Introduction: The Impact and Importance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Sustainable Development for Academic Libraries in Africa

Particularly in academic libraries in Africa the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) are possibly the two most significant issues that need to be addressed by librarians in order to offer staff and students at their universities the support they need to flourish in the twenty-first century. This chapter critically examines some of the current literature exploring how academic libraries address the challenges and opportunities presented by these two factors. Five key areas are identified as being of particular importance in the current literature: the literacy rates and the academic reading ability of university students; accessibility of information to university students, researchers and communities in Africa; the impact, importance and limitations of open access information; the role of digital media to market libraries and the importance of teaching digital literacy in libraries; and lessons learnt from online teaching and learning during Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which can help to enhance learning amongst students in the post-COVID-19 world. Overall, the chapter explores each of these five areas, showing how the 4IR tools, especially artificial intelligence (AI) and makerspaces can be used to address many of the concerns raised in the literature. It also shows how each of these five areas are avenues through which libraries are and can address SDGs in various ways. The chapter argues that libraries need to address the challenges they face without waiting for more government funding, but rather more innovatively use the funding they have. While admirable research has been conducted on the library needs of students at universities, much more work needs to be performed to understand the needs of researchers and how to support them.