Acquiring unpublished population documents in Africa: a personal experience

Abstract

Acquiring both published and unpublished documents produced in Africa is, generally, a difficult task due to the existing poor state of bibliographic control and the publishing industry. It is even more difficult to obtain unpublished documents in a specialised area of study such as demography — a diffused area which cuts across several disciplines. This paper discusses the problems encountered on acquisition trips to some African countries to acquire unpublished population material, and some recommendations are made to help improve the current unsatisfactory situation.