Africa Section. Regional Activities Division. Papers.

Papers on the role and services of African libraries and the education of African librarians, which were presented at the 1983 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) conference, include: (1) "The Information Sector in the Economic Development of Africa: The Potential Role for Libraries," in which Benzies Y. Boadi (Nigeria) outlines African problems in information processing, the failure of library and information systems to provide user-oriented library services, and the need for and examples of national and regional library coordination; (2) "The Industrial Development Decade for Africa 1980-1990: Its Implications for the Library and Information Services of Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa," in which Peter Moll (United Kingdom) examines the prospects for the creation of an infrastructure to support electronic information systems through the Pan-African Documentation and Information System (PADIS) in the subregion designated as East Africa; and (3) "La Formation Professionnelle des Bibliothecaires Documentalistes dans un Monde Technologique: l'Exemple de la Tunisie" (Professional Training of Information Scientists in a Technological World: The Example of Tunisia)," in which Abdelhamid El Ajmi (Tunisia--paper in French) describes the development and current status of 4-year and 2-year educational programs for information scientists, librarians, and archivists in Tunisia, with emphasis on instruction in the use of information technology and automated systems at the Institut de Presse et des Sciences de l'Information de Tunis (IPSI) and the Institut Superieur de la Documentation (ISD). (ESR)