Some 43 participants from 23 African countries from the Anglophone, Francophone and Arabic librarianship traditions, and six representatives of IFLA and UNESCO, met at the Ecole des Sciences de l'Information (ESI) in Rabat Morocco to participate in the African/Arab Conference on Public and School Librarianship, held from 19-21 September 2001. This paper summarizes the issues raised by participants during a plenary discussion on 'Lifelong Learning: Bridging the Digital Divide and Planning forthe Future'. The primary objective of the Conference was to present the UNESCO Public and School Library Manifestos and respective Guidelines to the African and Arab professional librarians who work or are experienced in policy formulation or training forpublic and school librarianship. The Conference provided the opportunity for a review of the state of public and school libraries in the various countries through the presentation of country reports. Last but not least participants debated burning issues which need to be addressed by African and Arab countries, for the Manifestos and Guidelines to facilitate development of the public and the school library systems and meet the needs of communities in the various countries. The participants grouped themselves into the Anglophone and Francophone linguistic and librarianship traditions and discussed defined topical public and school librarianship issues. Recommendations from groups were presented at plenary. They were followed by a plenary discussion on Lifelong Learning: Bridging the Digital Divide and Planning for the Future. This report will focus on thoughts that were put forward at this session, which was informed by the intense debates on and analysis of various case studies as influenced by the contexts in which they operate. The objective is to encourage a debate among IFLA members as part of a broad consultative mechanism addressing the specific issue of Bridging the Digital Divide.
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