Part I: Book Donation Programmes in English-Speaking Africa

Abstract

Book aid is complex, problematic, and sometimes controversial, but the literature and research on book donation programmes for Africa is surprisingly scant. In particular there is only a very small number of papers or studies written by African librarians or other book professionals who have benefitted from, or have been involved in processing and distributing book donations.The websites of many book charities contain glowing reports and endorsements about their activities, but publicly accessible evaluations of book donation schemes are still rare, as are independent investigative studies. There are only a few case studies that have evaluated donation schemes in terms of a set of identified needs. It is therefore timely, I believe, for book donation programmes to come under some further scrutiny.