The Academic Resource Centro (ARC) discussed in thisrnthesis is an information facility designed to providerninformation support for the efficient and effectivernperformance of the statutory and public service functionsrnof the University of Malawi and its associatedrninstitutions and organizations including relatedrngovernment departments, pastorals, research centersrnetc. It is conceived as an information center forming anrnintegral part of the university college and institutionsrnassociated with higher learning and research in Malawi.rnThe ARC will utilize viable information technologyrnin conjunction with manual methods. Pr-planning studiesrnundertaken include: a review of trends in informationrntechnology (IT), a survey of a accessibility to IT in rnMalawi, an assessment of the existing information supportrnsystems of the University of Malawi and theirrninadequacies in relation to the information and datarnneeds of the variety of users of the academic andrnresearch community and the related government andrnpara statal organizations . Based on the findings, plans torndevelop the ARC and steps to implement the plans arernproposed. The ARC is conceived as a networking ofrn-viiinformationrnsystems within the university and thernassociated institutions as well as of appropriaterninstitutions in the country and abroad. The ARC planrnoutlines the requirements in terms of manpower, systemsrndesign and implementation. Libraries and informationrncenters which could participate in the ARC network arernmentioned.rnA set of integrated databases consisting of :rnbibliographic records; information on . rncurriculumrndevelopment, academic prospectus etc; profiles of expertsrnand institutions; of databases and information systems;rnof ongoing projects and researches in the university ofrnMalawi, Government and other selected researchrninstitutions, is presented as prototypes for therndatabases to be developed at the ARC. Data entryrnguidelines are also provided.rnTraining facilities for IT personnel are notrnadequate in the country and it has led to under utilizationrnof equipment and heavy reliance on vendorrnservice support for the systems. Some suggestions arernmade in overcoming this problem.rnIntroduction of IT in libraries, documentation andrninformation centres in the country is slowly gainingrnground and currently is largely being applied in specialrn-viiilibrariesrnand to a certain extent in academic librariesrnas well. However, IT applications to generate informationrnproducts and services is currently limited to wordrnprocessing and in-house bibliographic databasernmanagement. Emerging its, such as CD-ROM, networking andrndesktop publishing, are yet to be widely used in Malawi.rnThe need for developing national databases to capture andrndisseminate information generated in the country isrnemphasized.