Boost for African electronic information resources

The UCT Centre for Information Literacy (CIL) has been awarded a technical assistance grant of US$271 000 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in recognition of its capacity to strengthen the development and provision of high quality electronic information resources in libraries.

CIL director, Professor Peter Underwood, said that an important element of the grant proposal involved sending an international team of specialists to visit higher education, national and public libraries supported by Carnegie in Africa.

This will build on a workshop that will take place after the 73rd Congress of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in Durban in August 2007.

This will be attended by 41 delegates from African libraries.

The workshop will ensure that participants know how to develop the systematic development and evaluation of electronic resources in library collections. They will also be taught to formulate strategies for promoting and marketing these collections.