Paul was also instrumental in the formation of a now defunct Zimbabwe Book Development Council (ZBDC).

In this vein, ZLDT’s objectives extends the book cafe model into a knowledge centre not limited to books alone.

More about the closure of the Harare Book Cafe here. Reported in the Zimbabwe Standard paper.

Mumbai: The Essar Group’s quest for iron ore remains elusive with Zimbabwe declining to supply the resource as envisaged in a contentious deal between the Indian conglomerate and the African state.

The Essar Group may have to renegotiate the terms of the contract if it wants to continue with its plans in the African nation.

Zimbabwe won’t sell 90% of its iron ore resources to one company, mines and mining development deputy minister Gift Chimanikire said. He added that the provision in the current pact that allowed this was wrong.

Read more on this website

The following story about the reality of a bookless library makes interesting reading. Full text

ZLDT comment
The bias in favour of boys’ education is a long standing tradition in Zimbabwe. Gender activitsts have lobbied over the years on the need for providing equal opportunities to girls education. It does appear this phenomenon will take many years to be eradicated. Parents, brothers and sisters, organisations, Churches, Politicians are therefore urged to consider girls as deserving support for their educational opportunities.

ZLDT is taking a concerted efforts to support the development of a children’s library in Redcliff. Libraries are essential facilities for providing a reading environment.

More about UNICEF’s findings here.

This is a good development for Zimbabwe’s children. However there is a need to intimate and encourage UNICEF and government to go beyond just purchasing textbooks. There is need to provide resources for every school to have a library with a librarian. It may seem a pipe dream but this is required in order to foster wider information literacy.

Full story

A University Library has recently used a book collection agent, who in turn sale the books through Amazon and then reward the library with approximately 20p per book. However the Librarian was phoned by another library in London after one of the books was found with a person who had bought the book, but the security tag had not been removed, thus triggering an alarm. The process of preparing the books for collection by the Agent involve removing idenity tags where possible, placing the books in boxes and arranging their collection, more costly than the 20p paid by the Agent. In such a scenario, most libraries would rather place their unwanted books in recycling bins.

More reasons why libraries chose to burn unwanted books rather than donate them, read .

What has concerned me most is that my mother was given an early discharge from hospital after a major stroke. Although there were signs of recovery, she was discharged before the hospital (Doctor) had satisfied himself about the efficacy of and tolerance to medication prescribed. There was no rehabilitation and followup arranged, thus within a week from discharge, my mum felt dizzy. I could tell it was an onset of another stroke, yet the Doctor prescribed another medication to stop dizziness rather than withdraw the drug that was causing dizziness. Alas her condition worsened and she had to be re-addmitted in the private hospital with another stroke. When I read the adverse effects of the drug that had been given, I found it should have never been prescribed to a stroke patient as it causes blood cloths. She was discharged within 10 days second time, again without adequate plans for her rehabilitation. I have been observing the medications given and found several failings in their combinations and now wonder if this Doctor cares about life. I also wonder how many people are being prescribed medication that makes them lose their lives.

I have had to remotely advise my family to selectively use the medications prescribed. The local clinic has promised to send a Physiotherapist but nothing has meterialsed several weeks.

The prevalent problems noted from my esperience are that:
1. Doctors are precribing without proper diagnosis
2. Doctors are not prescribing relevant medications
3. There is lack of testing equipment e.g. an MRI scan costs $700 and how many people can afford that in a country where the average monthly salary is £250.
4. The private surgeries and local clinics lack adequate equipment. The surgery could not test my mum for diabetes as they did not have strips, while the local clinic does not have blood pressure and diabetes equipment at all.
5. Health providers assume things are expensive and opt to prescribe cheap medications.
6. There are no care plans and agreed clinical guidelines provided both at local and national level, nor is the a national database of clinical evidence.
7. There is a shortage of clinicians and those available are over-loaded and lack time and access to knowledge bases. Their practice seems based on observation and assumptions.

I feel challenged by this scenario. What can be done by us as individuals, by WHO, by the Zimbabwe Government, by Charities. My first attempt would be to buy blood pressure and diabetes testing equipment for the local clinic where my mother resides.

ZLDT aims to support libraries promote knowledge sharing and access in poverty alleviation, business enterprise and health information. I now feel the scope should increase and expand to investigate the extent of delapidation and engage with relevant authorities for service improvement. There is therefore a huge task in saving people’s lives. People are perishing not only for lack of knowledge, but for lack of resources, professionalism, regulation, money etc.

Questions for investigation include:
1. Does reading have a role to play in a traditionally oral culture?
2. How relevant is donated book stock to library users?
3. How is library stock used and, in light of this, what impact does it have?
4. How is reader development supported?

It is intriguing that in many cases the receiving library picks titles based on speculation. DOnors like Book Aid International send out a needs assessment questionnaire for local librarians to complete. However the form appears long and complicated, as such it is not surprising that completion of such forms is not done following proper needs assessment. There is a desire to recieive quantities of books to fill the empty shelves, thereby compromising quality.

To read the full report, clek here.

Library and Information Research, Volume 35 Number 110 2011

There are a few postings on the ZIBF 2011 events:

A reader from Zimbabwe has commented “True ZIBF does not have a website, neither has it written and distributed any information about its events. The article you have posted on ZLDT Website, is a contribution written by WINZ Staff writer, Writers International Network – Zimbabwe on their Facebook site. So its not the ZIBF site. Wonder why a big organisation like ZIBFA cannot even create a blog”.

Preparations for 2012 ZIBF should begin now if it is to be another successful event. Dates will be added as soon as they are available.

In the UK, libraries have been urged to share services across council boundaries and make greater use of digital technologies to survive cuts.

A joint report from the Local Government Group and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, titled Future Libraries: change, options and how to get there, says the digital revolution presents a huge opportunity for library services to broaden their appeal and improve services. The provision of e-books, digital access, fundraising online and new ways of combining and presenting information, such as the use of application programming interfaces and mash-ups are some of the things proposed. There is also scope to make more use of SMS, email and social media in communicating with users.

While fixed internet connections are expensive in Zimbabwe, the use of such technologies will remain limited to a few. There is however need for early implementers of such technologies for other to follow and for the government to use as inspiration. I recently read about the Gweru Memorial Library receiving assistance from the USA Government to install internet connections mainly for the American Universities to use in luring students. Although this is a good development, there is always a problem of bias and cultural imperialism to be mindful of.

To read more follow this link