The Lake Victoria Documentation Project
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Early in the program, we have discovered that the African fisheries departments
and fisheries research institutions, like the universities, do not have many of
the most rudimentary key research reports, monographs, and, frequently, even the
research reports conducted by or for the relevant ministry or fishery research
institute. This absence of relevant research literature undercuts the quality
and quantity of research and the morale of the African researchers. With funding
from the MSU African Studies Center, a pilot collection of relevant documents
on Lakes Victoria and Malawi has been created 1989-92. The PLEA Program currently
is seeking grant support to assemble a microfiche and CD-ROM library on the fisheries
and aquatic resources of the five owning nations of Lake Victoria. The collection
will require a global search for research literature conducted in the three nations
and will include unpublished reports, popular and journal articles, monographs,
theses and dissertations, and various ephemera relevant to the socioeconomic,
biological, ecological, management, and policy research on the lakes. A complete
microfilm library and database index will be established in fisheries departments,
fisheries research institutions, and higher education institutions in the owning
nations. After a pilot project on Lake Victoria, PLEA hopes to expand the project
to Lakes Malawi, Tanganyika, and other African lakes.