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The Development of Africana Collections in British Learned Libraries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2022
Extract
Africana, according to a recent American definition, consists of “trade publications, scholarly books, government publications all of which are designed to facilitate the working of governments both directly and indirectly”. Here, Africana is given a more specific meaning and refers to collections of material concerned with African studies designed to be consulted mainly for educational purposes. British universities and institutes with such collections tend to place emphasis on the behavioural sciences: politics, economics and sociology. Options in African history in single-subject undergraduate history courses are widely offered in this country, although only the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and the University of Birmingham offer African studies as a specialist undergraduate subject. Recent years have seen some imaginative developments: Sussex University students can study a subject against a background of African society, culture and history, whilst Kent offers a course in English with African and Caribbean studies.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © African Research & Documentation 1978
Footnotes
This article is based on work completed as part of the requirement for the postgraduate librarianship diploma at the College of Librarianship Wales in 1976-7. The author would like to thank Mr. P. H. Jones, course tutor, for originally suggesting the topic; and Mr. D. H. Simpson, Librarian of the Royal Commonwealth Society and Chairman of the Standing Conference on Library Materials on Africa, Mrs. Sheila Mackay, Librarian of the Museum of Mankind (the Ethnography Department of the British Museum) and Miss Ruth Jones, formerly Librarian of the International African Institute, for their time and trouble in answering questions and giving advice.
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