Libraries and Information Services: Towards the Attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals

Citation

Poll, R. (2009), "Libraries and Information Services: Towards the Attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals", Performance Measurement and Metrics, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 153-155. https://doi.org/10.1108/14678040911005491

This is a selection of papers presented at the 18th Standing Conference of SCECSAL (East, Central and Southern Africa Library and Information Associations) in Lusaka, Zambia, 2008. The conference focussed on the role of libraries and information services in attaining the UN Millenium Development Goals.

The United Nations Millenium declaration of 2000 set eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015. Those goals are:

1. 1.

   Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

2. 2.

   Achieve universal primary education.

3. 3.

   Promote gender equality and empower women.

4. 4.

   Reduce child mortality.

5. 5.

   Improve maternal health.

6. 6.

   Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases.

7. 7.

   Ensure environmental sustainability.

8. 8.

   Develop a global partnership for development.

For each of these comprehensive goals, one or more targets were defined, e.g.:

1. 1.

   Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger:

• •

  reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day; and

• •

  reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

1. 1.

   Achieve universal primary education:

• •

  ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.

Libraries and information services can influence quite a number of these targets by their impact on library users and on society in general. But – as in all cases where libraries try to prove a positive outcome of their services – it is difficult to separate the library's contribution from other influences. Users have many information sources; the library is only one of those.

The conference papers show consensus on the following basics:

• •

  Access to relevant, up‐to‐date and above all reliable information is crucial for all of the MDGs.

• •

  Libraries are essential for information access by providing, promoting and actively disseminating information.

• •

  Libraries should adapt their information services to their clientele, not forgetting the potential clientele, especially the less privileged groups.

• •

  Inadequate budgets and resources in African libraries are a serious handicap for their contributing to reach the MDG's.

Most of the papers treat the topic of the congress – libraries helping to reach the MDGs – in a more general way. They stress the importance of ICT for access to information and show the potential role of libraries in attaining the Millenium goals. Practical examples of libraries trying to influence educational or health problems are rare. Several papers deal with the issue, that libraries need sufficient resources and equipment and especially well‐trained staff for taking an effective part in reaching MDGs (Raju; Lawal). Another important background problem is mentioned by Lungu: If there is no national library plan or national library policy, taking an influence on MDG's will be difficult.

A recurrent theme of most papers is that a positive impact of libraries in East, Central and Southern Africa depends on their adapting their services to the needs not only of the active users, but also of the potential users. Kabamba focuses on the “marginalized”, the social fringe groups. He regards public libraries in Africa as still too much modelled on Anglo‐American and European examples, attracting the more educated population, but failing to meet the information needs of the semiliterate and illiterate populations. He proposes a “uniquely African” information system, offering e. g. more material in indigenous languages and building a close relationship with the local community. Njobwu stresses the importance of marketing library services in order to reach all segments of the population.

The projects that are mentioned in the papers try to reach out to the less educated population. Several papers mention projects for agricultural information, trying to disseminate that information in easily understandable form to those that currently need it. Ikoja‐Odongo proposes that librarians should support an information network for small‐scale women farmers, using among other ways cell phones. Mobile phones are already used in Tanzania for delivering market information to farmers (Lwoga and Ngulube). Kakoma and Mariti mention a service in Lesotho that provides answers to questions by farmers and agricultural workers. Chisenga describes the possibilities of “e‐agriculture” of contributing to the MDG goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

Other areas mentioned in the papers where libraries could help to reach MDGs are training health workers, informing about environmental problems, and of course supporting education and learning. Public libraries are used by school children for learning and working, as their homes cannot offer good learning conditions.

Looking through this publication gives a good impression about what problems libraries in East, Central and Southern Africa experience when trying to cooperate in the Millenium goals, but also what groups and themes they could best address for such cooperation.

The topic is widened in a paper by Lor, Secretary General of IFLA 2005‐2008. He puts the general question, whether libraries are adequately mentioned in international plans and programs. Proceeding from the Millenium goals to WSIS (Geneva principles and Plan of action, 2003) and to UNESCO's Medium Term Strategy 2008‐2013 and the Information for All Programme, his résumé is: “Libraries do not feature in high level declarations…Libraries are not visible and relevant enough to the politicians and diplomats who craft such statements.” Lor recommends that the library community should invest in partnerships and effective advocacy in order to further the visibility of libraries.