Our survey of 728 questionnaires covered all types of libraries in the following countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. At the end of April 1997, this study identified 29 software packages from 22 per cent useable survey returns. The first set of off‐the‐shelf packages in the region has come a long way since 1982, when Musiker identified one or two such packages.