Since December 2016, that we began this project, we have seen and heard the demise of many scholars. These are scholars that have publications to their credit. Those are publications that will be accessed by only people that have direct access to the scholar’s personal library. It’s a big problem, when researchers have to think afresh, seek for fresh inspiration and ideas over a concept or field that someone in Africa researched on and had a breakthrough in but only to have it in hard copy where no one else can access.
Our aim is create an online platform where access to those publications will no more be limited. The project is a model of excellence because it will boost the economy through the availability and accessibility of knowledge.
What we Do
We carve a niche on the web for Scholars with limited or no computer literacy. We support publications that were made with Typewriter, Stencils up till today’s Technologies. All cleaned and converted to PDF files.
This project operates within the context of University Education in Africa. Most Professors in Africa are Elderly and some of their articles were published at a time that there was no computer, while others were published in journals that are recent but have no online presence. What we do is to pick up the articles, digitize and tone them for legibility before conversation to PDF and subsequent upload to the Google Drive. From then on, the publications can be accessed using any internet connected device and through afrischolar.net, a mobile friendly and search engine optimistic platform designed with HTML5 and PHP 7.0.
Benefits to the Researcher
Wherever there is knowledge and access to it easily granted, there will definitely be power. The secret of developed economy is that knowledge is pragmatically preserved and this empowers researchers to build on what other people researched on and had breakthrough in without having to think afresh or seek for fresh inspiration. It is important we tackle this problem because it will deliver huge benefit on the society, environment and economy in many ways:
1. Researchers in Africa and foreigners interested in the publications of African Scholars can now have a single locations where publications from different fields can be obtained.
2. There’ll be more inventions and ideas because researchers will be able to access the works of previous scholars and upgrade on it to have a new version or improved version with better features.
3. African scholars will begin to have international ratings which could end up making their lives a lot better than before.
