Tanzania opened a digital library and asked leaders to buy more books

Tanzania has a new way to join a library, and a minister asking that the next money go into books. The Chanzo reported on October 21, 2026, that Education Minister Adolf Mkenda launched the Integrated National Digital Library System at the Fourth National Conference on Library Services and the Book and Reading Festival, held at the National Library in Dar es Salaam from October 20 to 22. Built with the e-Government Authority, the system handles member registration, ISBN and ISSN applications, cataloguing, lending, billing, and reporting, on the web and on a phone.

Mboni Ruzegea, director-general of the Tanzania Library Services Board, said copyright means not every title can be offered in full online until the rights holder agrees. She also said physical libraries still matter for people without internet. Mkenda told the board to keep repairing libraries but to shift construction money toward books. "Let us shift more money into books; let us not build new buildings and stop buying books," he said. He asked local authorities, schools, vocational institutes, faith groups, and communities to make space for small public libraries, with the board supplying books. The ministry will look at centralized online journal subscriptions. A UNESCO figure shared at the conference put the country at about one bookshop per 116,000 people and one public library per 189,000. The software is live. The shelves are still the harder part.