The Impact of Digital Divide on University Academic Staff and Students:A Comparative study between the University of Zambia and the University of Strathclyde

Access to electronic information is becoming more important in the modern information economy and yet developing countries like Zambia are far from putting policies in place to ensure that there is rapid information commuinication technologies(ICTs)development in the country.This as ctreated anequal balance between countries and sectors of the population which is generally reffered to as digital divide.This research outlines the digital divide that exists between the University of Zambia and the University of Strathclyde.This was established by comparing the twa Universities.The research provides an overview of the state of ICT development in Zambian libraries a swell as strategies that have been put in place in UK to ensure that citizens have access to electronic information.The research has revealed huge discrepancies between the two worlds in the availability of Hardware in libraries,laboratories and lecture theatres as well as technology literacy between the students in Zambia and those in UK.It has also revealed that there are huge problems in accessing the inetrnet and electronic resources in Zambia than are in Britain.Finally,recommendations have been made on how the University of Zambia and other libraries in developing countries in geral can narrow the divide by participating in some of the initiatives that are being developed globally to ensure that the divide is narrowed.