This Opinion Paper considers the relevance for sub-Saharan Africa of the Western world's electronic information supply systems. It summarlzes F. W. Lancaster's forecast of a coming electronic paperless society. From the perspective of Afrlca'a economic and social ciifflculties it looks at Lancaster's recommendation that libraries In developing countries should attempt to bypass the book and leap from oral to electronic communication. It discusses who benefits from libraries at present and who would most likely benefit from electronic librarles. It cites examples of the "book famine" from which the existing libraries now suffer. It criticizes the view that supplying facts to important people via computer will help poor areas to develop. It outlines Africa's dependence and instances some of the inappropriate foreign advice and aid it receives. Most of the examples are taken from ex-British Africa, the countries that in all but one or two cases have kept on English as their official language. The conclusion is that the electronic library and indeed information science in general distract from what African librarians ought to be doing: helping the illiterate majority of their people learn to read and write.
"Will the paperless society be in place by the end of the century? It seems highly likely that it will," suggests Lancaster, who has written at length on the topic [ 1, 2-71. He instances the electronic systems already in operation for withdrawing money from one's bank account, reserving a seat on an airplane, and writing a paper on a word processor. He writes of the speed with which a scientist can now inform others of his work by transmitting a communication through the computer terminal on his desk. He mentions the revolution that the new technology has brought to the production of conventional printed material, the multiplication of online bibliographic databases and the increasing availability of complete texts online. He tells of the possibilities for