Public libraries and development organizations share many common goals that make them strong potential partners in the Global South. In spite of these commonalities, libraries are often overlooked as development partners. This is unfortunate because these partnerships could allow librarians to more fully and effectively participate in the development of their communities. This paper explores strategies that libraries might employ to make themselves more visible to development organizations. It does so through analysis of interviews with practitioners who have funded or implemented development projects across countries in Africa. We find that these practitioners are open to working more with libraries, but that it will take a lot of work on the part of public libraries to accomplish broad shifts in perception amongst development agencies. Collecting and openly sharing data on the output and impact of public libraries is a first step in this work, but these efforts must also be augmented through increased marketing and networking by libraries. Libraries need to build internal capacity to use data to drive advocacy efforts and attract funding from development donors.

中文翻译：

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撒哈拉以南非洲的公共图书馆与发展：克服认知问题

公共图书馆和发展组织有许多共同的目标，这使它们成为全球南方地区强大的潜在合作伙伴。尽管有这些共同点，图书馆作为开发合作伙伴经常被忽视。这是不幸的，因为这些伙伴关系可以让图书馆员更充分、更有效地参与其社区的发展。本文探讨了图书馆可能采用的策略，以使自己对开发组织更加可见。它通过对在非洲国家资助或实施发展项目的从业者的访谈进行分析来做到这一点。我们发现这些从业者愿意更多地与图书馆合作，但公共图书馆需要做大量工作才能实现发展机构之间观念的广泛转变。收集和公开共享关于公共图书馆的产出和影响的数据是这项工作的第一步，但这些努力也必须通过图书馆增加营销和网络来加强。图书馆需要建立内部能力以使用数据来推动宣传工作并吸引发展捐助者的资金。