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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Manufacturing and Consuming Knowledge: African Libraries and Publishing |
Author: | Zeleza, Paul T. |
Year: | 1996 |
Periodical: | Development in Practice |
Volume: | 6 |
Issue: | 4 |
Period: | November |
Pages: | 293-303 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | university libraries information technology Miscellaneous (i.e. Demography, Refugees, Sports) Drought and Desertification |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0961452961000157904 |
Abstract: | This article examines the problems facing African scholars and publishers in the context of rapid developments in information technology and a deepening economic gulf between industrialized and Third World countries. Where does Africa fit in the international political economy of knowledge production, dissemination and consumption? The first part of the paper offers an overview of the challenges facing African academic and research libraries, paying attention to the impact of structural adjustment on library budgets, the dubious benefits of donations of books and journals from charitable organizations and foreign governments, and the role of information technology, especially the CD-ROM. The second part argues that the plight of African research libaries as a crisis of scholarly communication cannot be adequately tackled without developing and improving local academic publishing and information-production capacities, to ensure the dissemination of knowledge that better reflects African realities. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |