ABSTRACTS OF PRESENTATIONS

Second International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives, abstracts of presentation

Reaching the grassroots? The case of the Botswana Library Association

The Botswana Library Association (BLA) is predominately profession centered. The objectives as written in the constitution do not encourage or guide the association towards the consideration of grassroots citizens. Several activities that could have had an impact on the grassroots have been considered over the years. However, not much success has been recorded. The association is bedeviled with many obstacles in striving to achieve the desired impact. There is lack of funding for projects; the association is run by volunteers leading to discontinuity; some members of the profession have dissociated themselves from the association, while others have decided to form other independent entities that basically play the same role that BLA should play. BLA needs to take bold steps and use more money to promote visibility by engaging the grassroots populations. There is also the need to pool resources in the profession to achieve positive results. Innovation Vol. 31 2005: 37-4

Resource mobilisation: a prerequisite for project implementation, success and sustainability

Unprecedented developments in technology that lead to remarkable increases in knowledge processing and production, coupled with new user demands, have made digitization essential. Access to resources has dwindled in the wake of the economic slow-down. It has become imperative to make projects attractive to donors through proper and elaborate planning. Collaboration, an old concept in libraries, is one strategy for attraction. Resource mobilization, an important part of planning, should always be the first step in embarking on digitization projects. It should therefore be carried out in a systematic way following a resource mobilization strategy with specific steps. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) now defunct project illustrates how deficiencies in resource mobilization can lead to project failure. It is proposed that ICADLA set up a steering team to work with Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC) to implement resource mobilization strategy with the view to coordinating and promoting digitization projects in Africa for the development of an African Digital Library of information for development

Visions of African Unity: New Perspectives on the History of Pan-Africanism and African Unification Projects

This collection of essays analyzes different iterations of African unity, exploring the political and cultural visions that informed projects aimed at African unification. It explores the cultural, economic and non-state aspects of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) as the principal institution dedicated to the cooperation of African states, from its establishment in 1963 to its transformation into the African Union (AU) in 2000, as well as how ideas of African unity shaped the Cold War and African liberation struggles. Bringing together contributors from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds across Africa, Europe and the US, this book investigates the ideological origins and historiography of Pan-African and unification projects, and considers how African intellectuals, leaders and populations engaged with these ideas