Public Libraries in Africa: A Report and Annotated Bibliography.

Citation

de Jager, K. (2002), "Public Libraries in Africa: A Report and Annotated Bibliography.", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 58 No. 3, pp. 330-332. https://doi.org/10.1108/jd.2002.58.3.330.5

This thorough and timely work, which according to the preface was produced as “a basis for discussion on a programme of revitalization of public libraries in Africa”, brings a penetrating view of the somewhat sorry situation of public libraries in ten Anglophone African countries (Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe). Based on an extensive review of currently available literature, this work makes it clear that the models of public library service imported from the West took into consideration neither local needs nor the socio‐political situation of African peoples. As a result, the introductory section succinctly states that public libraries have “failed to fulfil their role in society” and are now suffering from severe deterioration “because of factors such as the economic crisis, the lack of definition of the role of libraries, an excess of centralization in the management of libraries, and a lack of human resources to run the libraries professionally”.

In the course of reading this work, what comes across with increasing clarity is not so much the failure of library services in Africa, but that so much effort has been expended on trying to make imported Western models work. African cultures (and as this work is limited to Anglophone African countries one cannot generalise to include the whole of Africa) are oral, not literary, and literacy rates are relatively low. Information needs are localised and are formulated and transmitted in languages in which there are no large bodies of printed material. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that libraries in Africa are failing because they have been slow in developing a vision of information services that are radically different and appropriate to African needs.

There are four main sections. The first of these, “Public libraries in Africa”, by Aissa Issak provides an introduction to the rest of the text, a summarising analysis of the reports received from different African countries and a discussion of the role of African public libraries, followed by concluding recommendations for implementation. This section produces a rather depressing overall picture with a constant refrain of inadequate resources and reliance on donor funding and may well be sufficient for readers who wish to familiarise themselves with the situation of public libraries in Africa without wanting to read the whole text.

The second section, which together with the third forms the core of the work, consists of an annotated bibliography divided by country and was compiled by Aissa Issak with Carol Priestly and Roger Stringer. The stated objective was to include items published from 1994‐1999, but publications dating from as early as 1991 have been noted as well. The divisions by country provide a good reflection of the extent, type and quality of work in the field of librarianship in the countries concerned. This bibliography will provide a crucial point of first entry for anybody wishing to become acquainted with the state of libraries and information provision in Africa at present and into the future.

The third section, by Cheryll Stringer, comprises a review of ten seminal publications on public libraries in Africa and dispenses with the subdivisions into countries. Based on these books and articles, the section critically reviews the current situation and the services provided, concluding with analyses of possible directions for development.

The final section of the work presents ten country reports written by identified authorities or stakeholders from each country. Although much of the contents is rather repetitive by now, these reports provide the reader with basic and comparable information on each country that could well be applicable beyond a library audience. Gross national product figures for the different countries, population statistics, economic indicators and education and literacy figures are well worth pursuing for a fuller and more rounded picture of the situation in Africa than the first section would lead one to expect.

The issues that emerge with almost monotonous regularity include the general failure of the conventional model of public libraries as a vehicle for providing information to African people, while it is also repeatedly recognised that appropriate information services are urgently required by large sections of the African populations. The need for publications in vernacular languages is stressed, although it is noted at the same time that the publishing industry in most of the countries concerned is small and under‐funded and that copyright deposit is frequently unenforceable. It is made very clear that book donations from the West have proved to be inappropriate, inadequate and out of date, and therefore remain unused. The primary users of public libraries in many instances are school children in need of quiet study venues rather than traditional library services. The lack of and perceived need for communication technology, computers and Internet facilities are emphasised over and over again. It is perhaps surprising that the urgent issue of HIV/AIDS and the role that public libraries could play in the dissemination of information about this scourge in Africa receive comparatively little mention.

Hidden in the mainly depressing picture of inadequacy, demoralisation and general deprivation that emerges from this work, there does, however, also begin to appear a vision of a new kind of community‐based information service by and for the peoples of Africa. Such a service will not be delivered by highly qualified staff trained in traditional approaches, but by people in touch with their own communities and their needs. These services will not be print bound, but more oriented towards oral culture, more sensitive to local needs: uniquely and vibrantly African. This work begins to bring alive such a new vision by providing positive suggestions for change and improvement and by noting a number of success stories that have resulted where librarians with insight and sensitivity to local needs and constraints have been able to provide imaginative information services according to very different models.

Most innovative, perhaps, is the mobile library service to nomadic pastoralists in Kenya where camels are the means of taking library services and information materials to small and often illiterate communities that cannot be reached in any other way. Other promising, or to some extent, proven, initiatives include village reading rooms in Botswana, book box services and various literacy initiatives in several countries. In South Africa, multi‐purpose community information centres are being developed where access will be provided to integrated information and communication technology services such as Internet, telephones and electronic mail together with learning spaces and advice centres.

This interesting and worthwhile publication is available not only in hard copy, but a full text version is also downloadable in pdf format (with normal copyright restrictions) from the publisher’s Web site at: http://www.inasp.org.uk/lsp/libraries/contents.html