Community Information Services in Bangladesh: A case study on Community Information Centre (CIC)

Information is power and a driving force for all the activities in the society. Information only has a value when it becomes accessible. Community needs information to make the best use of resources available to them and get direct or indirect help in solving their day to day problems. In Bangladesh, majority of population lives in villages. It is experienced that many of government programmes and services do not reach to common people who is living in villages. Sometimes, community people get information through traditional library system. But rural communities do not get the ICT facilities due to absence of ICT features in the traditional library system. This study focuses the problems associated with the provision of community information services through public library and need the establishment of ICT based community information centre. An attempt has been made to assess how the community information Centres are giving modern information facilities and explores how CIC (Community Information Centre) can be strap up to promote development of rural communities in Bangladesh. It believes that establishment of CIC will make community people life easier to enter information arena through ICT and ensure overall development of Bangladesh. The findings also advocate to make a sound coordination with CIC and rural libraries and suggests some effective measures for the improvement of community information services in Bangladesh.