Dissemination of information in developing countries: The personal computer and beyond

With the blooming of information in digital format, dissemination of information is becoming a big challenge for developing countries. It is not only due to the limited provision of personal computers- in addition, the technological infrastructure and the ability to access information are also becoming major concerns in developing countries. This paper examines the situation in the Asian developing countries as an example to illustrate the difficulties with the dissemination of information. The availability of personal computers is not the only difficulty facing developing countries. The availability and popularity of the Internet, the telecommunication policies and environment of the countries concerned, the information literacy level of the users and the librarians, the popularity of the English language, the knowledge of searching information on the Internet, and the maturity of the electronic publishing market are all inter-related and have affected the success of information dissemination. Recent developments in tackling the problems are also described.