Information Management in Zambia with Special Emphasis on the Application of Information Technology
| dc.contributor.advisor | Lancaster, F.W. (Prof.) | |
| dc.contributor.author | Chisenga, Justin | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-06-09T08:59:30Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-11-18T12:45:28Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-06-09T08:59:30Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-11-18T12:45:28Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1992-06 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The study reveals that Zambia has a relatively well developed information infrastructure in which the missing link is coordination at the national level. Coordination could be provided by formulation and implementation of a policy on information systems and services. Information technology has proliferated into both the public and private sectors of the economy, and computer applications are slowly being diversified beyond the traditional use for computing. Telecommunications developments in terms of transmission and switching techniques in the country have reached the digital stage. The major towns are served with digital exchanges and now efforts are towards the digitalization of the rural telephone network. Facilities for data communications , Local Area Networks and Wide Area Networks does exist but the limiting factor is the high telecommunications tariffs. Training facilities for information technology personnel are not adequate and thus there is a shortage of qualified computer professional in the country and this has led to under-utilization of the equipment and heavy reliance on vendor support for the operations of the installed systems , as many installations are manned by inadequately qualified and inexperienced individuals. Introduction of information technology in libraries, documentation and information centres in the country is slowly gaining ground and currently is largely being applied in special libraries and to a certain extent in academic libraries as well. These institutions are relatively well funded than the other categories of libraries (public and school libraries) in the country and in most cases they. also have access to computer facilities of their parent institutions. However, computer applications to information management in these institutions is currently li,m .i ted to word processing and in-house bibliographic database management. There is no single installation in the country at the moment supporting library house keeping activities, such as, acquisition, cataloguing and classification, circulation control, serials control and management information systems nor for database development, retrospective search, SOI and production of other information services . Emerging information technologies, such as, CD-ROM, networking and desktop publishing, in spite of their potential as means of information acquisition and dissemination are almost nonexistent in Zambia's libraries. The country also has no indigenous electronic databases where information can be accessed. The major implication of these factors is that vast amount of information is not being accessed by these institutions/users and thus the inadequacy in the provision of information services especially to researchers and academic teaching staff. The lack of diversity in computer applications in libraries and the inability to exploit other information technologies in information management is attributed mainly to lack of computer knowledge and skills among the library managers in the country. As a way of enhancing the application of information technology to information management and dissemination in research and academic libraries, especially in those institutions were computer facilities are available, a cooperative computer based selective dissemination of information is proposed. The project outlines the requirements in terms of manpower, human resources, physical resources, funding and operating mechanism. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/21477 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Addis Ababa University | en_US |
| dc.subject | Information Science | en_US |
| dc.title | Information Management in Zambia with Special Emphasis on the Application of Information Technology | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |