Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2022
Book aid is complex, problematic, and sometimes controversial, but the literature and research on book donation programmes for Africa is surprisingly scant. In particular there is only a very small number of papers or studies written by African librarians or other book professionals who have benefitted from, or have been involved in processing and distributing book donations.
The websites of many book charities contain glowing reports and endorsements about their activities, but publicly accessible evaluations of book donation schemes are still rare, as are independent investigative studies. There are only a few case studies that have evaluated donation schemes in terms of a set of identified needs. It is therefore timely, I believe, for book donation programmes to come under some further scrutiny.
A note regarding links: All websites/pages mentioned in this article were accessed during the period from October 2014 through January 2015, unless otherwise indicated.
2 In the US the requirements for charitable contribution donations are fairly complex. Basically by donating excess or obsolete inventory to a qualified charity — generally, a so-called ‘501(c)(3) non-profit organization’ - publishers can earn a significant federal income tax deduction under Section 170(e)(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code. In effect this means publishers can write off the cost of producing and manufacturing the books, 50% or more of their retail mark-up, and the costs of shipping them to a book charity's warehouse.
In the UK, if a business donates goods or products, the ‘trading stock’ that it makes or sells, to a charity they can claim the cost of these products in their business accounts. It does not need to include anything in its sales income for the value of the gift/donation. So it can reduce a business's taxable profits by the full cost of the goods, i.e. they can deduct the full cost of the items from their total business profits before they pay tax.
It should be noted that some publishers, notably those in the US, sometime impose restrictions or exclusion lists for commercial reasons, i.e. lists of countries to which book donation organizations may not ship books.
5 A good example of this is the donation of his extensive personal library by the Dutch scholar Piet Konings - formerly of the African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands (now retired) - to Langaa Research and Publishing Common Initiative Group (Langaa RPCIG) in Buea, Cameroon, see http://www.langaa-rpcig.net/+Piet-Konings-Donates-Personal+.html
6 http://www.codecan.org/. Code has a very strong track record in advancing literacy and education in Africa, assisting school and community libraries, as well as supporting local children's book production in Africa in association with in-country partner organizations in eight African countries, see http://www.codecan.org/reading-code.
7 Doyle, Robert P. “Donation Programs.” In International Leads 8, no. 3 [International Relations Round Table, American Library Association] (1994): 1–8.Google Scholar
8 Wood, Elizabeth “E-readers are Tools of Change.” Publishers Weekly October 21, 2011. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/49212-e-readers-are-tools-of-change.html
9 See for example the lists of Mkuki na Nyota Publishers http://www.mkukinanyota.com/cat_swahili.html and E&D Vision Publishing http://www.edvisionpublishing.co.tz/children.html
10 Rosi, Mauro Book Donations for Development, edited by Evans, Gwynneth Paris: UNESCOGoogle Scholar (Document ref. CLT/ACE/CEC-05/1); and Ottawa: CODE Canada, 2005. 72 pp. Online: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001394/139429e.pdf French version: La donation du livre pour le développement http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001394/139429fo.pdf
11 Arkaifie, Richard Perceptions of Book Donation to Africa. Views from the Library, http://www.sabre.org/programs/books/africa/DAP_arkaifie.php
12 Mohammed, Ahmed An Assessment of the Impact of Book Aid International (BAI) on the Development of Libraries in Kano State, Nigeria. Library Philosophy and Practice (2008) http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/∽mbolin/mohammed-BAI.htm
13 Hite, Margaret T. Traditional Book Donation to Sub-Saharan Africa: An Inquiry into Policy, Practice and Appropriate Information Provision. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 2006.Google Scholar MS (Library science) thesis, 46 pp. https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/indexablecontent?id=uuid:b0733540-c360-4eb2-965a-0bb41cef58c8&ds=DATA_FILE
14 Cramer, , Elizabeth Ellen International Library Development in Africa: Benefits, Challenges, and Sustainability. Boone, NC: Appalachian State University, 2012.Google Scholar PhD dissertation (Graduate School, Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership) 162 pp. http://edl.appstate.edu/sites/edl.appstate.edu/files/Cramer_dissertation.pdf
15 On the topic of African book production statistics, and their chronic unreliability, see also Zell, Hans M. “How Many Books are Published in Africa? The Need for More Reliable Statistics” The African Book Publishing Record 39, no. 4 (2013): 397–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also freely accessible at https://www.academia.edu/4549278/How_Many_Books_are_Published_in_Africa_The_Need_for_More_Reliable_Statistics
16 Curry, Ann; Thiessen, Tanya, and Kelley, Lorraine “Library Aid to Developing Countries in Times of Globalization: A Literature Review.” World Libraries 12, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 15–36.Google Scholar http://www.worlib.org/vol12no2/curry_v12n2.shtml
17 Thomas, Barbro “Viewpoint: On the Value of Books.” Scandinavian Public Library Quarterly 40, no. 3 (2007): 14–15.Google Scholar http://slq.nu/?article=sweden-on-the-value-of-books
18 Mathebula, Smangele “Missionary Publishing in South Africa.” Logos. Journal of the World Publishing Community 24, no. 1 (2013): 41–46.Google Scholar http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1878-4712-11112011
19 Hargrove, Rebecca The Book Famine in Zimbabwe. Does Aid Help, and How Much Does it Hurt? MA dissertation (Publishing). London: University of the Arts, 2010. 68 pp. [restricted circulation]
20 This programme has now closed down, with only an agent in Harare for Longman /Pearson now. Most of those UNICEF books were actually printed in South Africa, and so the tender did very little to support the book chain in Zimbabwe.
21 Scott, Jacqui “Books and Digital Publishing in Africa: What Does the Future Hold?” Africa Bibliography 2011 (November 2012): vii xvii. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=8758477&jid=AFB&volumeId=2011&issueId=-1&aid=8758475
22 Sturges, Paul “Donations to Libraries: A Problem in International Collaboration.” In Collaboration in International and Comparative Librarianship edited by Chakraborty, Susmita and Kumar Das, Anup Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2014. 17–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/donations-to-libraries/103068
23 International Book Bank/Dialogue of Partners Donated Book Programs. A Dialogue of Partners Handbook. A Book Based on the Proceedings of the Dialogue of Partners Workshop, September 14-16, 1992. Washington, DC: The Center for the Book, Library of Congress, 1993. 104 pp.Google Scholar
24 UNESCO Charte du don de Livres [27 January 2005]. http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=25480&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html and http://portal.unesco.org/culture/fr/files/25480/11068350113CHARTE_DU_DON_DE_LIVRES.pdf/CHARTE%2BDU%2BDON%2BDE%2BLIVRES.pdf
25 Rosi, Mauro Book Donations for Development, ibid, see ref. 10.
26 Hugues, Laurence, and Razafintsalama, Marie Michèle What ‘New’ Book Donation Practices can Meet the Needs of Young African Readers in Libraries? http://library.ifla.Org/861/1/144-hugues-en.pdf; also available in a French version: Quelles ‘nouvelles’ pratiques du don de livres pour répondre au besoin des jeunes lecteurs africains dans les bibliothèques? http://library.ifla.org/861/2/144-hugues-fr.pdf
27 Although these royalty terms are generous, there have reportedly been some disagreements between Worldreader regarding pricing of some e-book titles from participating African publishers, which are generally priced at US$1.00 per download. Worldreader provides regular accounting of sales, but make no remittances to publishers until earnings have reached a minimum level of US$100, and this is fairly standard practice.
28 Tania Vitvitsky, personal communication, 20 April 2015. According to Tania Vitvitsky, former President of the Sabre Foundation, the reasons for the closing down of its book donation programme were primarily these:
(i) An increasing number of commercial publishers were adding countries to their restricted or exclusion lists, i.e. lists of countries to which the Foundation could not send books, primarily for commercial reasons, (ii) With the move to digital publishing in the higher education sector, the number of titles and books available from publishers, particularly from McGraw-Hill, its largest donor, was shrinking, (iii) With an increasing number of countries on restricted lists, a number of overseas partner organizations were receiving shorter and shorter lists of available titles, coupled with an increasing number of repetitive titles from a smaller number of donating publishers. As a result, orders/requests from partner organizations fell, (iv) While the overall offers of books and educational materials did not fall precipitously, some offers could not be utilised in the quantities offered. For example, some university presses offered titles where the demand typically was for only a small number of copies per title. Other donations, for example, from Elsevier (mostly new STM returns), while very valuable and very much in demand, required a substantial effort to capture the data needed for producing offering lists, including sorting, weeding, bar-code scanning and database entry.
29 Book Aid International. Annual Review 2012. http://www.bookaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/FINAL-low-res-Annual-Review-amended-18.12.13.pdf
Book Aid International. Annual Review 2013. http://www.bookaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Book-Aid-International-Annual-Review-2013_e-version.pdf
30 Book Aid International. Strategy 2014-2016. http://www.bookaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Book-Aid-International-Strategy-2014-161.pdf
31 Woeli Dekutsey, Woeli Publishing, Ghana, personal communication 28 January, 2015; based on a converzation he had with representatives of the Ghana Book Trust on 26 January 2015.
32 Attwell, Arthur In South Africa, Crowd-sourced Publishing Tackles Book Poverty. http://publishingperspectives.com/2014/11/book-dash-crowd-sourced-publishing-tackles-book-poverty/
33 Source: Bgoya, Walter and Jay, Mary “Publishing in Africa from Independence to the Present Day.” Research in African Literatures 44, no. 2 (Summer 2013): p. 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar There were 29 partner organizations/libraries receiving adult fiction and children's books, and 30 university libraries receiving tertiary/scholarly titles.
34 Zell, Hans M. Book Aid International Publishing Support Programmes: An Evaluation. Oxford: Hans Zell Publishing Consultants, 1999. 119 pp.Google Scholar [restricted circulation]
35 Zell, Hans M. “Print vs Electronic, and the ‘Digital Revolution’ in Africa.” The African Book Publishing Record 39, 1 (2013): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar http://www.academia.edu/2514725/Print_vs_Electronic_and_the_Digital_Revolution_in_Africa and at http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/abpr-2013-39-issue-1/abpr-2013-0001/abpr-2013-0001.xml?format=INT
36 For evaluation reports about the programme see Worldreader/ILC Africa/USAID iREAD Ghana Study: Final Evaluation Report. January 26, 2012. http://worldreader.org/uploads/Worldreader%20ILC%20USAID%20iREAD%20Final%20Report%20Jan-2012.pdf Worldreader iREAD 2 Midterm Study Report. All Children Reading in Ghana. September 2013. http://cdn.worldreader.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Midterm-Results-Study.pdf Ghana iREAD Study 2012-2014 (iREAD 2) Final Evaluation. November 2014. http://cdn.worldreader.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iREAD-2_web.pdf
Worldreader's latest annual report “Empowering Reading Everywhere. 2014 Annual Report” is available at http://cdn.worldreader.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2014-Annual-Report.pdf
37 Project LEAP. Evaluating the Effects of E-readers in Libraries in Kenya. Final Report April 2015. San Francisco: Worldreader, 2015. http://cdn.worldreader.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PROJECT_LEAP.pdf
38 For more details see http://www.worldreader.org/involved/bring-ereaders-to-school/kits-faq/
39 Zacharias, Dani Improving the Efficiency of Book Donations. Publishing Perspectives 19 December 2014 http://publishingperspectives.com/2014/12/worldreader-book-donations-digital-age/
40 West, Mark, and Han Ei Chew (Edited by Kraut, Rebecca). Reading in the Mobile Era: A Study of Mobile, Reading in Developing Countries. Paris: UNESCO, 2014. 89 pp.Google Scholar (Figure 28 and 29)
Online: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002274/227436e.pdf This UNESCO report was produced in partnership with Worldreader, which makes sense, but it was apparently also produced/published “with the financial support of Nokia”, which is somewhat surprising as Nokia clearly have a huge vested interest in selling more of their products in developing countries.
41 See Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa - Online database, Section 4, Studies by Topic: Children's book publishing http://www.hanszell.co.uk/cgi-bin/online/database/db.cgi?db=section4&uid=default&browse_records=1&subhead=Children&sb=0=&so=ascend This database, currently containing 3,062 records - and which is expected to move to a new host institution in Africa sometime in 2015 - is now freely accessible at http://www.hanszell.co.uk/cgi-bin/online/pbrssa.shtml.
42 See also Crowder, Michael “The Book Crisis: Africa's Other Famine.” In Africa Bibliography 1985, compiled by Blackhurst, Hector Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986, xvi–xxi.Google Scholar Online http://journals.cambridge.org/images/fileUpload/documentsAFBCrowder.pdf
43 Issak, Aissa, comp. Public Libraries in Africa. A Report and Annotated Bibliography. Oxford: International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP), 2000. 199 pp.Google Scholar http://www.inasp.info/uploads/filer_public/2013/03/08/public_libraries_in_africa.pdf
44 See for example these articles: Mchombu, K. J. “African Librarianship: Reality or illusion?” In Libraries: Global Reach - Local Touch edited by Kathleen de la Pena McCook, Ford, Barbara J. and Lippincott, Kate Chicago: American Library Association, 1998, 150–156.Google Scholar
Priestley, Carol “Publishing and Library Support for Africa: An Update.” In Africa Bibliography 1994. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996, i–xxvi.Google Scholar http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=8198610&jid=AFB&volumeId=1993&issueId=-1&aid=7434308&bodyId=&membershipNumber=&societyETOCSession
Raseroka, H. K. “Public Libraries and Life Long Learning: African Perspectives.” Paper presented at the 63rd IFLA General Conference, August 31-September 5, 1997. http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla63/63rash.htm
Rosenberg, Diana “Can Libraries in Africa Ever be Sustainable?” Information Development 10, no. 4 (1994): 247–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar http://idv.sagepub.com/content/10/4/247.full.pdf
45 Rosenberg, Diana “Imposing Libraries: The Establishment of National Public Library Services in Africa, with Particular Reference to Kenya.” World Libraries 4, no. 1 (Fall 1993): 35–44Google Scholar http://www.worlib.org/vol04no1/rosenberg_v04n1.shtml [page not accessible 10/01/15]
46 Rosenberg, Diana “Library and Information Services in Africa.” In The Book Chain in Anglophone Africa: A Survey and Directory, edited by Stringer, Roger Oxford: International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications/ INASP, 2002: 10–12.Google Scholar http://www.inasp.info/uploads/filer_public/2013/02/27/book_chain_in_anglophone_africa.pdf
47 Justin Chisenga A Glimpse into the Future of Public Libraries in Africa. (2012) http://scecsal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/a-glimpse-into-future-of-public.html
48 Diana Rosenberg, personal communication, 01 March 2015.
49 Mchombu, Kingo and Cadbury, Nicola Libraries, Literacy and Poverty Reduction: A Key to African Development. London: Book Aid International and the Commonwealth Foundation, n.d. [2006?] 23 pp.Google Scholar http://eprints.rclis.org/10167/1/2006.MchombuK%26CadburyN.LibrariesPoverty.pdf
50 Perceptions of Public Libraries in Africa. Combined Report Presentation Prepared for EIFL by TNS RMS East Africa. Rome: EIFL, n.d. [2011]. 101 pp. http://www.eifl.net/resources/perceptions-public-libraries-africa-0 Summary article of the report: Elbert, Monika, David Fuegi, and Ugne Lipeikaite “Perceptions of Public Libraries in Africa.” Ariadne, issue 68 (2011). http://live.ariadne.ac.uk/issue68/elbert-et-al
51 Clouting, Lucy and Stevie Russell How Books are Still Changing Lives in the HE Sector in sub-Saharan Africa. http://pubs-for-dev.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/PfD2014_Russell-and-Clouting.pdf
52 Book Aid International. Annual Review 2012. http://www.bookaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/FINAL-low-res-Annual-Review-amended-18.12.13.pdf
53 Book Aid International. Strategy 2014-2016. http://www.bookaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Book-Aid-Intemational-Strategy-2014-161.pdf
54 Book Aid International Talking to Users: A Review of our Work in Five Countries http://www.bookaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Talking-to-users-a-review-of-our-work-in-five-countries.pdf
55 Stringer, Roger “Arts, Culture and the Neglect of Public Library Services.” In Arts and Culture in a Changing Society, edited by Langen, Jürgen and Tshuma, Winnie Harare: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, 2014, 77–82.Google Scholar [will become available online in September 2015 at http://www.kas.de/Zimbabwe/en]
56 Irene Staunton, Publisher, Weaver Press, Harare, personal communication, 15 December 2014.
57 Irene Staunton, ibid.
58 Harrity, Sara “Help African Youngsters Turn the Page.” The Observer [London], Sunday 1 January 2006.Google Scholar http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/01/theobserver.uknews1
60 Murphy, Beth “Book Aid International. Core Work and New Directions.” Focus on International Library and Information Work 39, no. 2 (2008): 65–67.Google Scholar http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20130701012610/ http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/international/publications/Documents/focus3922008.pdf
61 Sturges, Paul, and Neill, Richard The Quiet Struggle. Libraries and Information for Africa. 2nd ed. London: Mansell Publishing, 1998. 244 pp.Google Scholar http://homepages.lboro.ac.uk/∼lsrps/Quiet%20Struggle%20E-Book/The%20Quiet%20Struggle%20Small%20Version/The%20Quiet%20Struggle%20PDF/The%2Quiet%20Struggle%20Electronic%20Edition%202.pdf (e-book, freely accessible)
62 Bgoya, Walter, and Jay, Mary “Publishing in Africa from Independence to the Present Day.” Research in African Literatures 44, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 17–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/reseafrilite.44.2.17
63 Black, Sameena The Old Man and the Stars. Meeting with Walter Bgoya, founder of Mkuki na Nyota Publishing House, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, (part 1 of 2) http://www.excursions-books.com/?cat=58
64 Facebook Publishing in Africa group https://www.facebook.com/groups/233568780016434/
65 Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Publisher, Cassava Republic Press, Abuja, personal communication, 09 December 2014.
66 Sulaiman Adebowale, Director, Amalion Publishing, Dakar, personal communication, 11 December 2014.
67 Elliot Agyare, CEO, Smartline Publishers, Accra, personal communication, 02 February 2015.
68 Fauna Frimpong, Executive Secretary, Ghana Book Publishers Association, Accra, personal communication, 02 February 2015.
69 Jane Katjavivi, Publisher, University of Namibia Press, Windhoek, personal communication, 19 January 2015.
70 Irene Staunton, Publisher, Weaver Press, Harare, personal communication, 15 December 2014.
71 Woeli Dekutsey, Managing Director, Woeli Publishing, Accra, personal communication, 25 January 2015.
72 Richard Ali, Chief Operating Officer, Parresia Publishers, Lagos, personal communication, 04 February 2015.
73 Mary Jay, former CEO of African Books Collective Ltd, Oxford, personal communication, 29 October 2014.
74 Justin Cox, CEO, African Books Collective Ltd, Oxford, personal communication, 04 November 2014.
77 Elliot Agyare, CEO, Smartline Publishers, Accra, personal communication, 02 February 2015.
78 Kofi Annan's Message to Books For Africa. (19 September 2008). https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YxbxzsSrAB4
