On the final day of the 2nd Global Summit on Diamond Open Access, the heads of various African Libraries met. The meeting’s goal was to start a discussion on the potential for an alliance of African Library consortia. This should not be viewed as an appendix to the conference but a crucial step in beginning to implement the Toluca-Cape Town Declaration on Diamond Open Access, even if it happened on the final day of the summit. This Declaration aims to free African scholarship from repressive systems that tend to limit access to information and dissemination of the same.
The establishment of an African Consortium will be crucial in securing not only reasonably priced scholarly information but also in guiding the implementation of African platforms where African scholars will exchange scholarly ideas based on African experiences while acknowledging continental efforts to ensure that there exists an environment of freedom of access to information as a human right. Africa’s contribution to the global corpus of scholarly knowledge will also increase as a result of the broader social consumption of information “brewed from an African pot.”
In addition to the main summit, which convened stakeholders and practitioners from around the globe, the Africa Library Consortia meeting brought together leaders of various library consortia across the continent. The Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC) was represented by Prof. Arnold Mwanzu and Dr. Agava Stanislaus, serving as Chair and Secretary, respectively. A significant milestone was achieved during the meeting, with participants unanimously agreeing on the need to establish a coalition of this nature to ensure Africa speaks with a unified voice. Furthermore, the team finalized the name for the coalition: the African Coalition of Library Consortia (ACOLC). Thirdly, the team identified three key areas of focus, each to be addressed by a dedicated team with clear deliverables by mid-February. The first area is the development of Terms of Reference for the coalition, led by Dr. Raju from the University of Cape Town, with Dr. Agava serving as a member of the team. The second team, led by Prof. Arnold Mwanzu, will focus on strategies for growing membership within the coalition. The third area involves drafting a road map for the coalition, which will be implemented after the first two teams complete their respective tasks.
There is no doubt that Africa can leverage its strength in numbers to establish a stronger bargaining position. With support from governments, regional, and continental bodies such as the AAU, the continent has the potential to foster a conducive environment for thriving scholarship and research excellence in Africa.