Digital Library and Information Services in Southern Africa

Abstract

Considers Southern African Development Community (SADC) digital library and information service (LIS) developments and observes an uneven regional pattern, the highlights of which are: though a number of libraries, mostly academic, have Web Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs), these facilities are generally underdeveloped across the region; South African and Namibian public libraries metadata is accessible on the Internet; regionally, there are a few Internet links to SADC based resources; digital information access policies are restrictive; leadership from National Library Associations is limited; and, regionally, a number of digital library projects are under way. The critical issues affecting digital LIS developments are: insufficient finance; lack of focused management strategies; underdeveloped information technology and communications infrastructure; predominance of English and low information and computer literacy rates. It is concluded that information technology advances require libraries to restructure, establish cooperative networks and empower selective target user groups with digital skills to give shape to the nucleus of a regional information society.

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