Libraries and information services towards the attainment of the UN millennium development goals

The United Nations Millenium declarations of 2002 set eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015. The high poverty levels in most African countries make many aware that it is no longer up to the governments alone to find ways of abetting it, but that other organizations need to join the fight. Libraries are well placed to contribute to the development process in supporting it by providing relevant, up to date and reliable information. The papers presented in this publication address the question how African libraries and information professionals seek to make themselves relevant to national development. All of them focus on how libraries and information centres could contribute to the attainment of these MDGs. The papers are a selection of the proceedings of the Eighteenth Standing Conference of East, Central and Southern Africa Library and Information Associations (SCECSAL) held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 15th - 18th July 2008.