Africa Bibliography 1985–2012

Abstract

The Africa Bibliography has been published by the International African Institute (IAI) as a print volume since 1985. The first editor was Hector Blackhurst, a social anthropologist turned academic librarian at the University of Manchester. In the inaugural volume, Jacob F. Ade Ajayi, the then Chairman of the International African Institute wrote that ‘Greater technical experience will, it is hoped, facilitate typographical improvements'.1 A second concern of the Bibliography, as expressed by Ajayi, was to monitor and record material produced in Africa ‘that does not always circulate widely and might otherwise escape notice’.2