While recreational reading material was once an integral part of the academic library collection and librarians were seen as guides in reading development for students, this has not been the case in the last 50 years. Fiscal constraints have forced library professionals to make choices so that leisure reading material has not been viewed as a high…

Games and other forms of play are used in today's libraries to attract underserved patrons, to introduce patrons to other library resources and services, and to facilitate engagement between library patrons. While many perceive gaming as a new library service, gaming services have been part of librarianship since the nineteenth century through…

This paper discusses the status of library services and reading in Mali. Following an introductory section that provides miscellaneous data about Mali, the first section of the paper describes the development of libraries in Mali before the colonial period, during the colonial period, and during the independence period up to 1977. The libraries of…