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Using ICTs effectively to leverage global communications: the case of public libraries in Zimbabwe By Bhowa tg & Hosea Tokwe The last two decades has seen significant changes in the information and communication technology (ICT) landscape, resulting in a fundamental shift in public library services and skills required of public librarians.   ICTs are becoming more interdisciplinary and interpersonal in nature, requiring a broader range of skills to meet ever changing end user needs.   ICTs have the power to create and deliver public library products and services that are on time, within budget, and of high quality.   The advent of ubiquitous computing and the birth of e-terms such as e-books, e-mail, and e-agriculture are just but small indicators of the degree of change that an information-hungry culture has experienced over the past 20-25 years.   For many public library end users, ICTs are now an enabler, rather than an enigma and has become the ...

Open Source Open Access: a Hot Library Combo As library budgets dwindle at an alarming rate, Librarians are weighing other options to trim down their spending.   One area has been to adopt freely available applications over the more fancied proprietary solutions.   This justifies why my fellow Librarians have become so much interested and excited in learning more about open culture especially open source and open access, which are becoming an indispensible combo for progressive library solutions.   This hot combo may be likened to Siamese twins who need and complement each other in many ways.   What many of my Librarian colleagues’ may not realize is that whilst open applications come without license fees, and will most likely save significant library funds, open culture   is about so much more than a price tag.     In this dialogue I will attempt to provide a brief (and not conclusive) overview of the history and definition of open sourc...