Specialised Information Service for African Studies

非洲研究专业信息服务（德语：Fachinformationsdienst，FID）旨在为非洲研究人员提供信息服务。目标学术领域是以德国非洲研究学术协会，即德国非洲研究协会和非洲语言学协会为代表的社会科学、艺术和人文学科。在与这些机构及其咨询委员会密切协商的情况下，国际开发署非洲研究中心继续开展并扩大其活动。非洲文献信息中心的重点是获取非洲大陆出版的文献。获得这些难以找到的（包括"灰色"）文献的目的是使非洲学术辩论在德国更加引人注目，以促进真正的学术交流和研究合作。除了印刷的专著和期刊外，还购买所谓的"灰色文献"（部分是通过图书采购之旅），并向非洲出版商发放电子书许可证。在第二个资助阶段，FID非洲研究建立了一个新的信息和参考平台www.example.com，截至2022年10月，学术资源和馆藏都在这个平台上汇总。第三个供资阶段的目标是进一步扩大这一针对具体专题的信息基础设施和服务，并整合进一步收集的数据。在这方面，一个重点是进一步实现数据导入和导出的自动化和验证。另一个重点是根据可用性研究和FID路演的结果，落实学术界对门户用户体验的反馈意见。这包括调整用户界面和创建通过Shibboleth登录的选项，作为基于ORCID登录的补充。为了改进搜索选项，将实施地理探索性搜索，这样就可以按区域和主题查找出版物。此外，用户将能够直接从门户网站上进行馆际互借和Subito订购。其他活动包括定期与学术界接触，并与其他利益攸关方合作。与研究界的合作是提高对这些服务的认识的核心，也是确定其目前和未来需求的核心。在第三个供资阶段结束时，将再次通过调查门户网站的用户体验来评价门户网站的修改和扩展。通过更新门户网站，通过信息基础设施协调和支持服务，并通过提供非洲的专门文献，非洲研究专门信息服务有助于地区研究课题的可持续性，这些课题是德国联邦政府学术研究国际合作战略的一部分。

The Specialised Information Service (German: Fachinformationsdienst, FID) for African Studies aims at implementing information services for African Studies researchers. The targeted academic fields are the social sciences, arts and humanities, as represented by the scholarly societies for African Studies in Germany, namely the Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD) and the Association for African Language Linguistics (Fachverband Afrikanistik). In close consultation with these and its advisory board, the FID African Studies continues and expands its activities. The FID focuses on the acquisition of literature published on the African continent. The acquisition of this hard-to-find (including "Grey") literature is intended to make African academic debates more visible in Germany in order to facilitate genuine scholarly exchange and research collaboration. In addition to printed monographs and journals, so-called "grey literature" is also purchased (in part via book acquisition trips) and e-books from African publishers are licensed. In the second funding phase, the FID African Studies has established a new information and reference platform, africanstudieslibrary.org, on which academic resources and holdings are aggregated as of October 2022. The goal of the third funding phase is the further expansion of this subject-specific information infrastructure and the services as well as the integration of further data collections. In this context, one focus is on the further automation and validation of data imports and exports. Another focus is the implementation of feedback from the academic community on the user experience of the portal based on results of the usability study and the FID roadshows. This involves adjusting the user interface and creating the option of logging in via Shibboleth as a supplement to the ORCID-based login. In order to improve the search options, a geographically explorative search will be implemented, which will make it possible to find publications by region and topic. In addition, users will be able to place interlibrary loan and Subito orders directly from the portal. Other activities include engaging regularly with the academic community and collaboration with additional stakeholders. Collaboration with the research community is central to raising awareness of the services, but also to identifying their present and future requirements. At the end of the third funding phase, the modifications and extensions of the portal will once again be evaluated by means of a survey on the portal's user experience. Through the renewal of the portal, through information infrastructure coordination and support services, and by providing specialized literature from Africa, the Specialised Information Service for African Studies contributes to the sustainability of area studies subjects which form part of the German Federal Government's strategy for international collaboration in academic research.