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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the difficulties encountered when researching the adoption of information and communications technology (ICT) by small hotels in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and to indicate how some of these difficulties were overcome.

The background and theoretical framework of the research project is described, and the research difficulties analysed in the context of the literature and of experience elsewhere in Africa. Issues such as informed consent are considered from different cultural perspectives.

The conclusion is that an understanding of the political, economic and cultural context is essential to the carrying‐out of a successful research project in Ethiopia, and that these same factors are likely to have a major influence on the diffusion of ICT within the country.

An Ethiopian case study is of particular interest because unlike Tanzania, Kenya and much of the rest of Africa, the country's telecommunications industry remains in government hands, a broadband connection is very expensive, and the percentage of Ethiopians using the internet is very small – no more than 0.75 percent of the population in 2010 according to the figures of the International Telecommunication Union.

Little has been written about small hotels and other small and micro businesses in Addis Ababa, and little or nothing about the setbacks that can occur when researching them. This paper fills some of the gaps in the literature.

Expatriates are people who live in a foreign country, but this article confines itself, in the main, to British expatriate librarians and lecturers in librarianship working in English‐speaking Black Africa. Most of the examples are taken from Nigeria, where I have worked as a librarian and as a lecturer since 1975. This is not to say that Nigeria is typical of a continent which is as diverse as Europe or any other, but simply to acknowledge, at the outset, that I am aware of the limitations of generalising on the basis of four years in one country. Few would dispute, however, that those parts of Africa and the rest of the world (including Ireland, my own home country) which experienced British rule have been left with something in common as regards approaches to librarianship as well as to other matters; or dispute that Britain showed little interest in developing libraries in its African colonies until independence was imminent.

DUBLIN DID NOT LACK literary talent in 1924. When Francis Stuart, his wife Iseult, and Cecil Salkeld decided to bring out a new periodical devoted to the arts, they found little difficulty collecting material. W. B. Yeats and Joseph Campbell contributed poems, Liam O'Flaherty a short story. Lennox Robinson—dramatist, director of the Abbey Theatre and secretary of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust's Irish office—was too busy to write anything specially, but offered a story written years previously in New York, ‘The Madonna of Slieve Dun’. The first issue of To‐morrow: a New Irish Monthly (price sixpence) appeared in August. Within six months the Carnegie Trust's Irish Advisory Committee was suspended and Robinson, its secretary, dismissed.

The most obvious symptom of the most obvious trend in the building of new libraries is the fact that, as yet, no spade has entered the ground of the site on Euston Road, London, upon which the new building for the British Library Reference Division has to be erected. Some twenty years of continued negotiation and discussion finally resulted in the choice of this site. The UK and much more of the world awaits with anticipation what could and should be the major building library of the twentieth century. The planning and design of a library building, however large or small, is, relatively speaking, a major operation, and deserves time, care and patience if the best results are to be produced.

This study seeks to establish and compare the research and publication patterns and output of academic librarians in Eastern Africa from 2000 to 2009 using informetric techniques.

The study confined its scope to publications produced between 2000 and 2009. The informetric technique (through content analysis) was used as a research method. The documents that were sourced for content analysis were obtained from the LISA database, which is one of the largest abstract databases in the field of library and information science (LIS). Data were extracted using the names of the librarians obtained from various sources, including: the libraries' web sites, Europa World of Learning and Wikipedia.

The results reveal that the research visibility of academic librarians was insignificant; that publication of research findings over the period was minimal; that publications from university librarians and directors were also minimal; that most academic librarians preferred publishing individually; and that the most published authors come from Tanzania.

Few informetric studies focus on research output of academic librarians in Africa, and also on LIS research in the continent. Furthermore, the library profession is not well understood by many (including the academic community) because people do not appreciate how qualified librarians are, or that their promotion can be linked to research. This study raises issues that relate to the research output and research visibility of university librarians.

The collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic in 1991 led to a world‐wide diaspora. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyse Somali web sites in an attempt to demonstrate how they reflect the troubled history and politics of the homeland and continue to interest, involve, bring together and divide Somalis world‐wide.

Web sites were divided into categories, and a study of the community/political category was conducted. Visits were made to the Horn of Africa and elsewhere, and face‐to‐face interviews conducted. E‐mail contact was maintained with a number of Somali webmasters.

Community/political web sites was the most numerous category, with the majority being named after a geographical area associated with a group of clan lineages or sub‐lineages. They contain news, opinion pieces and other features in Somali and on some web sites in Somali and English. While web sites usually declare that the opinions in articles are those of the authors alone, they are unlikely to publicise views with which they are not in agreement.

The paper illustrates how web sites enable members of one diaspora community to keep in touch with a political situation at home that is exceptional, and to involve themselves in its controversies, should they wish to do so. It also shows how the web site has brought a new dimension to traditional methods of feuding.

I RECKLESSLY ordered a brown ale, while my friend the Famous SF Author satisfied himself with an orange juice and his pipe: he's had to cut down on the drink, on doctor's orders. What with holding down a ‘proper’ job and producing SF novels to a publisher's deadline, his constitution has been undergoing some harsh punishment recently. In the end he had to throw up the ‘proper’ job and become a full‐time author. (In any case, he can't afford to drink at current pub prices.)

‘To MEET the threat, and to realize the potential, we do not need a doctrine of salvation. We have the weapons we need, our minds. Reasoned analysis, imaginative designing and an experimental approach to action form a rational, or at any rate reasonable, triptych which has always served men well. This is the method of liberty; its substance is defined by the new conditions in which we live today. The new liberty means that we have to change our attitudes in order to pass through the turbulence ahead in a manner which enhances human life‐chances. This is what I mean when I say that the subject of history is changing; and the change in approach is reflected in the words which we use—new words; improvement instead of expansion, good husbandry instead of affluence, human activity instead of work, and of course one word which is quite old, liberty.’—Ralf Dahrendorf (‘The new liberty’, 1975 Reith Lectures)