Africana - works about Africa and publications issued in Africa - is dispersed widely among the general collections of The Library of Congress. As these collections at the latest reckoning number more than eleven million books and pamphlets, and for all forms of material amount to over thirty-six million pieces, and as the Library policy has for many years been to acquire all worthwhile works published anywhere in the world, the holdings relating to the second largest continent may be presumed to be very substantial. The Africana is not under any separate, unifying control. Consequently it is impossible to give even approximate estimates of a total figure, but scholars working in the African field will usually find a visit to the Library of Congress richly rewarding.

The Library acquires Africana as it does its materials in general, by copyright, purchase, gift, exchange, and transfer. It thus achieves broad coverage in all subject fields except technical agriculture and clinical medicine, which are the provinces respectively of the Department of Agriculture Library and the National Library of Medicine.