KIT Information Portal Culture for Development
Free access to selected e-resources

Faq





































What is the mission statement for the portals?

The KIT portals are designed to serve the global community of professionals involved in research or practical applications on specific development issues. The portals enhance the accessibility of free, full-text electronic documents and of other Internet resources, including newsletters, discussion groups, websites, bibliographic databases, and directories of organizations and projects.




What are the portal objectives?

KIT portals aim to:

  • achieve adequate levels of completeness within selected sets of Internet resources;
  • contribute significantly to the effective use of Internet resources and communication methods by professional target groups;
  • establish themselves as a platforms for sharing digital information among the professional target groups; and,
  • encourage feedback from the targeted professionals to further improve both portals and portal services.



How are the themes of portals determined?

The delineation of new portal themes is not an easy matter, the more so because portal development and maintenance is rather labour-intensive. We take into account: (1) the availability of expertise as a result of ongoing activities of a KIT department in that particular thematic area; (2) the intention to raise KIT’s profile in areas that have been designated as being of strategic importance for future development;  (3) the perceived need for a portal on the new theme; and (4) the expectation that a portal on a particular theme will remain relevant for at least 5 years. Relevance is defined in terms of KIT’s broad aim to contribute to sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and cultural preservation and exchange.




How is the material for the portals selected?

A two-step procedure is followed for selecting Internet documents and resources: (1) identification of suitable Internet resources in the form of domain- or subdomain-level websites; followed by (2) selection of all relevant material from these websites. One of our objectives is to achieve reasonable completeness in searching out all pre-identified websites.




How can I contribute to a portal?

There is a variety of ways in which you may contribute to the portal(s) of your interest:

  • bring to our notice new domain- or subdomain-level websites, from which to select new documents and other resources, news and events.
  • alert us to new (or not so new) electronic documents, other resources, news and events;
  • suggest new services for our portal that you would find useful or suggest improvements to existing services;
  • recommend any other type of improvement; or,
  • complain about any aspect related to the portal.



Who are the portal editors and how can I contact them?

One or two information specialists are assigned as editors to each portal. Information specialists of KIT Information & Library Services represent a wide range of complementary disciplines, including rural sociology, geography, cultural anthropology, biology, health, knowledge management, tropical agriculture, and gender. The editors of the portal on Culture for Development are Renee Stollery and Minke Valk.




Can I search across both electronic and physical holdings?

The web interface of the KIT library catalogue allows timesaving single-search access to both electronic and physical resources on portal themes. This is possible because KIT Information and Library Services applies the same bibliographic treatment to Internet resources selected for the portals as to its physical collection.




Where can I find the Search Help?

The search help can be found here. However, the search interface is uncluttered and we expect that you will quickly find your way around without any search instructions. Yet, you may find the following clarifications useful.

Browsing the search results

When there are multiple pages of results, you may find it cumbersome to browse them by alternately scrolling and clicking on the “Next page” link for every five results displayed on each page. A convenient alternative is to select one of the results by clicking on the “More information” link. From there, you can browse through the entire list of results by simply clicking on the “Next result” link.

Refining your search

The most common way of improving your search results is by typing more search terms in the search box. Alternatively you may refine your results by clicking on the links for Author name, Year of Publication, Region, and Source type. The successive refine filters appear just below the search box. If you are not happy with the results you may click on the “Reset” link. You must follow the “More information” link if you wish to refine your results by clicking on one of the keywords (drawn from UNBIS). Alternatively, you could use the Advanced Search interface.

Sorting your results

You may sort your results by selecting a sorting option from the drop-down menu at the top of your results. The sorting options are: “Date of addition”, “Author / Organization”, “Source type”, and “Title”. As there may be more than one author for each publication, the number of results is very likely be higher when you sort for Author / Organization than when you sort for Date of addition or Title.

For more search tips you are referred to the help text. Alternatively, you may use the Quicklinks on the individual portal homepages to obtain overviews of portal subthemes.




  • How can I contribute to a portal?

    There is a variety of ways in which you may contribute to the portal(s) of your interest:

    • bring to our notice new domain- or subdomain-level websites, from which to select new documents, resources, news, and events.
    • alert us to relevant electronic documents, resources, news, and events;
    • suggest new services for our portal that you would find useful or suggest improvements to existing services;
    • recommend any other type of improvement; or,
    • complain about any aspect related to the portal.

  • Where can I find the Search Help?

    The search help can be found here. However, the search interface is uncluttered and we expect that you will quickly find your way around without any search instructions. Yet, you may find the following clarifications useful.

    Browsing the search results

    When there are multiple pages of results, you may find it cumbersome to browse them by alternately scrolling and clicking on the “Next page” link for every five results displayed on each page. A convenient alternative is to select one of the results by clicking on the “More information” link. From there, you can browse through the entire list of results by simply clicking on the “Next result” link.

    Refining your search

    The most common way of improving your search results is by typing more search terms in the search box. Alternatively you may refine your results by clicking on the links for Author name, Year of Publication, Region, and Source type. The successive refine filters appear just below the search box. If you are not happy with the results you may click on the “Reset” link. You must follow the “More information” link if you wish to refine your results by clicking on one of the keywords (drawn from UNBIS). Alternatively, you could use the Advanced Search interface.

    Sorting your results

    You may sort your results by selecting a sorting option from the drop-down menu at the top of your results. The sorting options are: “Date of addition”, “Author / Organization”, “Source type”, and “Title”. As there may be more than one author for each publication, the number of results is very likely be higher when you sort for Author / Organization than when you sort for Date of addition or Title.

    For more search tips you are referred to the help text. Alternatively, you may use the Quicklinks on the individual portal homepages to obtain overviews of portal subthemes.

  • What is the mission statement for the portals?

    The KIT portals are designed to serve the global community of professionals involved in research or practical applications on specific development issues. The portals enhance the accessibility of free, full-text electronic documents and of other Internet resources, including newsletters, discussion groups, websites, bibliographic databases, and directories of organizations and projects.

  • What are the portal objectives?

    KIT portals aim to:

    • achieve adequate levels of completeness within selected sets of Internet resources;
    • contribute significantly to the effective use of Internet resources and communication methods by professional target groups;
    • establish themselves as a platforms for sharing digital information among the professional target groups; and,
    • encourage feedback from the targeted professionals to further improve both portals and portal services.

  • How are the themes of portals determined?
    The delineation of new portal themes is not an easy matter, the more so because portal development and maintenance is rather labour-intensive. We take into account: (1) the availability of expertise as a result of ongoing activities of a KIT department in that particular thematic area; (2) the intention to raise KIT’s profile in areas that have been designated as being of strategic importance for future development;  (3) the perceived need for a portal on the new theme; and (4) the expectation that a portal on a particular theme will remain relevant for at least 5 years. Relevance is defined in terms of KIT’s broad aim to contribute to sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and cultural preservation and exchange.

  • How is the material for the portals selected?
    A two-step procedure is followed for selecting Internet documents and resources: (1) identification of suitable Internet resources in the form of domain- or subdomain-level websites; followed by (2) selection of all relevant material from these websites. One of our objectives is to achieve reasonable completeness in searching out all pre-identified websites.

Royal Tropical Institute