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This case study looks at building partnerships and networking relationships that developed in the course of implementing a three-year (August 2009–August 2012) Information Literacy (IL) in Higher education project “Developing an Information Literacy Programme for Lifelong Learning for African Universities” funded by Development Partners in Higher Education (DelPHE). The process leading to the end of the project has been enriching and opened windows to various professional networking relationships and institutional cooperation within the African region and with those abroad. The contacts have opened new avenues for further research and collaboration in areas such as monitoring and evaluation of the IL programs in Higher Education (HE) institutions. The University of Botswana (UB) has benefited from these collaborative initiatives and this chapter traces the partnerships that evolved in the course of institutionalizing and embedding information literacy at UB, its participation in the DelPHE project, and how the leadership took advantage of opportunities that came along in order to augment and enrich the activities and outcomes of the project as well as promote the university’s vision and mission. The chapter concludes by highlighting some of the benefits and challenges of collaboration among institutions, organizations, and individual professionals in advancing the institutional policies, strategic plans, and interests which may be at variance and how some of these challenges can be overcome.

Inconsistency and/or a lack of a clear understanding of the criteria for serial selection and evaluation have been observed to characterise the presentation of requests for approval of serials at the University of Botswana Library (UBL). This, on a number of occasions, has made decision taking difficult and sometimes inconclusive. The paper provides a case study of the examination of guidelines in use in other academic libraries. It also describes the process and procedure currently in use at the UBL. The study identified some anomalies and suggests modifications to ensure consistency in the presentation of submissions to guide better decision making by the Serials Selection Committee of the Library.

This chapter gives a general overview of the book, indicates the rich diversity of information literacy (IL) and information behaviour (IB) work carried out and is organised into four broad areas moving from the strategic to the highly contextualised. The four areas are specifically: strategic view; delivering information literacy education; the link between university and work; beyond higher education. The approach for each chapter is summarised. This chapter also examines the inter-related nature of the concepts of information literacy and information behaviour. It shows how these ideas are contextualised, theorised and researched. The authors argue that far from being conflicting approaches to the same problem of information capability, they are, in fact, complementary. Though these are epistemologically different both have much to offer in terms of explanation and also as tools for fostering information capability. The history of information literacy and information behaviour is overviewed and their inter-relation explored. It is argued that information literacy can be viewed as the practitioners’ model for delivering information capability whilst information behaviour, being more research focussed, explains it. A diagram is presented at the end of the chapter which helps to highlight and summarise the distinctions and similarities between IB and IL research.

Responding to the need expressed by agricultural researchers in Africa for improved access to the research literature, and the original documents, CAB International initiated a two‐year pilot project in 1987 to provide a literature service to researchers in its member countries in Africa. The paper describes the background to the project, its conception, implementation and progress to date, and some of the problems identified in trying to provide such a service. The objective has been very much to minimize cost and administrative procedures at both ends, to provide a timely, cost‐effective and useful service to as many researchers as possible. Although overall response has been patchy, the enthusiastic participation from some countries has indicated the value of the service, although it obviously needs some refinement if it is to be extended over a longer period or to more users.