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Analyses the characteristics of a special collection, styled World Bank Depository Publications, in the University of Calabar Library. The regional coverage of the collection is identified as including Asia, Latin America, Africa (sub‐Saharan) in the main. Asia commands the highest coverage at 46.9 per cent; Latin America and Africa share 27.6 per cent and 23.3 per cent, respectively. Contends that publications on Africa, for example, are hardly written or produced by African experts. Further analyses of topics range from governance, civil society (13.8 per cent), developing economies (13.1 per cent) and banking, finance and development (12.8 per cent). Gender issues, particularly relating to the role of women in development, attained a respectable 7.4 per cent. Overall, the subject areas of the collection reflect emphasis in poverty (16.7 per cent), agriculture (15.6 per cent), corruption (13.3 per cent) and health (11.1 per cent). Concludes by appreciating the currency of the collection and the glossy well‐illustrated production, but recommends that experts from within the regional areas covered should be commissioned as authors for the World Bank for more effective exposition of subjects at local level.