Access to Research in Cameroonian Universities

Abstract This study examines both the state of Internet access in Cameroon's institutions of higher learning at the turn of the century and the perceptions of faculty, librarians, and graduate students of their current state of access to research literature in both print and electronic forms. It is based on a review of existing technologies at six of the seven universities in Cameroon and a survey of 91 faculty members, librarians and students drawn from six of the seven universities in Cameroon made during the academic year 2001–2002. The survey asked the participants about the current state of access to both print and online journals, while seeking to establish their priorities and interests for scholarly communication for the future. This work seeks to provide a greater understanding of the potential impact of the Internet on access to the scholarly literature in Cameroon and other developing countries. What was found as a result of this survey was both a source of concern and hope. Although university students, faculty and librarians in Cameroon had very limited access to the Internet, and often at personal expense, they saw the possibilities of this medium for increasing their access to scholarly resources. They saw it as a means of overcoming the currently unsatisfactory state of access to research, and a way to obtain online journals both from overseas and, more so among students, from Africa, which could be used for their research and teaching