1976 should see the coming to fruition of one of SCOLMA's major bibliographical tasks - the publication of a bibliography and union list of African periodicals.

SCOLMA's broad aims on its establishment in April 1962 were “to facilitate the acquisition and preservation of library materials needed for African studies and to assist in the recording and use of such material” and, in the early discussions, the bibliographical control and acquisition of African periodicals was identified as a major problem. The need was two-fold - for comprehensive information about what periodicals had been and were currently published, and for the locations of those which were held by UK libraries. As with other SCOLMA projects, an important consideration was the identification of gaps in holdings as a basis for further acquisition. The creation of such a list of periodicals was thus one of the first tasks SCOLMA set itself once funds were available.