Knowledge is the key to social change. However, information not organised properly defeats the purpose of any communication or knowledge-based initiative. Managing information, in the internet era with explosive information availability demands special skills and calls for investments in strengthening the information infrastructure and skills of an organisation.  There is a need for understanding tools and technologies for information identification, organization, analysis, presentation, dissemination and monitoring.  

Here is an opportunity for you to participate in a specially-designed short training programme on 'Managing information resources in the digital age: a training programme on library, information management, documentation and web-based outreach”.

Workshops will be conducted by CSE's professional staff of documentalists, webmasters and members of various outreach units. The training is being organised by CSE's Environment Resources Unit, among South Asia's premier research and documentation centres. The unit has helped propel CSE's high-profile research, advocacy and issemination activities for more than two decades. It has kept pace with the latest documentation and information management tools available to professionally manage books, journal articles, news clippings, unpublished papers, photos, films, CDs and the contact addresses.

This unique course will teach participants on how to manage all aspects and types of information, at an institutional level and develop an online resource centre using open source tools and technologies. The programme is broad in scope, and covers a gamut of information types, management strategies, tools, and dissemination strategies.

The programme  would focus on  issues concerning transition to a virtual information resource centre. It would focus on issues related to integration of information technologies in libraries, information and documentation centres, with focus on IT infrastructure planning, IT training needs and content development etc.

Course Objectives
This four-day training programme offers a unique opportunity for participants to learn from an experienced and skilled staff, as also to learn and share  experiences with other organisations. It is expected that after attending the programme, participants will be able to:

• Appreciate the role information plays in strengthening the organisation functioning and output.
• Understand the issues involved in information centre development and automation.
• Develop a plan for managing a digital information centre
• Establish efficient work practices for online information management
• Manage news clippings, articles, reports, documents, photographs, films  and contact addresses.
• Plan for creating information products/ services 
• Develop strategies for web-based information outreach.
• Plan for measuring and monitoring impact.

• Planning and managing resource centres in the digital age
• Sourcing Information (information acquisition & research)
• Organising Information : Classification & Indexing (including digitised resources)
• A primer on managing audio-visual resources (films, photos, CDs, etc.)
• Electronic documentation of newsclippings, articles, reports and documents [hands on workshops]
• Building contact databases
• Information Services & Products
• Online presence: reaching out through the Web

CERTIFICATE OF PARTICIPATION will be awarded to the participants.

Several hands-on workshops will cover specialised services and collections, such as managing audio-visual resources (photos and films), news clippings collections and contact addresses.

We warmly invite you to nominate a suitable participant from your organisation to what promises to be an exciting training programme and make use of this opportunity. We look forward to your confirmation and participation in the training programme.

Best wishes.
Kiran Pandey, Coordinator, Environment Resources Unit.