About the Nairobi Office
The Library of Congress Office, Nairobi, Kenya, acquires and catalogs publications from twenty-nine countries in Africa for the collections of the Library of Congress. These countries are: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Namibia, Reunion, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The Nairobi Office first opened its doors in fiscal year 1966 as a National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging (NPAC) office serving the Library of Congress for eastern and southern African publications. The Cooperative Acquisitions Program for the East Africa Region was initiated in 1992.
Mission
The Library of Congress Office, Nairobi, was established in 1966 to acquire and catalog publications in all subjects (except clinical medicine and technical agriculture) from commercial, government, and non-trade sources from eight countries in eastern Africa for the research collections of the Library of Congress. Since that time, the region covered by the Nairobi office has expanded to cover 29 African countries: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Reunion, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Publications are acquired not only for the Library of Congress, but also for more than 30 institutions that participate in the Cooperative Acquisitions Program. Participants are primarily U.S. university libraries.
The Nairobi office catalogs all monographs and new serial titles that are acquired, and maintains files on all issues of newspapers and other serials that are received in Nairobi.
From 1991-2011, the Nairobi office published the online Quarterly Index to African Periodical Literature. It indexed over 700 selected journals from 29 countries in Eastern, Southern, and Western Africa. As a static database, it remains on our website for scholarly use.
Another aspect of the Nairobi office program is the preservation of African newspapers. The approximately 300 newspaper titles being received are being preserved on microfilm. Filming is done at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. and the Library of Congress Office, New Delhi, India. Additionally, Somali newspapers are being microfiched by the New Delhi office.
Last Updated: March 27, 2012
