Africanist Librarianship in an Era of Change

While the essays collected in this volume address a number of issues, they all share the same aim of placing Africanist librarianship in the contexts of our times. Many essays set high value on service to present and future African library users, through the usage of such means as bibliographic instruction and the accumulation and arrayal of information in databases and websites. Still others look to the theme of outreach because, unfortunately, the effect of the electronic revolution, like that of many other revolutions, was that the rich got richer and the poor poorer. The post-colonial information gap (the book and journal 'famine') in Africa, which was only exacerbated by independence, has become almost unbridgeable in the last few decades. As these essays indicate, Africanist librarians and other scholars have done - and are continuing to do - whatever possible to alleviate this, whether by training, exchanging information, providing resources, or establishing partnerships with long-term objectives.