief university librarian at BHU.

Since April 2011, Srivastava and Ochs have been developing a plan to help support libraries in the institutions in the consortium Agricultural Innovation Partnership (AIP), which sponsored the workshop; Cornell is the lead partner in the consortium.

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