Joel Sam is the Coordinator of the Ghana Agricultural Information Network System (GAINS) and also the Director of the CSIR-Institute for Scientific and Technological Information (CSIR-INSTI). His professional background is in information and knowledge management. He has 22 years working experience in research and academic environments. He has been a University Lecturer for the past ten years teaching the use of library and information resources and user studies in support of teaching and research. His current research interest is in the area of information and communication technologies for development. He is currently a doctoral candidate at the Department of Information Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. His thesis is on the role of information and communication technologies to poverty alleviation in two rural communities in the Central region of Ghana. He has a number of refereed publications to his credit and is a member of the IAALD and Ghana Library Association.