The resource centre forums: Democratic and alternative information networks for South Africa

This paper describes the emergence of popular information networks, the resource centre forums in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Such forums have been established virtually countrywide. Collectively they have identified priorities for their regional development and national co-operation. They represent a significant response to a need for alternative library and information networks to serve the struggle for democracy. This has been recognised in the research prepared for a forthcoming document on national policy options in education in which library and information work forms a subgroup.