In 1983 I was asked if I would like to assist the Librarian of Bishop Tucker College in Uganda in the classifying of his stock by the Dewey Decimal scheme. I was rather intrigued by the project. I had taught in Uganda in the late 60s and was keen to see the country again. The profound changes effected during the seventies stimulated me to consider research into the effect of such changes on a national information system.

Development of Libraries was mooted in various post-war development plans, and some were set up in the late 1940s and 1950s in district commissioners’ offices and community centres under the aegis of the East African Literature Bureau. A systematic national library development plan was formulated by Sidney Hockey in 1960 and in 1964 legislation created a Public Libraries Board to maintain a service.