Providing and Sustaining Environmental Information Services Through Resource Sharing in Botswana: A Proposal

Abstract

The Seminar on Accessing Information in Southern Africa (SAIRSA) National and Subregional Bibliographic Control, held in Johannesburg in 1996, recognised among others the crucial role of information in national development; the importance of making optimal use of indigenous information; that a system for comprehensive and up to date bibliographic control of the national output is a prerequisite in each country for utilizing information for development; and that the efforts of individual nations can be reinforced through regional cooperation. Recommendations of the SAIRSA committed the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to support efforts to establish national legislation for national bibliographic control agencies and legislation for legal deposit. Country reports showed lack of understanding on the part of most governments of the role of national bibliographic control and its support of socioeconomic development.