THE TEA RESEARCH INSTITUTE LIBRARY- SHARING INFORMATION WITH THE TEA INDUSTRY

The Tea Research Institute has a modest library which was founded 1951. The stock in terms of books, journals and periodicals is over 10,000 and includes a number of theses /dissertations by Tea Research Institute staff and students from colleges and universities. The library subscribes to a number of International Journals and has over 168 titles.

Currently, the Institute library is receiving 26 titles. The library is also well stocked with materials from tea growing regions worldwide and an accumulated wealth of information in print form on tea. These include books, periodicals, proceedings of conferences and symposium and journals from tea growing countries such asTanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, India, Sri Lanka, China, and Japan. The library has an exchange programme with International Research Institutions in the area of publications.
Most of the current stock has been sourced with funds from Tea Research Institute, donations received from Britain (ODA) through the British Council. Currently, some donations were received from The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).

The Tea Research Institute own publications include the Annual Technical Reports, Tea Journal, Tea Growers Handbook,TRI manuals and Quarterly Bulletins. These publications are distributed to subscribers or on an exchange basis with such Institutions as the Rothamsted Research, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Kenya Sugar Research Foundation, Tocklai Tea Experimental Station, National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science Japan, Tea Research Institute of Tanzania, Taiwan Tea Experimental station and the Tea Research Institute of China.

Provision of services
Membership: All staff of the Institute are bonafide members of the library. Members are also drawn from stakeholders in the tea industry in Kenya. This form of membership must be approved by the Institute Director of Tea Research Institute and sanctioned by the applicants employer. Students are allowed to make use of the library but their membership is restricted.

Loan: A total of 5 books except periodicals can be loaned for a maximum of 2 weeks subject to renewals and rules governing lost.
Journals: The list of periodicals has been updated upto the end of 2009. The list contains current journals and those which have ceased.
Teeal (library in a box- database): The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library – TEEAL –Comprises 140 of the best scientific journals affordable to the developing world. The annually updated CD- ROMs contain more than 1.5 million pages of literature- containing diagrams and photographs from journals.

Access to the current journals included in TEEAL has improved the quality of research conducted at around the world including at the TRFK. TEEAL is a project of Albert R. MANN LIBRARY, Cornell University in association with the Rockefeller Foundation and cooperating publishers. Currently, Egerton University is in charge the facility / project in Kenya.

AGORA- Access to Global Online Research In Agriculture: This facility is available at the Tea Research Institute library and clients can access information by visiting the

AGORA website. Details can be obtained from TRI Library.

Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI): Clients can forward any relevant search information to the Tea Research Institute librarian for retrieval. These include literature materials not available in our library.

Binding: The Tea Research Institute library offers book binding services to the Foundation and tea industry stakeholders.

Scientific papers: The Tea Research Institute has over 4,000 scientific articles mostly on tea research.

Library acquisition: Request for reference materials is channeled to the librarian through the Instutute Director of Tea Research Institute.

Working hours: The Tea Research Institute Library operates during normal working hours: Monday to Friday 0800- 1.00 pm, 2.00- 5.00 pm except during public holidays.