It may seem presumptuous for a political scientist to stray beyond his field into the realm of imaginative literature. It seems appropriate, however, at a Symposium on African art, literature and music, to reflect - however naively - on the contribution, if any, that the novelist can make to the social scientist's grasp of his subject. After all, this Association was established in part to foster inter-disciplinary understanding of Africa's past and present (and, some would claim, its future), and as a professional body it is perhaps unique in embracing a membership drawn not simply from the arts and social sciences, but also those with interests in the applied sciences and agriculture.

The Africa Bibliographic Centre Secretariat, or ABCS, is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (it has no connection with the African Bibliographic Centre in Washington D.C., which is run by Daniel Matthews primarily as an information centre for American users.) The function of the ABCS is, for the time being, limited to propagandising the “ABC concept” through the medium of the ABC Newsletter, which is currently distributed gratis to a wide range of institutions and individuals within Africa and to a much smaller number outside. Although some previous news items in the professional literature have discussed the ABC's function and role, the following statement may be taken as reflecting the current situation.

The nucleus of the TUC Library was formed in 1915 with the establishment of the Labour Party Information Bureau. In 1922, a number of Joint Departments were set up by the Labour Party and the TUC, and Sidney Webb became the main advisor on the stock and organisation of the new library. In 1956, the TUC moved in Congress House in Bloomsbury, bringing the greater part of the stock with them.

The formation of the ILO in 1919 and contacts, particularly with the South African and Indian delegates, intensified the TUC's interest in labour conditions in British Protectorates. The new library began to gather material to service the Joint International Committee and the Joint Advisory Committee on Imperial Affairs. The formation in 1937 of a Colonial Advisory Committee led to a further organised attempt to collect African trade union literature.

Ahmadu Bello University's new Kashim Ibrahim Library was officially opened on 10th December 1976 by Sir Kashim Ibrahim, Chancellor of the University of Lagos and former Governor of Northern Nigeria. The Chancellor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Iya Abubukar, the Emir of Bedde and many distinguished guests attended the ceremony.

The new library building is one of the largest in tropical Africa. It has an area of 140,000 sq.ft. and a capacity for 2,000 readers and half a million books.

New staff took up appointments during 1976: Hajji Khalil Mahmud, University Librarian and Mr. Sam E. Ifidon, Deputy University Librarian. The administration of the library has been re-organised and a programme to increase the book stock (at present approximately 150,000 volumes) is under way.

As long ago as 1963 a communique was issued by the Nigerian Law Teachers Association which read as follows:

The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen contains two collections of materials of interest to Africanists. Both encompass a wider area than Africa, but in both the African materials are perhaps the most numerous and interesting.

Andrew Walls, head of the Department, directs the Project for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World. There is a reading room (the Laws Room) and nn accumulating collection of mission magazines and journals, pamphlets, ephemeral materials, manuscripts, microfilms, photographs, and bibliographic aids. A wide range of current mission and church papers is received, including Catholic and Protestant publications from U.S.A., U.K., the Continent, and Africa. With the supporting collections in the University Library there is a good coverage of older mission journals. Manuscripts of Dr. Robert Laws (born in Aberdeen) have been donated to the Department by his daughter, with other materials relating to Livingstonia.

Although the Official Publications Library of the British Library Reference Division contains the most extensive collection in Europe of British and foreign official publications, much of the foreign material has not been fully catalogued find has hitherto only been known to readers consulting a temporary catalogue card file in the Official Publications Library.

To help to overcome this difficulty and to make this invaluable body of material more widely known, the Library is issuing a microfilm of the unedited cards. It supplements in provisional form the corpus of official publications already included in the General Catalogue of Printed Books.

The time required to correct, expand and amend entries and headings is so considerable that this microfilm, with all its many imperfections and shortcomings, appears the only alternative to prolonging for many years the lack of any sort of published catalogue record of most of these holdings.