This book offers an interesting overview of academic libraries and the communities they serve in Africa. The book explores the work of academic libraries from a number of different countries primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the valuable contributions that the book makes is to highlight the numerous innovative ways in which librarians at African universities have been using their often limited resources to ensure students and academics get continual access to worldclass information. The book explores various examples of best practice in challenging circumstances such as unstable electricity and the COVID pandemic. With its mix of practical solutions to, and critical thinking about, the complex issues facing libraries in the Global South, this book is a must read for librarians who are embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and activity working towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Goals in their countries.

Wikipedia and Academic Libraries: A Global Project contains 19 chapters by 52 authors from Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Scotland, Spain, and the United States. The chapters in this book are authored by both new and longtime members of the Wikimedia community, representing a range of experiences.

The 21st Century Academic Library: Global Patterns of Organization and Discourse discusses the organization of academic libraries, drawing on detailed research and data. The organization of the library follows the path of a print book or journal: acquisitions, cataloguing, circulation, reference, instruction, preservation and general administration. Most libraries still have public services and technical services, and are still very print-based in their organization, while their collections and services are increasingly electronic and virtual. This book gathers information on organizational patterns of large academic libraries in the US and Europe, providing data that could motivate libraries to adopt innovative organizational structures or assess the effectiveness of their current organizational patterns. - Contributes to the literature on the globalization of information and of library and information science - Analyzes and presents data in a way that allows librarians and library administrators to consider what organizational patterns are the most effective for the goals they are pursuing - Includes emerging patterns that are not widely seen in the academic library population

Academic libraries cater to the diverse needs of scholars, scientists, technocrats, researchers, students, and others personally and professionally invested in higher education. Due to advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT), the vision and mission of academic libraries are changing in developing countries. Challenges of Academic Library Management in Developing Countries provides the latest theoretical frameworks and empirical research into academic libraries, investigating concerns such as illiteracy, budgeting, software development, technical training, and others. In particular, this book will be of use to professionals and researchers working in the field of library and information science who are looking for new methods and best practices in the management of effective academic libraries. This book is part of the Advances in Library and Information Science series collection.

Global Africa is a striking, original volume that disrupts the dominant narratives that continue to frame our discussion of Africa, complicating conventional views of the region as a place of violence, despair, and victimhood. The volume documents the significant global connections, circulations, and contributions that African people, ideas, and goods have made throughout the world—from the United States and South Asia to Latin America, Europe, and elsewhere. Through succinct and engaging pieces by scholars, policy makers, activists, and journalists, the volume provides a wholly original view of a continent at the center of global historical processes rather than on the periphery. Global Africa offers fresh, complex, and insightful visions of a continent in flux.

Conversations with Leading Academic and Research Library Directors: International Perspectives on Library Management presents a series of conversations with the directors of major academic and research libraries. The book offers insight, analysis, and personal anecdote from leaders in the library field, giving a unique perspective on how the modern library operates. Readers will learn about the most up-to-date trends and practices in the LIS profession from the directors of 24 internationally acclaimed academic and research libraries in Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, and the UK and USA. This is the first book focusing on leaders and managers of library institutions to offer a global outlook. Facing the need to respond to the expectations of changing populations that librarians strive to serve, this book aims to develop a new understanding of the core values of academic and research libraries, and asks how librarians can innovate, adapt, and flourish in a rapidly shifting professional landscape. - Presents conversations with library leaders from 24 major institutions - Offers a global perspective on the operation and management of libraries - Discusses the director's impact on institutional structures and future landscapes - Gives insights based on first-hand experience

A collection of essays from across the world, detailing how library work is becoming globalized. The articles demonstrate new ways to address language and cultural differences, access issues abroad, the international purchase and processing of materials, and information literacy needs of students from all over the world.

As we begin to fundamentally redefine our world, informed through the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) lens, entire industries are gearing up for this disruptive event. Library practices have been no exception. With the advent of advanced digital technology, knowledge is becoming more readily accessible. This book focuses on how libraries need to respond, adapt, and transform to become meaningful spaces in our rapidly changing 21st century, within the 4IR and coupled with the restrictions of the pandemic. Tracing the evolution of technology over the centuries, the changing role of the library as a response to disruptions is discussed.

From St. Augustine and early Ethiopian philosophers to the anti-colonialist movements of Pan-Africanism and Negritude, this encyclopedia offers a comprehensive view of African thought, covering the intellectual tradition both on the continent in its entirety and throughout the African Diaspora in the Americas and in Europe. The term "African thought" has been interpreted in the broadest sense to embrace all those forms of discourse - philosophy, political thought, religion, literature, important social movements - that contribute to the formulation of a distinctive vision of the world determined by or derived from the African experience. The Encyclopedia is a large-scale work of 350 entries covering major topics involved in the development of African Thought including historical figures and important social movements, producing a collection that is an essential resource for teaching, an invaluable companion to independent research, and a solid guide for further study.

'This volume "brings together five regions of the world in one volume offering an overview to anyone interested in library development internationally. Written by regional experts and scholars from each region the book offers first-hand knowledge about public libraries, academic libraries, special libraries, school libraries, library and information science education and international library associations in" each of these regions'.--P. [11].