A nation that is information empowered is capable of contributing to the democratic process. Governments are realizing more the importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as governing tools. Libraries have always been valued institutions within societies as trusted sources of information; and are becoming e-government access points relied on by both the patrons and government agencies (Jaeger and Fleischmann, 2007). They assist in finding information and some provide computer access and free Internet access. It is not surprising that with electronic governance (e-governance), libraries; in particular public libraries are expected to provide citizens with access and guidance in using e-government websites, forms and services. The paper is based on a study commissioned by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and carried out by the Department of Information and Communication Studies in 2009 on electronic governance and hybrid libraries in Africa. One of the study objectives was to investigate the existence and the role of hybrid libraries in e-governance in Africa. The study, which included a survey of several southern African countries and a case study of Namibia, employed the use of questionnaires for data collection. The paper focuses on the Namibian case study. The authors conclude that there is great potential for libraries to provide and promote e-governance but this is faced with many challenges, which include technological and human and financial resources.

The study looked at scholarly communication with great emphasis being placed on the value of institutional repositories (IR) and electronic portfolios (EP) at the University of Namibia. The methodology adopted for the study was a qualitative design which included interviews and content analysis of relevant literature. The study provides an insight into key terms such as scholarly communication, open access (OA), institutional repository (IR) and electronic portfolios. The authors argue that IRs and e-portfolios complement each other as tools for a scholarly communication process since their role is to provide open access literature, and provide a platform of a usage-reporting service which gives authors and their institution information on how the content of the repository is being used. In the discussion, the study describes the implementation of the Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) at the University of Namibia which was spearheaded by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and highlights some of the challenges faced which include absence of a dedicated institutional intellectual property (IP) policy, lack of interest by academics to share their artifacts or publications and limited skills and capacity on the part of personnel working on the project.

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