Abstract Social media presents a robust stage for disseminating time-sensitive information that is needed during a public health disease of global concern such as COVID-19. This study finds out how the 23 anglophone Sub-Saharan African countries’ national health ministries and infectious disease agencies disseminated COVID-19 related information through their social media accounts within the first three months after the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. COVID-19 related qualitative and quantitative data types were collected from the social media accounts of the surveyed national health ministries and agencies for analysis. Over 86% of the African countries had presence on social media; Facebook was the most popular, though Twitter contained more posts. One of the credibility issues that was noticed is that most of the health ministries’ and agencies’ social media accounts were unverified and access to the social media accounts was not provided on most of their official websites. Information dissemination became more deliberate and increased significantly after the announcement of the fist cases of COVID-19 in the countries under review. Awareness creation, updates and news constituted the major categories of information that were disseminated, mostly in the form of derivative social media information before the announcement of the first COVID-19 case in the surveyed African countries. Campaigns against misinformation were barely undertaken by most of the countries. Strategies used by some countries included the employment of social media influencers and creation of content in local languages. Strategies that include development of health information content that targets different groups in African societies and the inclusion of elderly in the community and religious leaders as non-state actors in health information communication were recommended.

Abstract Open scholarship is a major reform movement within research. This paper seeks to understand how open scholarship might address the challenges faced by research in Africa, through a study based on a participatory collaborative workshop to create a partnership with librarians in Rwanda. The literature review identifies three broad perspectives on the apparent under-performance of Rwandan research: one locating the issue in the unequal scholarly communications system, a second pointing to a country deficit and a third blaming cognitive injustices. The Rwandan librarians see researchers as challenged through the pressures on them to publish, the costs of research, poor infrastructure, lack of skills and limited access to literature. Collectively these challenges constitute a critical barrier to research. These limits fit largely the country deficit perspective. Open scholarship as conceived in the Global North is only a small part of the answer to the challenges faced by Rwandan scholars. To promote equity, notions of open scholarship need to take into account the conditions under which research is conducted in less privileged contexts such as Rwanda.

Abstract Digitization of archival materials has gained global popularity as both practice in cultural heritage institutions and a scholarly topic. However, ethical issues involved in digitization, especially the challenges brought by cross-cultural archival digitization practices, have been only weakly explored. In the domain of Asian Studies librarianship in the United States, digitizing archive materials acquired from Asian countries in academic and research libraries has facilitated Asian Studies research, but also brought up ethical concerns of inappropriately translating the original culture for new audiences. This paper treats digitization as a translational device bridging cultural contexts, public audiences, and personal accounts, as well as openness and privacy. Focusing on the unique open-access digital archival collection The Chinese Marriage Documents (1909–1997) at the University of Pittsburgh as a case study, I examine crucial cross-cultural ethics involved in the digitization process and discuss best practices to digitize and disseminate culturally sensitive archives ethically.

Abstract Evaluation of information retrieval systems is a fundamental topic in Library and Information Science. The aim of this paper is to connect the system-oriented and the user-oriented approaches to relevant philosophical schools. By reviewing the related literature, it was found that the evaluation of information retrieval systems is successful if it benefits from both system-oriented and user-oriented approaches (composite). The system-oriented approach is rooted in Parmenides’ philosophy of stability (immovable) which Plato accepts and attributes to the world of forms; the user-oriented approach is rooted in Heraclitus’ flux philosophy (motion) which Plato defers and attributes to the tangible world. Thus, using Plato’s theory is a comprehensive approach for recognizing the concept of relevance. The theoretical and philosophical foundations determine the type of research methods and techniques. Therefore, Plato’s dialectical method is an appropriate composite method for evaluating information retrieval systems.

Abstract The Beibei Public Library (1928–1950) dedicated itself to social education in the rural areas of Chongqing. Examining this library in light of rural reconstruction, this study considers how libraries are affected by the attitudes and behaviors of social elites, officials, government policies, wars, conventional thinking etc. The Beibei Public Library is studied in terms of three aspects: indoor service, itinerant libraries, and additional services. Moreover, this study examines how librarians catered to peasants’ needs, promoted knowledge dissemination, and helped mold new lifestyles in rural China. This case study contributes to research on Chinese rural libraries in the first half of the twentieth century.

Abstract Despite the increasing focus on the protection and promotion of the cultures of ethnic minority groups in China, the multicultural services in China’s public libraries have not yet been strengthened. This paper reports on a research study that aimed to develop a framework of library multicultural services to serve as a conceptual basis for the development of these types of services in China’s public libraries and in particular for those libraries located in China’s ethnic minority regions. Yanbian Library, the regional central library of China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, was selected as a case study, with 10 library professionals approached and interviewed using a semi-structured interview script. All interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The analysis pointed to 21 multicultural services in five main themes: multicultural user services, multilingual collection development, development of multicultural service teams, marketing of multicultural services and management of multicultural services. Although this study is situated in China, the research findings are of potential interest to library and information professionals, educators and researchers worldwide.

Abstract This article examines the effect of the adoption of social media in legal practice in Nigeria. It discusses some of the major challenges that have recently been experienced in the use of legal information in Nigeria within the context of the social media revolution, particularly with respect to ethics. A survey method was employed and data was collected through self-administered questionnaires to the study population comprising practicing lawyers located in various law firms in Nigeria. Outcomes from the study provide preliminary evidence on the nature of the application of social media in legal practice and the prospects for its inclusion as an important aspect of legal research in the legal education system in Nigeria.

Abstract Daunting backlogs in terms of the library and information resource-provision in communities remain a stumbling block for all people, particularly youths, to have equitable access to information as a commodity to satisfy their dynamic and diverse ever-evolving information needs. In South Africa, the system of ruling called apartheid, also known as separate development, was officially nullified by the first democratic elections in 1994. All people including those in under-served rural communities need equitable access to information in varied formats for personal growth and development however, in the library and information services (LIS) sector, existing divisions, barriers or boundaries impede diverse users with wide-ranging information needs to fulfil them. User groups of libraries are currently divided along the still-prevailing historical divisions, an example being how university libraries are traditionally intended to cater for the information needs of their students, academics and administrative staff. Despite fulfilling their teaching needs, university libraries are also expected to cater for the research needs of students and academics to fulfil research projects, presenting university libraries as existing solely for teaching and research purposes. The key findings of the study are that most LIS are still distinctly divided with regard to their user-groups and ecosystems, with collaborations and partnerships very minimal in the LIS sector in South Africa. The study concludes that these distinct divisions deny multiple users the opportunity to equitably access information resources to meet their information needs daily. The study recommends that, based on the literature review, a holistic interconnected complex network of libraries working and existing as an ecosystem can be a viable solution to provision of LIS in resource-poor rural South African communities where there is inadequate resource-provision. The study also recommends borderless and seamless access to all libraries to enable multiple and diverse users to satisfy their dynamic and ever-changing information needs.