Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

The article examines in some detail the provisions made for African subjects in the Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal Classification schemes, two schemes in general use in Africa. It notes some gross inadequacies of these schemes in classing African subjects, especially in the social sciences and humanities. It suggests extensive modifications of existing schemes rather than attempting to devise an entirely different scheme for Africana, but such modifications should be concerted, and not left to the whims and caprices of individual classifiers.

The pressures on librarians to utilize management information are outlined. The practical applications made of management information based on data from the SWALCAP shared circulation system in a polytechnic library are then described. Difficulties and opportunities are rehearsed, with some suggestions for the better take-up of management information for policy and decision making.

The article analyses current library cooperation in Kenya. In an attempt to understand the situation, a brief account of the country's information infrastructure is provided. Effort has been made to provide a detailed account of the cooperative programmes currently in existence, though it is noted that many of these programmes still remain informal. Problems hindering effective cooperation have been isolated. It is felt that many of these obstacles could be overcome with the formulation by the government of a national information policy.

The review looks at the development of library and information plans (LIPs) in Britain and the characteristics of the literature produced by them. It examines some of the features of interim reports and of final reports, looking specifically at the presentation of survey results, the failure to assess user needs, and the nature of proposals. It concludes that the success or otherwise of LIPs will be judged by their practical results rather than by the quality of their literature. The review is supported by a complete list of LIPs completed or in progress at August 1988, followed by references to their reports.

This review article is based on the book of the same title, by Douglas Coombs.