This paper will focus on the development of the Inter-Agency Material Production Committee, its objectives, terms of reference and their evolution. An assessment on whether the Committee has achieved what it initially set out to achieve will be made.

The idea of forming the IAMPC was conceived at a conference on Libraries and Literacy held in Kanye in 1985. The actual launching of the Committee was done three years later in 1988. The Committee, a joint venture between the Botswana National Library Service (BNLS) and the Department of Non-Formal Education (DNFE) comprised officers of the two departments and other extension departments and NGOs. 30 institutions were represented initially.

The two departments, BNLS and DNFE, were already cooperating in the provision of the Village Reading Rooms Service (VRRs), another joint venture which has been operational since 1986. These are cultural centres set up in primary school classrooms for local rural communities in smaller and remote villages where there are no library facilities.

In an extensive survey of the published sources available for research into the biographical data of members of the British Colonial Service and its successor (1954), HM Overseas Civil Service (‘Colonial Service biographical data: the published sources’, ARD 46, 1988, 1-16), I identified five principal serial publications beyond such general but limited reference works as Who was who. Dictionary of national biography, The Times and Daily Telegraph obituaries, and my Biographical dictionary of the British colonial governor: 1, Africa (1980). These were:

1. i. The Colonial Office Lists, 1862-1966

2. ii. The Colonial Service Lists, 1933-1939

3. iii. Territorial Staff Lists

4. iv. Territorial Civil Service Lists

5. v. Colonial Blue Books

As promised in the published volume, this is the first of what it is hoped will be regular supplements, identifying material not included in the original compilation. The majority of the following items were published in the 1990s, but some earlier references, missed in the published volume, have now been identified and are included. Any additional references from readers will be very welcome.

The arrangement follows that of the original work, and references are to numbered items in that work.

Guides, collections and ancillary materials to African archival resources in the United States, comp. J.B. Howell & Y. Scheven, (Electronic journal of Africana bibliography, no.l). URL: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/proj/ejab/index.html. (A most important source of information on ‘guides to the archives of Africa’ (Preface) but including also guides to African-related archives in Europe.

How does an academic publisher identify and reach its intended market? This is especially important when, because of the nature of the publications and a small national market (one university), most of the publications are sold to or exchanged with institutions in northern Europe and America. Also, most of the research, out of which the publications originate, is funded by donor agencies in those countries. The aim of this paper is to discuss how the Institute of Southern African Studies (ISAS) markets and distributes its publications, especially to the developed North. To do so it is necessary to describe briefly how ISAS operates, its publications’ objectives and the clienteles it aims to serve. It is also necessary to assess the marketing strategy.

The Institute of Southern African Studies was established in 1979 to be the research centre of the National University of Lesotho. Its main aim is to promote and coordinate. research on a variety of issues. However, the emphasis is on policy-related and development-oriented research on Southern Africa, and Lesotho in particular.