A consistent feature of contemporary research into the colonial period is the emphasis on personalities. The modern historian is increasingly aware of how cogently he may need to identify and interpret who was who before he can start to explain why was what. In support of this human approach, one may cite the view of the most recent historian of empire. “Personality not policy”, argues Martin Daly in the first volume of his history of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Empire on the Nile (1986), “determined the course of the Condominium” (p.452). The same thesis underlay my own earlier profile of Africa's administrators: “Only when we are intimately acquainted with who the imperial administrators are can we proceed to a soundly-based study of imperialism” (The Sudan Political Service, 1982, 1). Robert Collins’ interpretation of the Sudan's administration was postulated on a similar hypothesis:

In 1972 Amankwe published a survey of ‘Africa in the standard classification schemes’. In this he concentrated principally on the Decimal Classification, The Library of Congress Classification and The Bibliographic Classification. He paid particular attention to the problems of area designation, language, literature and anthropology and to such related matters as historical and racial subdivisions. Since that date much has been published on specific topics but no attempt has been made to survey the field in its entirety and it is the intention of the present article to collect together the strands, draw attention to important publications and look towards the future, particularly with reference to the need for standardization with the increasing use of automated systems throughout the World. The author or the editor of this journal would welcome any additional information and in particular any ‘in-house’ versions of parts of classification schemes, subject headings lists and authority files for names of persons, corporate bodies, etc., with a view to promoting greater interchange and participation in the development of standards for bibliographic work.

On the 21st of April the Ranfurly Library Service (RLS) entered a new stage in its 30 year history with the launch of an ambitious new project, planned and executed with the support of (amongst others) the British Council and the Overseas Development Administration. The changes signalled by the launch of the ‘Textbooks for Africa Project” (TAP) did not come about overnight but this new scheme is a visible sign of the changes that all involved with RLS have been (and are still) striving for.

The single most important aim of RLS in the past few years has been the improvement of the quality of the books despatched. The most important factor by which we measure the quality of book selection is the degree to which books sent match the needs of the recipient. There are several ways in which we have been trying to improve this.