1. Addressing development challenges through research: the research environment of the universities and the supporting role of the libraries enabling a positive national contribution
Pradeepa Wijetunge PhD
Librarian, University of Peradeniya,
Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

2. Development Challenges encountered by Sri Lanka
Presentation outline
Development Challenges encountered by Sri Lanka
Role of research in addressing the development challenges
Barriers encountered by the researchers in the Sri Lankan universities
How the libraries can support the researchers
4/3/2015

3. HDI Rank of sri Lanka
4/3/2015

4. Improving HDI Values
4/3/2015
UNDP (2014)

5. Further from HDI …
HDI Trend from 180 to 2013 has a continuous growth of about 0.84%
Inequality adjusted HDI has a loss of 14.3%
Gender Inequality Index Rank is 75 out of 149 countries
Gender Development Index Rank is 66 out of 149 countries
(UNDP 2014)
4/3/2015

6. Progress in MDGs (UN-ESCAP, ADB, Undp 2013)
Targets
Goal 1 
Eradicate extreme poverty and Hunger
Goal 2
Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3
Promote gender equality and empower women  
$1.25 per day poverty
4.1 (10)
Country line poverty
8.9 (10)
Underweight children
21.6 (09)
Primary enrolment
92.96 (11)
Reaching last grade
97.33(10)
Primary completion
100.61(11)
Gender primary
Achieved
0.99 (11)
Gender secondary
Expected to achieve
1.04 (11)
Gender tertiary
Regressing
1.83 (11)
4/3/2015

7. Progress in MDGs (UN-ESCAP, ADB, Undp 2013)
Targets
Goal 4
Reduce child mortality
Goal 5
Improve maternal health  
Goal 6
Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases  
Goal 7
Ensure environmental sustainability
Under-5 mortality
12.2 (11)
Infant mortality
10.5 ( 11)
Maternal mortality
35 (10)
Skilled birth attendance
98.6 (07)
Antenatal care ≥ 1 visit
99.4 (07)
HIV prevalence
0.1 (10)
TB incidence
66 (10)
TB prevalence
101 (10)
Forest cover
28.8 (10)
Protected area
Slow
15.40 (10)
CO2emission per GDP
Achieved )
Safe drinking water
Expected to achieve
93 (10)
Basic sanitation
Regressing
91 (10)
4/3/2015

8. Sri Lanka’s position on Knowledge Economy Pillars
4/3/2015
Source: KNOEMA (2014)

9. Sri Lanka in comparison with Malaysia and India
4/3/2015
Source: KNOEMA (2014)

10. The Challenges
Challenge of moving upwards in the HDI from its 73rd position globally in life expectancy, education and income.
Reaching the targets of child, infant and maternal mortality,
Regressing primary enrolments and forest cover as a percentage of total land area
Improving the overall KEI and KI ranks of the country from 101
Addressing over 150 sub sections
4/3/2015

11. Role of research in addressing the development challenges
4/3/2015

12. Research to address development challenges
4/3/2015
Source: DFID (2014, p. 50)

13. three types of research
1) Research on products and technologies, specially the pro-poor products and technologies, that will lead to economic growth, and development.
2) Research on what works and why? Research that will help understanding the needs and demands of the potential users and inform policy makers in designing interventions and understanding the contexts of development challenges.
3) Research to understand the world to provide empirical evidence for product, technology, policy and practice development.
4/3/2015

14. Research sector of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka on 105th position out of 143 countries
Sri Lanka in the 20th place of all lower middle income countries
on 4th place in Central and South Asia.
The researcher headcount places us on the 82nd place globally.
In gross tertiary enrollment Sri Lanka is ranked 94th out of 143 countries.
(Global Innovation Index 2014)
4/3/2015

15. Research sector of Sri Lanka
In the number of science and engineering graduates we are ranked 72nd
Gross expenditure on R & D as a percentage of GDP has placed us on 93rd position
Our innovative efficiency ratio has placed Sri Lanka on 17th position globally.
(Global Innovation Index 2014)
4/3/2015

16. Sri Lanka in comparison with Malaysia and India
4/3/2015

17. Barriers Encountered by Our Researchers
4/3/2015

18. Access Barriers
Inadequate access to national level data sets and previous research
Absence of a national research repository (eg. Indian Citation Index)
Lack of subscription to journals and other databases, (UGC Consortium)
Lack of awareness about the open access resources,
4/3/2015

19. Dearth of support staff (in quality and quantity)
Individual Barriers
Scarcity of funding
Dearth of support staff (in quality and quantity)
Lack of awareness on copyright issues
Inadequate understanding of emerging publication models
Lack of understanding of impact factors and reputed indexing systems
Absence of expertise and a mechanism to commercialize their research findings
4/3/2015

20. Institutional Barriers
Inadequate institutional guidelines (i.e. in financial regulations),
Deficiencies in infrastructure (libraries, laboratories, computer software and equipment)
Institutional regulations which hinder the research process,
Weak leadership and guidance,
Insufficient support for publishing (financial and guidance)
Duplication of research due to absence of co-ordination
Dearth of research forums and incentives and
Absence of a research culture adds to the frustrations of the researchers.
4/3/2015

21. How the libraries can support the researchers
4/3/2015

22. Changing researcher behaviour
Information-seeking and retrieval is increasingly carried bypassing the library.
From library catalogues they now turn to online discovery tools.
Instead of Inter Library Loans they approach the authors directly, or
Use informal communications and memberships of professional bodies to access material.
4/3/2015

23. Changing researcher behaviour
They turn more and more towards social networking for support
Working in isolation from the library has decreased the visits to the library
As a result utilization of the other services offered by the library has reduced. 
4/3/2015

24. What can the Librarians do for the researchers who are not coming to the library?
4/3/2015

25. How the Librarians could address access to journals
Printed vs e-journals
2013 / 2014
Total number of downloads by university
4/3/2015

26. More changes in the service paradigm
Expanding access via digital repositories and mining open access material,
data management and curation,
provision of resource discovery tools,
offering physical space not only quiet work areas but also learning commons for collaborative work,
introduction of information skills for the needy,
digitizing special collections to be offered across the intranet,
provide guidance on citation, plagiarism, and copyright,
providing support with identifying journal impact factors and indexing services.
4/3/2015

27. Summary Development Challenges encountered by Sri Lanka
Role of research in addressing the development challenges
Barriers encountered by the researchers in the Sri Lankan universities
How the libraries can support the researchers
4/3/2015

28. Thank you For your attention
4/3/2015