Library and Information Services Development in Africa

By Isaac Twumasi Quantus in Accra.

The economic realities of Africa in a globalized world are also reflected in the underdeveloped state of library and information infrastructure and services. The extent of development depends in part on information needs and uses dictated by economic activities and the ability of the economy to support information systems and services.

Africa runs a depressed and an ailing economy with information resources often unavailable and prices soaring. Budget allocations to African libraries and information systems have remained inadequate for decades.

This has continued despite significant achievements recorded on globalization in developed nations. Library services in developing countries have not progressed beyond traditional services such as circulation, reference, interlibrary loan, etc.

The basic information resources of libraries, databanks, and the like that are available to the poorest countries are hopelessly inadequate, frequently taking the exclusive form of published sources arriving sporadically by sea-mail to understaffed libraries.

Infrastructure is another problem. Effective information management requires information and communication technology. Many countries in Africa lack the required information infrastructure to aid development, including Internet and telephone.

This makes it difficult to monitor information flow in a country or the mood of its people. Other obstacles are lack of indigenous information handling capacity and the absence of information policy in many African countries.

The absence of a national information policy is particularly worrisome, and is traceable to Africa's unresolved development crisis. The lack of information policy is partly responsible for the lack of funds, human resources, and current library resources.

Even if bibliographies and indexes are compiled, their publication is inhibited by the same publishing problem that inhibits the publication of scholarly and scientific publications. It is regrettable that though serial titles emanating from African are of value, many are not covered by the indexing and abstracting publications found in America and Europe.

 

This article was originally posted on Africa Management Consulting Network

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