The Internet and other communication networks are development tools, quite as important as educational, agricultural and training programmes. Information, Information Technologies and data networks have (and have had) a fundamental role in the development of ‘northern societal and cultural environments’, though the Internet is still seen by some people in developed countries simply as a pastime, as a new multimedia entertainment providing nice graphics and images. In a society sated with information, the need for Information and Information Technologies are perhaps not always fully appreciated. The role of networks as valuable development tools may therefore be better understood in the African context. The purpose ofthis article, however, is not only to point out the importance of electronic communication networks such as the Internet in helping the processes of development in Africa, but also to offer readers of the Africa Bibliography an up-to-date guide to the extent and kinds of connectivity currently operating or being planned in African countries, and to some of the problems – political, financial, technical – that the new information technology faces today.

The bibliographic array for the study of Africa and African scholarship has reached proportions which were unthinkablefiftyyears ago at the birth ofAfrican Studies Programs. Not only has the bibliographic coverage marshalled material in all areas of research but this coverage is readily available at the click of a computer in most corners of the globe. In an ideal world the actual resources would also be accessed with ease and digital speed. Indeed much research material is readily obtained in microfilm, microform, and CD-Rom format. However the bulk of retrospective, archival, ephemeral, and manuscript literature is to be found only in a few selected centres often far removed from students and scholars, especially those based in Africa.

Looking back over the steps undertaken before the Ghana Library Services were established, it seems very important that so much preliminary work was embarked on. First a country-wide survey was made, and a detailed plan worked out of the future development, taking into account the educational system, the general standard of literacy and the rate of its increase, the languages in common use, population distribution, the transport and communication systems, the demand - as opposed to the need - for books, the pattern of local authorities and their view on the principles of library provision and - very importantly - who would ultimately be responsible for the financial needs of the library system, the purpose of the library provision and what it hoped to achieve, the resources needed for the Services and draft estimates for the first five years.