8th Interlending and Document Supply International Conference, Canberra Australia 28-31 October 2003
 



Bridging the digital divide: working toward equity of access through document supply services in South Africa

Kim Baker

Abstract | Paper in [PDF] Portable Document Format (PDF)
Presentation in Microsoft® PowerPoint® format

South Africa's history presents unique challenges for librarians involved in document supply services in South Africa. The apartheid era left a legacy of unequally distributed resources, with some libraries being very well supported, financially, while other libraries that were allocated to separately serve the black population of South Africa, were atrociously under-resourced. Traditional Interlending services were one way to help bridge this gap. With the change in government, political and strategic priorities also changed, focusing on addressing and redressing this imbalance. However, at the same time, great advances were made globally with technological developments, and globalization occurred almost simultaneously. This left many of the strategic initiatives without funding, and many initiatives had to be re-thought to accommodate the global and technological changes.

In South Africa, Sabinet-Online led (and is still leading) the move towards digitization. As a private company, they are able to generate profits, and thus had the necessary resources to pioneer this digital revolution, while many state-funded institutions fell further behind, due to drastic budget cuts. Sabinet-Online have introduced ReQuest, which is an online Interlending module providing all functionality, including an electronic IFM (Interlending fees management) system. Most major educational, government and corporate libraries now use ReQuest to process their Interlending requests nationally. However, many smaller, under-resourced libraries, especially in rural and remote areas, are not able to afford Sabinet-Online's subscription fees, and thus are finding that they are being left behind.

 

 

 
  National Library of Australia Australian Library and Information Association International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions