Mainstreaming African Local Content in the Information Society: The Role of Libraries and Information Centres

Abstract

The global transition to the information and knowledge society requires that every country contribute its local content to the burgeoning global information infrastructure. African states and the African continent as a whole have much to offer in form of indigenous knowledge and scholarly research. However, it has been very difficult to ascertain the continent’s contribution as most the intellectual content that originates from the continent is barely accessible to Africans not to talk of the global community. This paper presents digital repositories and open access system as viable options for Africa to mainstream her local content to the global information infrastructure. The paper further stressed the critical role of library and information centres in achieving this goal. KEYWORDS : Africa – Local Content Digital Repositories – Global Information Infrastructure Libraries – Open Access System