Information intermediaries in the next millennium: an agenda for action for the development of information consultancy and brokerage in Africa
| Date | 01 March 1999 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435129910251584 |
| Published date | 01 March 1999 |
| Pages | 105-114 |
| Author | Dennis Ocholla |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Information
intermediaries in the
next millennium: an
agenda for action for
the development of
information
consultancy and
brokerage in Africa
Dennis Ocholla
Introduction
Information consultancy and brokerage seem
to feature prominently among the sources of
information that are increasingly tapped by
information consumers along with such pop-
ular information sources as private contacts,
official files, mass media, libraries, archives
and records centres, whenever they need
information. Yet, knowledge about their
availability and, hence, exploitation of these
sources, is insignificant in Africa when com-
pared to developed countries. A study
conducted on information consultancy and
brokerage in Botswana in 1996 (Ocholla,
1998a) revealed that accessibility to informa-
tion used by clients is increasingly dominated
by private contacts, office files and mass
media. Although this finding confirms a
paradigm in information seeking in which
people tend to exploit and use more infor-
mation resources closest to them (Ocholla,
1996b; 1998a) the fact that 34 per cent
responded in favour of information consul-
tancy and brokerage in that study leave us
with food for thought.
Approximately 15 years ago, Moll and
Lewis (1983) projected that information
brokerage would be one of the largest growth
areas in the UK. We may not be able to
confirm today, whether that vision has been
achieved, but note that the number of
information brokerage firms has drastically
increased in Britain as reflected in the latest
directory of information brokers in that
country. I am convinced that the principle
underlying the growth of information con-
sultancy and brokerage lies with the reasons
for switching to information consultancy and
brokerage that include unemployment, will-
ingness of information consumers to pay for
the services, cutbacks in public sector spend-
ing, growing interest in self-employment and
the inability of the existing information
services to sustain the demand for informa-
tion. Peter Vickers, writing on ``information
consultancy in the UK'' (1992), elucidates
one of the underlying principles by observing
that there is a marked growth in demand for
the services of information consultants, par-
ticularly in the need for professional advice on
how to use information technology. This
observation does not apply to the UK alone
but also extends to other parts of the world
where post-industrial information products
and services are extensively consumed. It
The author
Dennis Ocholla is Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and Head
of the Department of Library and Information Science,
University of Zululand, South Africa.
Keywords
Botswana, Education, Information brokers,
Information centres, Information services, Library services
Abstract
Explores and presents an agenda for action in introducing
and developing information consultancy and brokerage as
an alternative information service in Africa. The agenda
focuses on co-ordination and publicity of the services,
research, LIS education, market, trends and problems. The
author explores the results of a study he conducted in
Botswana in order to compile the agenda and concludes
that as long as the African communities increasingly
consume post-industrial and information society or
western products and services, ``ruralness'', poverty,
illiteracy and underdeveloped information infrastructure,
alone, cannot alienate the information consumers from
exploiting and using information consultancy and
brokerage services. This article, based on a paper
presented by the author at the 13-SCECSAL conference in
Nairobi in July 1998, suggests a need for a conference or
pre-SCECSAL seminar, on the subject in the near future,
for information specialists in Africa. A draft directory of
information consultants and brokers in Botswana is
appended to the paper.
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105
Library Management
Volume 20 .Number 2 .1999 .pp. 105±114
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0143-5124
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