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Some Comments on Compiling the "Current Bibliography of the Savanna States of Nigeria", and on the Documentation of the Area
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2022
Extract
The aim of the “Current Bibliography of the Savanna States of Nigeria” is to provide a guide to publications and theses on the country's-ten northern states. It appears as a regular feature in Savanna; the semi-annual journal concentrating on Nigeria's northern savanna which was launched at Ahmadu Bello University in 1972. The inclusion of a current bibliography was the idea of Geoffrey J. Williams, one of the two geographers who planned the journal. Dr. Williams compiled the bibliography oh his own up to 1974, when he left Nigeria to take up a professorship at the University of Zambia. He collaborated with John A. Achema (then one of the university library staff) in 1975 and 1976, with myself in 1977, and then stopped because of the difficulties of carrying out such work in Zambia.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © International African Institute 1982
Footnotes
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A revised and up-dated version of a paper presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Bloomington, Indiana, 21-24 October 1981. I would like to thank Professor B. W. Langlands, Mr. Joseph J. Lauer and Frofessor Geoffrey J. Williams for their comments on an earlier draft, and Ahmadu Bello University for sponsoring my attendance at the conference.
References
Notes
1. Up to now only two issues have appeared without a bibliography: December 1974 and June 1977. The December 1977 bibliography contained an exceptionally large number of entries because of the absence of a bibliography from the previous issue.
2. Dr. Williams was an experienced bibliographer, whose Bibliography of Sierra Leone 1925-1967 was published by the Africana Publishing Co. in 1971. His bibliography of Zambia since independence is being published by G. K. Hall.
3. See Williams, Geoffrey J., “Academic Serial Publishing in Africa: The Experience of “Savanna’,” in Publishing in Africa in the Seventies: Proceedings of an International Conference on Publishing and Book Development Held at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 16-20 December 1973, ed. Oluwasanmi, Edwina, Eva McLean and Hans Zell (Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, 1975), pp. 329-45Google Scholar.
4. B. W. Langlands, who compiled the Uganda bibliography which was published twice-yearly in the Uganda Journal from 1963 until the 1970s, “ignored publications which came out more frequently than monthly. On reflection, if I did the operation now, I would include feature articles from even daily newspapers if these carried an author's name … I used not to include stencil duplications - but later on I did. It is surprising how many stencilled papers get referred to in later printed books - even where the ‘paper’ has been later printed.” Personal communication, 12 June 1981.
5. Langlands, B. W., “The Amateur Status of National Bibliographies: Some Problems Facing Bibliographical Work, Based on Uganda and Tanzania Experience,” in The Bibliography of Africa: Proceedings and Papers of the International Conference on African Bibliography, Nairobi, 4-8 December 1967, ed. Pearson, J. D. and Jones, Ruth (New York: Africana Publishing Co., 1970), p. 69Google Scholar.
6. Africa Index to Continental Periodical Literature number 3 (covering 1978) 1980 has a heading for traditional medicine but none for medicine or veterinary medicine. (Oxford: Hans Zell Publishers, 1981)Google Scholar.
7. Progress in African Bibliography: SCOLMA Conference Commonwealth Institute London 17-18 March 1977 Proceedings (London: Standing Conference on Library Materials on Africa, 1977)Google Scholar.
8. David Hall, the present compiler, has library duties.
9. And also of the fact that many Ahmadu Bello University theses have the date on which the work was submitted for internal and external examination on the title page and not the date (often the following year) of the award of the degree by Senate.
10. In 1980 the National Library of Nigeria published Theses and Dissertation(s) Accepted for Higher Degrees in Nigerian Universities 1972/73-1976/77, explaining that “owing to circumstances beyond our control we have been unable to publish the 1973-1977 issues until now. A cumulation was decided to clear the backlog, so this edition covers 1973-1977 lists. We do hope to normalise the frequency of publication with subsequent issues.”
The information was supplied to the National Library by the various university librarians, at least one of whom unwittingly made the same mistake as myself over dates; six theses are listed under BIBLIOGRAPHY AND LIBRARY SCIENCE as accepted for Ahmadu Bello University MLS degrees in 1977; three of these were actually accepted and the degrees awarded by the university Senate at meetings held in 1978.
11. Of the 108 items in the Catalogue of the Ife University Higher Degree Theses Deposited in the University Library, 1962-1978 (Ile-Ife: University of Ife Library, 1978) only about a dozen are on northern topics.
12. “Correctly, courtesy should require one to indicate those which have been acquired in this way. At present entries which have not been found and seen by the Uganda Journal compiler are noted by an asterisk, but no specific acknowledgement is made to the source from which it was acquired.” Langlands, B. W., “On Problems of Compiling a National Bibliography”, Ugandan Libraries: The Special Issue of the Ugandan Libraries on National Needs and Problems of Library Development in Uganda, March 1975, p. 13Google Scholar.
13. At the meeting of the University Library Committee held on 7 April 1981 the University Librarian stated that payment of bills was now being handled by the National Universities Commission's overseas offices, and that the backlog of unpaid subscriptions was rapidly being cleared. On 4 August 1982 Kashim Ibrahim Library's Acting Serials Librarian told me that while the NUC office in Washington was settling bills rapidly the London office was not; as a result the library's biggest serials supply agent had stopped supplying.
14. Hans M. Zell, “Publishing Progress in Africa 1975-76: Problems in Securing Information and the Role of the African Book Publishing Record”, in Progress in African Bibliography.
15. Sa'ad Abubakar, The Lamibe of Fombina: A Political History of Adamawa 1809-1901; Mahdi Adamu, The Hausa Factor in West African History; Jan S. Hogendorn, Nigerian Groundnut Exports: Origins and Early Development; Paul E. Lovejoy, Caravans of Kola: The Hausa Kola Trade 1700-1900; Neil Skinner (Editor), Alhaji Mahmudu Koki: Kano Malam; Alvin w. Urguhart, Planned Urban Landscapes of Northern Nigeria: A Case Study of Zaria; Yusufu Bala Usman, The Transformation of Katsina: (1400-1883): The Emergence and Overthrow of the Sarauta System and the Establishment of the Emirate; A. D. Yahaya, The Native Authority System in Northern Nigeria 1950-70: A Study in Political Relations with Particular Reference to the Zarla Native Authority.
The publication dates printed on the back of the title pages of some of these books are misleading; The Lamibe of Fombina, for example, gives 1977. I included it in the June 1978 Savanna bibliography as published in 1978 having been informed at the time of compilation that it would be “out” within a few months. In fact the book did not appear until 1979, which is the date given for it in the 1981 Ahmadu Bello University Press catalogue. The imprint details of Caravans of Kola give 1980 as year of publication, but the book was not available until April 1982.
16. Langlands, “On Problems of Compiling a National Bibliography”, p. 13.
17. Langlands, “Amateur Status of National Bibliographies”, p. 74. Since then he has “mellowed a little on the question of lack of consultation. Authors, editors and publishers do check to see if their egos are being satisfied”. After the conference the Milton Obote Foundation (a West German aid-supported body) gave the Uganda Society funds to meet the costs of printing the bibliography for three years. Personal communication, 12 June 1981. .
18. Personal communication, 17 May 1981.
19. Mansell's March-September 1982 catalogue announces the International African Bibliography Cumulation 1973-1978, edited by J. D. Pearson.
20. Except for the June and December 1972 issues, of which 2,000 copies were printed.