During the recent past poststructuralist and postmodernist era it has become fashionable to think of continents, communities, identities, belonging, tradition, heritage and home as imagined, invented or created entities. The idea of Africa has been tantalising to the West ever since Aristotle in his Historia Animalium reported to the effect that ‘a certain proverb [paroimia] is current that Libya always produces something new - aei Libye pherei ti kaino.’

There is increased recognition of the vital role that scientific information and knowledge has to play in education, poverty reduction and sustainable development. The reverse case is also true – that unless access to information and knowledge is made available to all, the gap between poor and wealthy countries will continue to widen. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan has recently written of how the “unbalanced distribution of scientific activity generates serious problems not only for the scientific community in the developing countries, but for development itself. It accelerates the disparity between advanced and developing countries, creating social and economic difficulties at both national and international levels.”

Advances in technology, particularly in the areas of electronic publishing and dissemination, have led to new ways of communicating information and knowledge and thus present a huge range of opportunities for developed and developing countries alike. They also bring many significant challenges, which are nowhere perhaps more keenly experienced than in developing countries. In this paper I will outline some of the key challenges and also some of the important opportunities presented by the revolution in scholarly electronic publishing. I will illustrate this with examples of projects exploiting new technology to enhance access to information in developing and transitional countries and bridge the knowledge divide.

From May 25-June 4,2004, the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress led “South Africa: A Journey to Promote Reading & Literacy”, a trip that focused on reading and literacy promotion efforts currently underway in schools, libraries, and educational institutions throughout South Africa. The visit took place during the 10th anniversary year of the new South African democracy - and the link between democracy and reading was a theme for the journey and many of the presentations and discussions. Participants learned about the “new” South Africa directly from their South African counterparts, sharing ideas and experiences with people who also believe in the power of books, reading, literacy, and libraries.