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Ghana
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Directory Information
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It is bounded by Ivory Coast on the west, Burkina
Faso on the north, and Togo on the east. Population
(1990 est.) 15,028,000; area 238,533 sq.km. The
official language is English, and the government
sponsors 11 other languages, including Akan, Dag-
bani, Ewe, Ga, and Nzema.
History. All libraries in Ghana look back to
two founding collections. One was that of John
Onfeur Anglionby, the Anglican Bishop of Accra,
established in 1928 with a collection of nearly 6,000
volumes. It was later taken over by the British Council
and finally became part of the public library service of
Ghana. The other was the collection held by the
Achimota College Library. The college was at one
time the center for training librarians in the country.
The collections of the Bishop Boys School Library and
the British Council Library became the core of the
stock of the Ghana Library Board. Ghana was the first
black African country to create a nationwide public
library system.
National Library
The Research Library on African Affairs in Accra, the capital, functions as the
National Library of Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah
founded the Library in 1961 as the Padmore Research
Library in memory of his friend and adviser George Padmore, a West Indian and Pan-Africanist, to support research on African affairs. Governed by the Ghana Library Board, it changed its name in 1966.
The Library acquires and conserves copies of all
significant publications produced in the country and
functions as a legal deposit library; produces a national bibliography; and keeps up to date a large representative collection of foreign literature, including books about Ghana. It has a good collection of newspapers and periodicals on microfilm and a collection of photographs of historical and political events. It serves as the bibliographic control center for publishers in the country.
The Research Library cooperates actively with other Africana libraries in Ghana in order to pool library resources. It has an active international lending and exchange program. It keeps union lists of certain types of library materials. The Library has an active program for collecting and preserving oral tradition. It covers not only oral literature but also history, music, and dance, on film, tapes, and records.
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