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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
THE government has embarked on a countrywide programme to establish media centres (information huts) at growth points as it moves to enhance dissemination of developmental information to rural communities.In a speech read on his behalf by the principal director in the Ministry Media, Information and Broadcasting Services Regis Chikowore at the 48th annual conference of the Zimbabwe Library Association (ZimLA) in Victoria Falls, Information secretary George Charamba said the programme was meant to bridge the rural-urban information divide.
“It is government’s wish to ensure that every Zimbabwean has access to information regardless of whether one is in the urban or rural areas. Closing the rural urban information divide remains uppermost on the government agenda and my ministry is mandated to ensure that the gap is bridged,” said Charamba.
“Among the rural outreach programmes, which the ministry is working on is the establishment in the rural areas at growth points and other identified community centres of information huts. These are virtual multi-media centres where ordinary people in the rural communities can walk in and access the media of their choice, that is newspapers, magazines, newsletters, policy documents, browse the internet, watch television programmes and videos.”
Charamba said the government had challenged the ministry to ensure that information about the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) cascades to the general populace. He also challenged libraries to complement government efforts to ensure information on Zim-Asset is readily available.
Charamba said the ministry has already engaged local leaders over the matter to identify centres.
“With time these info-huts would gradually develop into virtual libraries. The prime objective being to ensure easy access of information.
It’s our hope that this will be a collaborative effort between the government and all other communication stakeholders,” he said.
“We talk about Zim-Asset but how many people understand what it means? The ministry, media, teachers, librarians and other partners have a case to answer for not playing our dissemination role. It’s an indisputable fact that information spurs development and similarly, in the absence of information, there is no meaningful development at whatever level.”
Charamba urged the library association to ensure schools and all other sectors have access to critical developmental information and bemoaned lack of reading culture among citizens.
“Libraries are conduits for information and should be serving a wide spectrum of information seekers beyond the formal educational environment such as schools, colleges and universities. As librarians . . . think outside the box and introduce new products and services in the libraries. This calls for constant upgrading of information technology skills to enable you to handle or trade in digital information,” he said.
Charamba urged librarians to find innovative ways of growing the library industry especially through information communication technologies (ICTs).
The conference, which ends tomorrow, runs under the theme “Working smarter and adding value: Library services in a new paradigm”, which the permanent secretary said was appropriate as it relates well with the national focus, which is centred on exploring and encouraging all possible strategies that can help the country turn around its economic fortunes for the betterment of its citizens. There was concern about neglect of libraries by relevant authorities with ZimLA saying that was killing the sector. ZimLA president Lantern Fusire said theirs was a “networking platform for librarian professionals”.
“We wish the library sector could be recognised which is why we are calling for a paradigm shift as we harness new technologies. On the issue of info-huts, we really look forward to work towards achieving national agenda,” he said.
derick.khumalo