Abstract

The National Assembly of Cameroon intends to assume a leading role in the dissemination of information necessary for the country's economic and social development. In keeping with this aim, it has undertaken the modernization of its information services. The technology adopted is MINISIS, which is already being used in the region. To enable the Assembly to rely on competent and sufficient resources, this project will provide training for management personnel to use MINISIS software in the processing of parliamentary information. Specifically, it will train a team of three Cameroonians as, respectively, database manager, librarian, and archivist. Following the training period the team will reorganize the existing system and develop a better parliamentary information system adapted to the new technology. At a later date the team will also be able to train other professionals in the field.

Post-Project Summary

Before beginning their stay in Canada, the three Cameroonians spent two days in Paris to observe the various applications developed in the French Senate and to participate in a work session at DATAWARE. From January 15 to March 15, 1990, they completed a period of training at Services documentaires multimédia inc. (SDM), in Montreal. The first week, they attended a presentation about SDM, its role in the world of documentation, its products and services; toured the facility; were given an explanation of the computer structures at SDM (HP3000 and microcomputer) and a history of the developments achieved with Minisis. Over the next two weeks, they finalized the structure of the library's database; prepared a compendium of data input standards; entered and modified the worksheets; and created search and sort forms, as well as editing formats for the various lists. The final six weeks were devoted to the creation of the referral database for official documents and related structures; the establishment of indexing and data input rules; the entry and modification of worksheets; the retrieval and printing of official documents; the creation of sort formulas and editing formats for the various lists; and the design of the various database access menus. The training period was rounded out by visits to the Centre for Information Technologies Innovation (CITI), in Montreal; to the Archives and the National Assembly of Quebec; and to the National Library of Canada and the Library of Parliament, in Ottawa.

Recipient Institution(s)