The Ghanaian Academic and Research Network (GARNET) and the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH) have agreed to cooperate towards the delivery of relevant infrastructure and interoperable open scholarly services to enhance the delivery of research, teaching and learning in higher education institutions in Ghana.
The two organisations have signed a memorandum of understanding to guide their steps in this cooperation. The signing ceremony was held at the LIBSENSE National Open Science Symposium in Accra on October 19, 2022.
The move by GARNET and CARLIGH demonstrates their alignment with trends in scientific research and scholarly publishing championed by the open access and open science movements.
Under this cooperation, the two organisations, with the support of the Library Support for Embedded NREN Services and E-infrastructure (LIBSENSE) and the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN), will explore the use of federated identities to simplify access to academic and research services. When realised, all libraries, researchers and students under the GARNET, CARLIGH umbrella will have a single sign-on credential to access library resources and services across Africa and the World.
Under this MoU, the two organisations will also explore the provision of national platforms for repositories and scholarly publishing, data management services and storage, library management systems, learning management systems and other systems relevant to their respective communities.
GARNET and CARLIGH have also agreed to cooperate on capacity building to enhance the skillset and delivery of academic services and explore ways of improving membership to ensure quality service delivery to their communities.
It is expected that the outputs of the efforts by the two organisations will foster robust, open science practices and culture within Ghana’s research and education landscape.
About GARNET
GARNET is a not-for-profit organization open to all accredited tertiary institutions in Ghana including research and educational institutions, Libraries and teaching hospitals. It is established for the purpose of promoting research collaboration among researchers and educators locally and internationally. The Vision of GARNET is to build and operate a World-Class Network Infrastructure and services to link all the Ghanaian Research and Education community to support teaching, learning and research among all public and private institutions of higher education in Ghana, and by extension, connect its members to the Global Research and Education Network communities. Currently, GARNET has close to 40 members. See here –https://garnet.edu.gh/ for more information on GARNET.
About CARLIGH
The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH) was founded in 2004 to ensure continued availability and access to library and information resources as well as conducting
training for members. It envisions to be a centre of excellence in all formats for teaching, learning research activities in Ghana. CARLIGH has 42 members, including public and private universities, technical university libraries among others. More information on CARLIGH here – https://www.carligh.org/
About LIBSENSE
LIBSENSE (Library Support for Embedded NREN Services and E-infrastructure) is a WACREN-led programme aimed at building a community of practice for open science and progressing the adoption of open science services and infrastructures in Africa. This Africa-wide programme provides an avenue through which different stakeholder communities collaborate to define priority activities, share knowledge, and develop relevant services. LIBSENSE is making strides towards advancing open science through strengthening and expanding services at the institutional, national, regional and continental levels. Read more about LIBSENSE here – https://libsense.ren.africa/en/
