The DEVELOPMENT OF UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES

Abstract

The creation of university institutions in the overseas territories connected with Great Britain has taken place very largely since the conclusion of the last war: already noteworthy achievement is an effective antidote to the depression that has overtaken us in more general matters. The need for such an impressive and timely step need scarcely be stated. With a new width of vision the rigidity of the colour bar in the countries involved has disappeared. Economically, the countries left in the relaxed ‘colonial’ system have gained in relative importance. Africa, the West Indies and South‐Eastern Asia must take the place of the great Asiatic countries which have so largely cut adrift. Yet Great Britain is hard put to it to find manpower sufficient to supply her own needs, although she must seek earnestly, even in her own interest, for the development of the immense but largely untapped resources of the overseas territories. Thus Africans, West Indians, Malayans and Chinese must find and train their own medical men and women, engineers, lawyers, school teachers, legislators, clergy, all hitherto sadly deficient in number. On a higher plane, our country has been a pioneer in the trustee policy that has taken so firm a hold on the imagination since the institution of the League of Nations in 1919: not only from relentless local pressure but as a result of real conviction we and our ‘Colonies’ are moving in nearly every case towards more and more complete self‐determination. We may be legitimately proud that in this matter and in the concurrent need for expansion in higher education we have gone far ahead of the other remaining ‘colonial’ powers.

Citation

OFFOR, R. (1954), "The DEVELOPMENT OF UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 151-158. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049522