Towards a new paradigm of LIS training for agricultural librarians in Zimbabwe: challenges and opportunities

Education and training of agricultural librarians is central to the development of an efficient agricultural system because realization of socio-economic stability and sustainable development is anchored on access to information. Zimbabwe is an agro- based economy and as such the education and training of Librarians with requisite knowledge and skills to contribute towards increased agricultural productivity is of greater importance. The realization of the United Nations’ millennium development goal number one “Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger” is dependent upon the extent to which a country invest in the education and training of proficient and efficient agricultural Librarians or information professionals. The lack of a clear and robust agricultural information dissemination system in Zimbabwe, just like any other third world country shows that there is a need for a paradigm shift in the education and training of agricultural librarians so that new systems are developed to address contemporary challenges in the generation, collection, organisation and dissemination of agricultural information. This onerous task lies on LIS schools to come up with new models of education and training agricultural information practitioners that address contemporary issues to do with access to agricultural information by rural populace whose livelihood is entrenched in farming. This paper will examine education and training needs of agricultural librarians, challenges and opportunities and the prospects of developing vibrant and viable agricultural information systems to foster value addition and production in an agro-based economy. It will further explore the extent to which the current training offered by Library and Information schools in Zimbabwe is in tandem with the on the job requirements of agricultural librarianship and to what extent does this training incorporate Agricultural Information services. The paper will further expose the extent to which stakeholders in industry and commerce namely the agriculturalists are involved or consulted in the process of curriculum review and development, with regards to the Agricultural librarianship.