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.

Up to now there does not seem to have been any report on the extent to which African studies are pursued in our library schools, and what follows is a brief attempt to describe the position. The schools mentioned were contacted by letter and asked to give a summary of the position. The schools, with the name of the correspondent, were: the School of Librarianship, Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology, Aberdeen (Mr. J. M. Orr); the College of Librarianship, Wales, at Aberystwyth (Mr. M. Wise); the Department of Library and Information Studies, Queen's University Belfast (Mr. W. J. Martin); the,Department of Librarianship, City of Birmingham Polytechnic (Mr. A. F. Johnson); the Department of Library and Information Studies, Liverpool Polytechnic (Mr. W. H. Snape); the School of Librarianship, Leeds Polytechnic (Mr. D. E. Davinson); the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London (Mr. J. H. Mcllwaine); the School of Librarianship, Polytechnic of North London; the Department of Library and Information Studies, Loughborough University (Mr. R. Cave); the Department of Library and Information Studies, Manchester Polytechnic (Mr. J. L. Ingham); the Department of Librarianship, Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic (Mr. W. Caldwell); the Postgraduate School of Librarianship and Information Studies, University of Sheffield (Professor M. F. Lynch); and the Department of Librarianship, University of Strathclyde (Professor W. E. Tyler).

Most readers of this journal will be intimately familiar with Noel Matthews and M. Doreen Wainwright's indispensable work, A Guide to Manuscripts and Documents in the British Isles Relating to Africa. However, it is virtually inevitable that in a comprehensive work of this nature (and I should indicate straight away that theirs is an exceptionally fine work) that there will be oversights, omissions, or less than adequately full listings. One case in point is the coverage Matthews and Wainwright devote to African material held in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Their listing, which covers pages 188-91 of the book, is accurate insofar as it goes, but it presents less than a total picture of the potential riches that await Africanists in a multitude of discplines who journey to Kew.

Several years ago I described the collection of the papers of James Phipps in the Public Record Office. This was based on a preliminary arrangement of these materials. Since that time these papers have been calendared and somewhat re-arranged. In addition they have been foliated, allowing for a greater understanding of the bulk of this collection, and for easier access and more exact description of specific kinds of data. Finally, my own use of the Phipps papers makes it possible to add some commentary that was not possible before. All of this makes it advisable - even imperative - to describe these materials once more, particularly since relying on my earlier account could mislead interested parties, especially those who may have recourse to the post.

The Italian-African Institute is the oldest Italian organisation concerned with Africa, and it is a public agency acting under the sponsorship of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its headquarters are in Rome - Via Ulisse Aldrovandi 16, 00197 Rome - and it has eight regional and provincial branches, including those in Turin, Naples, Bologna, Bari and Reggio Calabria.

Its beginnings were in the former ‘Italian Institute for Africa’, founded in 1906, and it carries out the same kind of work but extended and expanded. Its aims include spreading knowledge about Africa and its problems, and forming closer links and friendly cooperation between Italy and Africa.

In 1973 Dr. Stephen Baier published a short note on the archives in Niger. Since then, the structure, organization and even location of what is now officially called the Archives Nationales du Niger have undergone considerable changes. In fact, at the time Dr. Baier carried out his research in Niger, the Archives Nationales were little more than bundles of mostly unclassified documents and files stored away in a dark room in the Supreme Court building. However, in 1973 a professional archivist (Elhadji-Mahamane Sade) was appointed Director of the Service des Archives, which then came formally into being. One year later the archives were transferred to a newly completed building just a few yards away from that of the Supreme Court (and next to the ‘palais de la Présldence’).

In Germany several university libraries are obliged to procure scientific African literature for lending. These are:

These special collections came into existence about 1960 and were based on existing pre-war stocks.

Even before the establishment of the special collections programme, however, there was a traditional Africa collection in Frankfurt. The roots of the Oriental and African collection in the former municipal library go back to a donation by the founder of Ethiopian studies, Job Ludolf (1624-1704), who was also one of the first to explore African linguistics, with his papers on the language of the Hottentots. A valuable collection of Ethiopian manuscripts was conveyed to the library by the scientist Eduard Rüppell (1794-1884).