The study reveals that Zambia has a relatively wellrndeveloped information infrastructure in which the missing linkrnis coordination at the national level. Coordination could bernprovided by formulation and implementation of a policy onrninformation systems and services. Information technology hasrnproliferated into both the public and private sectors of therneconomy, and computer applications are slowly beingrndiversified beyond the traditional use for computing.rnTelecommunications developments in terms of transmission andrnswitching techniques in the country have reached the digitalrnstage. The major towns are served with digital exchanges andrnnow efforts are towards the digitalization of the ruralrntelephone network. Facilities for data communications , LocalrnArea Networks and Wide Area Networks does exist but thernlimiting factor is the high telecommunications tariffs.rnTraining facilities for information technology personnelrnare not adequate and thus there is a shortage of qualifiedrncomputer professional in the country and this has led tornunder-utilization of the equipment and heavy reliance onrnvendor support for the operations of the installed systems , asrnmany installations are manned by inadequately qualified andrninexperienced individuals.rnIntroduction of information technology in libraries,rndocumentation and information centres in the country is slowlyrngaining ground and currently is largely being applied inrnspecial libraries and to a certain extent in academicrnlibraries as well. These institutions are relatively wellrnfunded than the other categories of libraries (public andrnschool libraries) in the country and in most cases they. alsornhave access to computer facilities of their parentrninstitutions. However, computer applications to informationrnmanagement in these institutions is currently li,m .i ted to wordrnprocessing and in-house bibliographic database management.rnThere is no single installation in the country at the momentrnsupporting library house keeping activities, such as,rnacquisition, cataloguing and classification, circulationrncontrol, serials control and management information systemsrnnor for database development, retrospective search, SOI andrnproduction of other information services . Emerging informationrntechnologies, such as, CD-ROM, networking and desktoprnpublishing, in spite of their potential as means ofrninformation acquisition and dissemination are almost nonexistentrnin Zambia's libraries.rnThe country also has no indigenous electronic databasesrnwhere information can be accessed. The major implication ofrnthese factors is that vast amount of information is not beingrnaccessed by these institutions/users and thus the inadequacyrnin the provision of information services especially tornresearchers and academic teaching staff.rnThe lack of diversity in computer applications inrnlibraries and the inability to exploit other informationrntechnologies in information management is attributed mainly tornlack of computer knowledge and skills among the libraryrnmanagers in the country.rnAs a way of enhancing the application of informationrntechnology to information management and dissemination inrnresearch and academic libraries, especially in thoserninstitutions were computer facilities are available, arncooperative computer based selective dissemination ofrninformation is proposed. The project outlines the requirementsrnin terms of manpower, human resources, physical resources,rnfunding and operating mechanism.