In August and September of 2016, Projet Équateur worked with the Higher Institute of Rural Development Mbandaka (ISDR-MBK) to install computers, tablets, satellite internet, and a digital library collection. This system is for the use of students and staff, many of whom identified their lack of learning and teaching resources as their largest challenge in a survey the previous summer. The following documents are a selection of the materials that were either created to help the management of the library or included in the collection. All materials included in the library are freely available for download online or created by WHRC or Projet Équateur.

The digital library at ISDR-MBK is the first in the city, and it was important that the materials be secure and safe. Minor building reparations and new windows and doors were put on the library building. Projet Équateur staff and ISDR-MBK staff then collaborated to develop a procedure manual.

The procedure manual, available in French only, can be viewed here.

The digital materials were organized into a library database using Greenstone 2.86, a free software supported by UNESCO. To learn more about Greenstone, please click here. To view a list of the documents included in the collection, please click here.

In order to make sure that the library is accessible to all users, a series of trainings were held with library staff and Projet Équateur created a cheat sheet for use, available here. We also put together some resources for teachers to help them update their course curriculum. This document aims to help them optimize their use of the virtual library resources by highlighting documents that could be used for different courses.

Finally, all staff and students will be encouraged to explore a variety of topics, using our compilation of Open Access Journals in French, which is a heavily modified and simplified version of the 2010 report “Open Access in France“.