Government must invest in information centres to boost local content


An information practitioner, Munyaradzi Shoko once said, “every country has its own local content (knowledge) that it seeks to preserve for future posterity”.

“That content does not flow on its own accord; it needs originators with the motivation to create, adapt and exchange it.”

So, information centres should help create and promote local content to enable the passing on of information from one generation to the other.

Local content is the expression of the locally owned and adapted knowledge of a community taking cognizance of the language or location.

It covers indigenous knowledge, local web content, locally generated skills and services, grey literature, media content, national constitutions, drama and dance, organisational records, community information, the art of conversation and local print publications (Chisita, 2011).

Accordingly, as custodians of information, information centres should be strategically positioned to play a leading role in promoting local content creation and dissemination.

Aso, information centres should utilise their accumulated cultural and intellectual heritage to promote local content. This can be achieved by facilitating easier and affordable access through the local and global information structure.

To effectively create and disseminate local content, information resource centres should develop websites that contain much with regards to local content.

Since culture is also critical for local content development, the preservation of its assets helps in promoting social cohesion.

Cultural industries use creativity, cultural knowledge and intellectual property to produce culturally meaningful products and services.

It is important to note that since culture is also embedded in verbal communication, language is also significant in local content development.

Therefore, information centres should promote cultural programmes.

Libraries and other related institutions can support local content creation and dissemination through exploiting social networking platforms like facebook, wikis and blogs.

Lack of capital for content development, lack of a vibrant and relevant indigenous publishing industry and inappropriate training opportunities for content creators are challenges confronting local content development.

Therefore government and stakeholders in the information industry should invest in the indigenous publishing industry.

They spearhead the funding of libraries and information centres and also ensure appropriate training opportunities for content creators.

Lazarus Sauti

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