Parliamentarians have an incessant need far timely, authoritative, and current information because of the enormous social responsibility bestowed on them by the electorates or society. A strong information accessibility that empowers them to fulfill this responsibility effectively is therefore very significant. Essentially and traditionally, parliamentary libraries are expected to provide legislators with most of the information they need. The study aimed at determining the information sources, service and systems used in South Africa by the parliamentarians, and also to investigate the role of the parliamentary libraries in the information provision process. A survey was conducted by use of questionnaires targeting all parliamentarians in South Africa and a response rate of 23% (167) was received. This study has revealed that parliamentary libraries are underutilized because parliamentarians use other equally competing information sources largely accessed through the internet. Further, South Africa has enormous information sources and services that legislators can access and exploit and the use of electronic sources of information is gr.owing rapidly, almost reaching the level of use of print sources. Unexpectedly, oral sources of information are used less. Parliamentary libraries have a potential to offer a variety of services to parliamentarians, yet they are not well-utilized, perhaps because of reasons such as poor marketing and innovative information services. Wilson's model on information seeking has been extended by a new model proposing and explaining information-seeking strategies popular to parliamentarians in South Africa.
Agriculture plays a pivotal role in the economies of many developing economies because it contributes significantly to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), labour force, sustenance and exports. The sector accounts for more than 30% of the GDP and 60% of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. Zimbabwe is no exception; agriculture provides an income to over 75% of the country's population. This paper reports on a study that examined agricultural information and the role that is played by researchers and extension workers as intermediaries for farmers. The study focused on researchers and extension workers in the public sector, covering 16 research institutes and 44 districts. A questionnaire was used to collect data, most of which was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), with content analysis used in the case of open-ended questions. Although three different sets of data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and observation, this paper reports only on the results of the questionnaire which was distributed to researchers and extension workers. The study revealed that the information needs of the researchers and extension workers aligned with the major agricultural disciplines and that respondents were using various sources of information in fulfilling their information needs, ranging from libraries to Internet sources (including databases and other electronic sources), consulting colleagues, workshops and seminars, and personal collections. Dr. Tinashe Mugwisi: Temporary Lecturer ,
Public libraries in South Africa have largely failed to address the information needs of developing communities. As a result the establishment of alternative library services, notably resource centres and community libraries, have gathered momentum since the 1980s. The concept of community libraries, currently embraced by an increasing number of public libraries, is explored, and the community library system implemented by the Pinetown Public Library is evaluated against norms derived from the literature on the development of public libraries in Africa and South Africa.Openbare biblioteke in Suid-Afrika het nie noemenswaardig daarin geslaag om dienste te voorsien wat die wesentlike behoeftes van ontwikkelende gemeenskappe aanspreek nie. Gevolglik het alternatiewe dienste soos byvoorbeeld bronnesentrums en gemeenskapsbiblioteke ontstaan, veral vanaf die vroee tagtiger jare. Die konsep van gemeenskapsbiblioteke wat besig is om in openbare biblioteke veld te wen, word ontleed en die stelsel wat deur Pinetown se Open bare Biblioteek in werking gestel is, word geevalueer aan die hand van norme gebaseer op die literatuur oor die ontwikkeling van open bare biblioteke in Afrika en Suid-Afrika.
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