In a previous issue of ARD my colleague Paul Richardson provided an introduction to the establishment of The Paul Hamlyn Foundation/Code Europe Special Collection on Publishing in Africa in the Library at Oxford Brookes University. Paul writes from the perspective of an academic and a publisher and brings these particular insights to the collection. I write as a librarian and would like to discuss the establishment of the collection from that perspective.

Several events during the last year have given me an insight into the potential of a collection like this.

At the London International Book Fair in March 1998 the Southern African Book Development Education Trust organised a series of seminars under the title of ‘Publishing for Children in Africa’. Speaker after speaker spoke about the potential for development and the urgent need for support of the publishing industry in that continent.