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Classifying Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Tsuzom M. Ndakotsu*
Affiliation:
Kahim Ibrahim Library, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
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Abstract

Africa will not easily shed its sensitivity to its past. It is therefore not surprising that there is a high degree of dissatisfaction with the treatment of the continent in the major library classification schemes. Both the LC and the DDC have gone through far reaching revisions which still fall short of what Africa expects for itself. Given that Africa is trying to keep pace with the rest of the world of information, this article argues that rather than continue to whine about neglect, Africa can take its fate into its own hands and in the process make its own contribution to classification by endowing the library world with a home-grown, Africa-based scheme which can help the revisers of the major schemes to integrate properly the continent into the mainstream.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2006

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