Publishing and Development in the Third World. Edited by Philip G. Altbach. London: Hans Zell, 1992. 441 p. (Hans Zell Studies in Publishing, 1.) ISBN 1–873836–40–6.
This volume is based on papers commissioned for an international seminar on publishing in the Third World, held at the Rockefeller Conference Centre in Bellagio, Italy, in February 1991. The conference was organized by the Obor Foundation, a self–help entity founded in 1973 that has devoted itself to publishing development in Indonesia, Thailand, and Pakistan, with funding from foundations in Canada, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. The aim of the conference was to discuss what had been done in Third World publishing and seek to identify the successful components that might be applied to future book publishing in Africa and Asia.
The papers presented a look at programs that have been funded by the World Bank, the governments of the United States, Britain, Canada, and France, as well as various multilateral and other agencies. These papers tend to be good, factual, descriptive presentations, heavy on statistics and light on critical evaluation. This is not untypical of the reports presented by international "civil servants" in many subject areas; witness librarianship as an obvious example. Thus it was a welcome break from the solid and worthy reports to read the unabashed polemic by Mathobi Mutloatse on "Indigenous Publishing in South Africa: The Case of Skotaville Publishers" in Chapter 13.
As Hans Zell noted in an earlier chapter:
Over the past two decades there has probably been rather too much analysis and interpretation, but not enough practical action; there have been a great many pronouncements by "experts" suggesting solutions for overcoming the many hurdles African publishers face, or recommending strategies for developing local publishing. There have also been numerous conference resolutions and long lists of recommendations put forward at national and international book congresses, most of which are now gathering dust somewhere. (p. 101)
It will be interesting to see what develops from this conference’s "Recommendations for Action" (pp. 413–417). Several of them, understandably, reflect the concerns of those represented at the conference. There was the inevitable resolution that meetings such as this one should be convened periodically to assess the continuing problems in Africa and Asia, to which was added the thought that a subsequent conference might also include Latin America and the Caribbean. Two were aimed specifically at libraries: one, urging "donors and publishers to make funds regularly available to public libraries in Africa and Asia for the purchase of books that will strengthen library book collections. Public libraries normally offer the best practical, continuing, and economical means of providing the indigenous poor with access to books" and two, donor agencies were asked to support projects to "update and upgrade the national bibliographies of African and Asian nations" as a means of facilitating access to books.
This is a current and seemingly reliable source of current information and thinking on improving the supply of books to Third World countries in Africa and Asia. It is one more solid piece of evidence in support of those who want to see indigenous book production grow stronger. Whether it will help to influence the governments concerned remains to be seen.
Norman Horrocks is Vice President, Editorial, for Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey, and Adjunct Professor, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He has been a librarian in Britain, Cyprus, and Australia, has taught at the library schools in Pittsburgh, Hawaii, and Dalhousie University, Canada (where he was Director of the program), and has lectured at the schools in Jamaica and Taiwan. Dr. Horrocks has chaired the International Relations Committee and the International Relations Round Table of the American Library Association, and the International Committee of the Association for Library and Information Science Education. He is current President of the international honor society for library and information science, Beta Phi Mu, and Chair of the Special Interest Group for International Information Issues of the American Society for Information Science. From 1980 to 1986 he chaired the Overseas Book Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the Canadian Organization for Development through Education, and served on its national executive.
© 1992 Rosary College