Improving the understanding of contemporary African societies is neither a luxury nor a noble job for scholars nor a nice occupation for librarians.
In the global world we live in, all societies are related and the fate, fortune and developments of one society have an impact on the processes of the others. Understanding presupposes reliable sources of information, independent study and open communication. This applies to individuals, groups as well as societies. Access to local information is of utmost importance for true understanding. Access to information also lies at the heart of the information society, or the Knowledge society. But this access is not equally guaranteed. The World Summit on the Information Society is a major process to draw attention to the importance of information and communication worldwide. For IFLA this is not summit about ICT-projects and stimulating the media industries. It is a urgent question of bridging the digital divide and creating favourable conditions for a true knowledge society, e.g. also in Africa.
It is important that at this AEGIS conference researchers hold panels and talks on the arts, history, gender, economics, development and sociology. Scholarly exchange will stimulate the academic debate and thorough understanding. But how is our research related to the development of the Knowledge society. It is also important to address the issues on information and communication in Africa in a comprehensive way. Much valuable research work still can and should be done in this area.
It is a challenge to the research community to look into these issues, which are also on the global library agenda, such as:
- the imbalance of production (North) and consumption (South) of information and dependencies upon publication in Western journals for development of research in developing countries;
- indigenous knowledge systems related to the original culture, which have for long time been ignored by those introducing Western education;
- the digital divide and the emerging digital imperialism;
It is likewise important that librarians and information specialists affiliated to the African Studies centres in Europe are also present at this conference, and discuss ways to improve library services with the help of ICT applications and partnerships.
In view of building a knowledge community of Africa significant stakeholders for scholarly and societal communication are present. Time has come to open discussions on equal professional terms, recognising one cannot work without the other. How can we create a ongoing dialogue, a circular movement of sources, information and communication to the benefit of the local community?
It is the local community with its variety of knowledge and communication systems which serves as the basic source of information for scholars and researchers.
One of the goals I formulated as IFLA-president is:
"building global communication that unites the electronic information rich with the oral information rich. I would want to see the two worlds complement one another in creating an information rich society regardless of medium of transmission."
The view that the local community only serves as an object of investigations and research is outdated. In a knowledge community all have access to information.
Most of all access to information which has been collected about one self.
Therefore, modern research can only be successful if it respects the moral right of the local community to have access to the information collected by researchers about these communities.
Researchers, in cooperation with libraries, specialists in the African Studies centres, and all other types of libraries, we can make that happen.
Click here to download the paper.
With support from the British Academy