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This case study looks at building partnerships and networking relationships that developed in the course of implementing a three-year (August 2009–August 2012) Information Literacy (IL) in Higher education project “Developing an Information Literacy Programme for Lifelong Learning for African Universities” funded by Development Partners in Higher Education (DelPHE). The process leading to the end of the project has been enriching and opened windows to various professional networking relationships and institutional cooperation within the African region and with those abroad. The contacts have opened new avenues for further research and collaboration in areas such as monitoring and evaluation of the IL programs in Higher Education (HE) institutions. The University of Botswana (UB) has benefited from these collaborative initiatives and this chapter traces the partnerships that evolved in the course of institutionalizing and embedding information literacy at UB, its participation in the DelPHE project, and how the leadership took advantage of opportunities that came along in order to augment and enrich the activities and outcomes of the project as well as promote the university’s vision and mission. The chapter concludes by highlighting some of the benefits and challenges of collaboration among institutions, organizations, and individual professionals in advancing the institutional policies, strategic plans, and interests which may be at variance and how some of these challenges can be overcome.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how libraries and information centres can play a key role in national development through strategic working partnerships with government and other stakeholders.

The paper is based on literature review and practical examples.

The paper finds that Botswana Government has formulated Maitlamo policy for the development of public libraries and through this policy partnerships have been established by the African comprehensive HIV/AIDS partnerships through the Sesigo project. Another partnership has been between parastatal organisations such as Botswana Technology Centre and Botswana National Library Services.

The paper suggests the potential areas of partnerships that include community development, youth development, music and sports, cultural activities and indigenous knowledge.

Libraries have faced many periods of grim economic realities. These periods of hardship have forced libraries to strive for more efficient organizational structures. Many of these improved organizational structures have been the result of mergers and/or consolidations. This phenomenological study describes the lived experiences of the merger design team of a large and complex library organization.

Results indicated the experience of the participants touched upon each of Bolman and Deal’s (2008) four frames: political, human resources, structural, and symbolic. The merger design team’s effectiveness on task is congruent with the model of team effectiveness proposed by Hackman (2002). Lastly, the role of underlying assumptions, espoused values and beliefs, and artifacts that makes up the organization’s culture falls within the parameters set forth by Schein (2004).

University libraries are not only crossroads of scholarly communities but are also now connecting business proprietors to places, institutions, and resources that support business growth. Therefore, through creating new formal and informal partnerships, university libraries can create friendly environments where external users like small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can work together to access and use research and innovation (R&I) information for the sustenance and growth of their business ventures. Vibrant and reengineered university library partnership programs can go a long way in engaging national, regional, and international business growth activities.

This chapter reports on a study carried out on Ugandan university libraries and how they can serve SMEs with their university’s research output. The purpose of the study was to investigate the need for restructuring university library partnerships in order to serve SMEs better through their R&I information services. The study used an exploratory research design and used questionnaires and interviews to collect data. This chapter reports on available formal and informal innovative university libraries’ partnerships with different organizational levels of SMEs; the communication and organizational structures between university libraries and SMEs; shared visions, missions, standards, and policies of Ugandan university libraries and SMEs; and the roles and collaborations with professional library bodies such as the Consortium of Ugandan University Libraries (CUUL), Uganda Library and Information Association (ULIA), and the International Association of Technological University Libraries (IATUL), among others.

This paper seeks to advance the case for designing an information and knowledge management curriculum (IKMC) to produce information and knowledge management professionals (IKMPs) in the Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa Library and Information Associations (SCECSAL) region. It highlights challenges and solutions and proposes a model IKMC.

The paper is based on the analysis of literature on Library and Information Science (LIS) curriculum design, implementation and review; research findings by renowned LIS curriculum experts; discussions and sharing experiences with colleagues in LIS education institutions – Eastern African School of Library and Information Science and LIS departments at the Uganda Christian University and Kyambogo University in addition to the author's research and publications on curriculum design and management.

The paper posits that the SCECSAL region is already in the Information and Knowledge Society (IKS) and that appropriate information and knowledge (IK) are pre‐requisites to the promotion and sustainability of democracy and good governance (Gg). It emphasises that information and knowledge management (IKM) are the corner stones of the IKS, because they constitute the framework of theory and competencies vital in managing information and knowledge. Furthermore, effective IKM is the pillar of producing the IKMPs themselves, a product of appropriate and well managed IKMC. The paper proposes an IKMC Model capable of producing IKMPs in the SCECSAL region.

The proposed curriculum model should be the framework to be adopted by the LIS education and training institutions in the SCECSAL region to produce IKMPs with theory and competencies to manage the IKS towards enhancing democracy and Gg.