A pilot course for training of trainers in agricultural information techniques meeting was held in 1992

A to discuss the organization of a training course within the framework of the Training Programme in Agricultural Information Techniques, which is supported by CTA. The aim of the course was to improve national capability to provide training in information techniques and, in the longer term. to upgrade their library services.

A pilot course was held from 17 July - 11 August, 1995 in Dakar, Senegal with the assistance of the PanAfrican Institute for Development (PAID, West Africa and Sahel), BIEF (Belgium), EBAD (the Senegalese school of library and archival studies) and ISADE (a higher institute of business development in Dakar). Twenty out of 49 applicants with training in library or information' science were selected on the basis of their own proposals for a course project.

Participants were from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cd'lvoire, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

The course was modular in form. Participants were able to improve their knowledge of library techniques (including indexing, setting up and managing databases and electronic data transfer), adult education methods and design, organization and management of training. The teaching methods used included seminars, individual or group work, case studies and computer tutorials.

At each stage of the course participants were expected to reflect on what they had learnt and to modify their personal project. They were faced with a real life situation during the computer tutorials. These received the highest praise during the final evaluation of the course.

The full benefit of these courses will be seen when the participants and their employers organize local training courses during 1996. The courses and the assistance given to other libraries will act as a trial for the training given in Dakar. After evaluation of the courses the curriculum will be amended, as necessary, before the course planned for anglophone Africa takes place.