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A Brief History
APLESA was founded in Harare, Zimbabwe, in October 1994 when participants of eleven countries of the region met. These countries were Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The idea of forming an association had been around since 1986 as the parliamentary librarians became aware of the need for effective information exchange programmes and cooperation among the parliamentary libraries in the region.

In 1990 Mr Gurure, then Chief Librarian of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, circularised his colleagues asking for their opinion about a regional association. At the 1990 IFLA Conference in Sweden Mr Gurure received considerable encouragement for this proposal, and in 1992, with the assistance of IFLA and the International Development Research Centre (IRDC), feasibility study visits and a further survey were carried out leading to the inaugural meeting, funded by IFLA.

At this meeting the topics discussed included a survey of Parliamentary Librarianship in the region, resource sharing among Parliaments of the region and the need for the Member of Parliament to have concise, timely and adequate information. A constitution was adopted and it was recommended that the different Parliaments should be asked to provide some funds to enable study visits, attachments, formal and informal training, collection development and attendance at Library meetings - national, regional and international.

The promotion of exchange of parliamentary documents with the region was agreed as well as a regular newsletter. Since that meeting members of APLESA have kept in touch, and exchange of some material has taken place.

The first APLESA Conference was held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in July 1995. Eleven delegates from eight countries attended and there were observers from information centres in Dar-es-Salaam. Topics discussed included the role of parliamentary libraries in multi-party states with special emphasis on the need to provide timely, up-to-date and accurate information; creation and utilisation of research services with special emphasis on the interrelationship between the Parliamentary Library and the Research Section; the need for cooperation or sharing of resources; and the role of the library in the 21st century. It was clear that there was still much work to be done in realising certain of the set goals, including the implementation of exchange programmes and the initiation of informal training programmes, but much progress had been made in establishing professional co-operation.

The 1996 conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa in September 1996 with the theme, 'The functioning of a modern Parliamentary Library in Africa'. At that time, South Africa was the only parliamentary library in the association with access to the Internet.

At the APLESA Conference in Lusaka in 1998, it was observed that even though managers of parliamentary libraries in Eastern and Southern Africa have skills in traditional information management, they seriously lack skills in modern information management and administration. The meeting recognised in particular the need to provide electronic information management training. It was resolved that the Executive Committee of APLESA would seeks funds to organise an intensive management training workshop for Parliamentary Librarians of the APLESA region concurrently with APLESA's annual conference.

From 19th to 23rd of July 1999 the 5th annual APLESA Conference and concurrent workshop took place in Windhoek Namibia, with 22 delegates from 12 countries and 3 observers. The objectives of the workshop were aimed at empowering parliamentary librarians with information management techniques and skills in order to improve the information provision to parliamentarians for decision-making. The emphasis was on the premise that principles of democracy can be applied more effectively if those, who are responsible for providing and disseminating research results to the parliamentarians, are empowered with information management skills and the latest information technology. That would enable them to maximise their information-dissemination efforts at both regional and national levels. The workshop utilised lecturing, discussion and demonstration methods and was conducted in a participatory manner. The workshop resulted in passage of the following three resolutions:

1. To rigorously market APLESA by coming up with a directory of Parliamentary Libraries of Eastern and Southern Africa, which could be placed on the APLESA web site before the year 2000 conference and to promote networking within APLESA member countries;

2. To facilitate capacity-building through attachments and study visits and to promote exchange arrangements between member countries;

3. To ensure that all the knowledge produced in the country is made accessible to parliamentarians. Each parliament should have legal deposit status.

The full text of the 1999 Conference proceedings will be available on this website shortly.

The 2000 Conference was held in Maseru, Lesotho. The report and workshop proceedings will be forthcoming and will be made available on this website.

It is planned that the 2001 APLESA Conference will be held in Botswana with Uganda serving as an alternate. The 2001 Conference details will be made available through this website.