AN AFRICAN DREAM? E-information services at the University of Pretoria’s Veterinary Science Library (Service Unit: Veterinary Science, Academic Information Service) Antoinette LOURENS Academic Information Service, Service Unit: Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa e-mail: alourens@op.up.ac.za Abstract: This presentation will highlight the need to move to an e-environment for veterinary and animal health information users in Africa. Problems will be featured as well as practical solutions and success stories. The University of Pretoria's e-initiative to extend learning to distance students gave impetus to the introduction of portals - in various formats. The Academic Information Service, Service Unit: Veterinary Science (the library at the Faculty of Veterinary Science) extended the learning horizon, making information available to users beyond the campus e.g. private practitioners needing information for Continuing Professional Development purposes, post graduate students (including a disabled student as well) doing distance learning courses as well as students in other African countries. Unique products developed for this market will be described, such as the African Goat Web, the Ostrich Web, the African Wildlife Web, and the Arnold Theiler digitisation project. These products were developed as an aid in providing information on topics that are rapidly increasing in popularity. Portals to enable registered users of the Academic Information Service to access e- information with the least effort and confusion such as the "Library in your Office " will also be featured. This very basic portal allows the user to access some of the more important information resources for veterinary use and then afterwards directly connect to UpeXplore, the Academic Information Service's OPAC catalogue or the electronic journal collection of the Academic Information Service or the automated article requesting system run by SABINET (South African Bibliographic and Information Network). The development of the library’s electronic newsletter which serves as an user education and information aid for wider, off-campus usage will also be discussed. The overall management of these e-products via the Infoportal of the Academic Information Service with the help of Greenstone Digital Software (a suite of software for building and distributing digital library collections) is helping to turn the African Information Nightmare (P. Lor) into the African Dream. Introduction The University of Pretoria (UP) (http://www.up.ac.za) is striving to become the University of Choice in South Africa. It is the largest residential university in the country. This year there are more than 34 000 residential students on the campuses of the university and almost 10 000 students are enrolled for post graduate studies. Furthermore there are more than 28 000 additional students enrolled for the university’s distance education courses 1 At the Faculty of Veterinary Science the effects of the amalgamation process (the country’s two veterinary faculties, UP and Medunsa amalgamated to form one National Faculty under the auspices of the University of Pretoria) are fading away and the issue of increasing quality research is enjoying high priority. There is also a marked increase in the number of registrations of postgraduate students who have become involved in research programmes in various departments. The increase is 56% more than last year’s registrations. 2 This means that more and more students are working from outside the campus and they also need access to and training in using the available information resources. To accommodate the information needs of all the clients on campus and off campus the Academic Information Service (University Libraries) had to start moving