USING GREY LITERATURE IN INFORMAL INFORMATION-SERVICES IN AFRICA

There are increasing numbers of experiments (in countries as diverse a s Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Benin, Senegal, Botswana and Zimbabwe) with informal community information services dealing with health, hygiene, child care, cultivation, stock-rearing, trades, crafts and repair work , in the way in which surveys show that citizens require. Conventional ly published material is in very short supply and seldom has relevant content. Extension services, and sometimes libraries, in local communi ties make use of such materials as are available, whether printed in l eaflet, pamphlet, newspaper, poster or flipchart form, or deliver info rmation orally, on tape, filmstrip, or in the form of song, story or d ramatic presentation. Preliminary investigations show that the mechani sms for obtaining appropriate information to repackage for this type o f use, and the capacity to carry out the repackaging exercise, are poo rly developed in most of Africa. The official publications, reports, p lanning and policy documents from non-governmental organisations, deve lopment agencies, aid and charitable organisations and research centre s, which contain this information, are poorly represented in the holdi ngs of national library systems, research collections or government ag encies. Equally significantly, such institutions are not oriented in t he dynamic way required to permit an effective repackaging exercise. T here are, however, a few examples of appropriate arrangements for the acquisition, repackaging and distribution process which are cited as p artial models of the way this work might be done.