Barriers to Effective Interlending and Supply of Government Documents in Developing Countries

Abstract

Purpose-Policy information and information policy as critical factors in global flow of information and interagency cooperation is the main theme examined by this study. The main objective was to examine the fundamental issues related to the dissemination of government - held information by senior public officers. Using interview and questionnaire methods, data was obtained from the Department of Lands and Physical Planning in Oyo State, Nigeria. Fifty-six out of 130 senior staff of the Department were sampled. Data was
subjected to both descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentages and appropriate measure of central tendencies. Results showed stronger awareness of policy information on staff welfare than land - related policies and lack of awareness of the existence of policy information on housing and mining. The respondents indicated complete lack of knowledge of the content of policy information on land transfer, consent, mapping, acquisition,
mortgage, assignment, development planning, and valuation of government properties. The paper argues that limited awareness of the existence of certain policy information, its contents and constraints on free public access to official information can impede the global flow of information and effective inter-agency cooperation A ten-point synthesis is advanced describing the major barriers to effective interlending and the supply of government documents in most developing countries. Understanding the barriers to effective interlending and supply of government documents is critical to the formulation of policies that can enhance global flow of information and inter-agency cooperation. Governmental institutions of developing countries must do so to blur the boundaries between them and the rest of the world.

Samaru Journal of Information Studies Vol. 8 (1) 2008: pp. 1-10