THE OVERSEAS LIBRARY CONSULTANT

Abstract

The overseas library consultant is not a new phenomenon on the world library scene, but has become increasingly familiar in recent years. Whilst there are earlier isolated examples of the employment of foreign librarians as consultants or advisers, their use on anything like a regular basis was first undertaken in the years between the two world wars by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which sent a number of leading British and American librarians on advisory missions to East, West and Southern Africa, to the West Indies and to Australia and New Zealand in connection with its programme of aid to overseas library development. This programme continued, on a somewhat reduced scale, after the Second World War, when it was gradually overtaken in importance by the work of other agencies such as the British Council, the United States government aid agencies and the Specialised Agencies of the United Nations — in particular, by Unesco.