Lebele, Ayanda Agnes2025-09-242025-09-2420171. Akinsola, OS. Herselman ME and Jacobs SJ. 2005.ICT provision to disadvantaged urban communities: A study in South Africa and Nigeria. International Journal of Education and Development using ICT 1 (3)19-41. 2. Alampay, EA. 2006.Beyond access to ICT’s: measuring capabilities in the information Society. International Journal of Education and Development Using ICT 2 (3) 4-22.Association for Progressive Communications 3. Barzilai-Nahon,K. 2006. Gaps and bits: conceptualizing measurements of the digital divide. The Information society (22) 269-278 4. Benjamin, P. 2001. The Gaseleke Telecentre, Northern Province, South Africa in Telecentres Case Studies and Key issues edited by Latchem & Walker perspectives on Distance Education series Vancouver: The Commonwealth of Learning 5. Boote, D. & Beile, P. 2005.Scholars before researchers: on centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educational Researcher 1 (34):3-15. 6. Botswana. Central Statistics Office. 2011. Population of towns, villages and associated localities. Gaborone: CSO 7. Botswana National Library Services/African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (BNLS/ACHAP). 2009.Tracking transformation to an information society: Sesigo project report on the impact assessment baseline study. Gaborone :Botswana National Library Services 8. Bridges. 2005. The Real Access / Real Impact framework for improving the way that ICT is used in development. www.bridges.org(Accessed 02/ 05/ 2010). 9. Calderaro, A. 2010. The digital divide, framing and mapping the phenomenon in Hand book of research on overcoming digital divides: constructing an equitable and competitive information society. Ferro, E et al (Eds). Hershey: IGI global publishing: 21-39 10. Cho, CM 2004. How to measure the digital divide. Presentation at Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity & Promotion (KADO) Digital Bridges Symposium, Busan, Korea :KADO and ITU 11. Davison, R. Vogel, DR. Harris, R and Jones, N. 2000. Technology leapfrogging in developing countries-an inevitable luxury? Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing countries. 1 (5): 1-10 12. Dintoe, SS. 2010.Identifying and bridging the gaps in education system through effective use of educational technology- Schools in Botswana. MA Thesis, Conordia, University, Montreal Quebec, Canada. 13. Dobson, PJ. 2002.Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy. Information Research. 7(2) http://InformationR.net/ir/7-2/paper124.html] (Accessed 14/05/ 2011). 14. Elijah, OA. & Ogunlade, I. 2006. Analysis of the uses of information and communication technology for gender empowerment and sustainable povertyalleviation in Nigeria. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology 2(3)http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu//viewarticle.php?id=172&layout=htm. (Accessed 11/ 07/2010) 15. Evusa, JE. 2005. Information communication technologies as tools for socioeconomic development and political development: the national council of churches of Kenya (NCCK) Huruma community tele-center as a case study. DPhil thesis, Ohio University. 16. Falconer, DJ. & Mackay, DR. 1999 ‘The key to the mixed method dilemma.” Paper presented at the 10th Australian Conference on information Systems, Wellington, Australia. 17. Grand, B. et. al.2010 Sesigo Project Impact Assessment: Baseline Study. Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana. 18. Hernandez-Limon, C. 2009. A qualitative assessment of experiences of Latino adults on technology access initiative. Degree of Doctor of Education. Columbia University. 19. International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2009.Measuring the information society Report: The ICT development index. Geneva Switzerland: ITU 20. Jacobs, SJ. & Herselman, ME.2005. An ICT-Hub Model for Rural Communities. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT). 1(3): 57-93 21. Latchem, C. and Walker, D. (ed) 2001Perspectives On Distance Education: Tele-centres: Case Studies and Key Issues: Management, Operations, Applications, Evaluation. Vancouver, British Columbia: The Commonwealth of Learning. 22. Lesame, NC 2008. The heimpact of informationand communication technologies (ICTs)on development:acasestudyof theinfluenceof telecentresonthe education of users. D Phil thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria. 23. Mathangwane, JT. & Arua EA. 2006. Family literacy: attitudes of parents towards reading in ruralcommunities in Botswana. The Reading Matrix 1(6):46-59. 24. Mogotlhwane, T. Khosrowshahi, F. and Underwood, J2013. ICT Challenges in Developing Countries: Botswana’s PerspectiveInternational Journal of Computer & Information Technology 2 (6) 1054- 1058. 25. Mutula et al (2010) Towards an Information Society in Botswana: Thetha - Regional ICT Discussion Forum Project. SANGONET: Pretoria 26. Mutula, SM. 2004. Making Botswana an information society: current developments. The Electronic Library 22(2) 144-153 www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm (Accessed 12/06/2011). 27. .Norris, P. 2001. Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the internet worldwide New York: Cambridge University Press 28. Oestmann, S & Dymond, AC. 2001.Tele- centers: experiences, lessons and trends .Tele-centers: Case studies and key issues. Latchem, C &Walker, D (Ed).Vancouver: The Commonwealth of Learning. 29. O’Neil, D. 2002.Assessing Community Informatics: A Review of Methodological Approaches for Evaluating Community Networks and Community Technology Centres. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications & Policy. 12(1): 76-102. 30. Selwyn, N. 2003. Apart from Technology: Understanding People’ non-use Information and Communication Technologies in Everyday life. Technology in Society25: 99-116. 31. Sitawa-Ogutu, J K and Rege R. A 2010. Bridging the digital divide: a literature review. Presentation at the 12th KARI Biennial Scientific Conference. Theme: Transforming Agriculture for improved livelihoods through Agricultural Product Value Chains. KARI Headquarters, Kaptagat Road, Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Agricultural Research Institute. 32. UNDP. 2005. The Botswana Human Development Report 2005: Harnessing Science and technology for human development.Gaborone, Botswanahttp://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/1999/en/pdf/hdr ( accessed 02/ 09/ 2012) 33. Walker, S. 2008. Digital design in social action: a review through socio-technical lens. Refereed paper presented at the Community Informatics Conference- ICT’s for social inclusion: what is the reality? 34. Yu, 2006. Understanding information inequality: making sense of the literature of the information and digital divides. Journal of librarianship and information Science38 (4):229-252.https://repository.ifla.org/handle/20.500.14598/6241The use of ICT public access centers has been acclaimed as a worthy strategy for enabling disadvantaged communities’ access to the technologies (Davidson et al 2006:6; Ankisola et al 2005:37). Botswana adopted a long term development strategy, popularly termed Vision 2016, as a guiding framework on national development strategies. The strategies include efforts to promote access and usage of ICTs to especially disadvantaged communities. The government introduced Community user Information System, popularly termed Kitsong Centers (place of knowledge) for especially people in rural areas. The present paper is deduced from a broader study that set out to establish how the Letlhakeng community accessed and used the technologies that were available through public access centers to access social services. The library was the only center that offered the community access to the ICTs for free. The community also paid to use the technologies that were available in other smaller stand-alone centers. The paper shares findings on the varied factors that shaped the access and usage patterns of the Letlhakeng community’s access and usage of the ICTs that were available through public access centers. The study observes a worrisome trend of preference to access and use ICTs that are paid for instead of the free services at the library. The study also notes strategic collaboration opportunities between the library and the mushrooming ICT stand-alone in the effort to bridge the digital divide. The learning curves from the study contribute to the body of knowledge on the nature of the digital divide in Africa. It also offers information useful for improving especially libraries participation in bridging the observed divide.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Articlehttps://2016.ifla.org/programme/satellite-meetingsopen accessICT public access centresrural communitiesdigital dividepublic librariesinformation usage