This article is an attempt to chart the chronology of a Library crisis and rescue, a crisis which attracted much attention from the national and professional press. It is very much a personal account. Others would tell it differently. It is an unashamedly partial account. Partial in both senses. There are some aspects of the story I do not know. I did not share in all the deliberations of the great and good and of the mercenary, muddled and misguided, which brought the Library to the brink of disaster and back and then to Cambridge. It is partial, because I find it difficult to be objective about this Library, which has always had the capacity to rouse strong emotions in its custodians and users - which is one of the reasons for its survival.

Intellectual access to archival sources in the National Archives of Ghana in recent times has been the focus of many prominent historians and academics both local and foreign. Many researchers (Gareth Austin, 1986; Adam Jones, 1987) have documented the inadequacy of search tools, the lack of physical control, and the deteriorating valuable sources in this Archive which was one of the pioneering institutions in Africa. Out of desperation some have even prepared summary guides to some of the holdings they have used or are familiar with (Gareth Austin, 1986)

Though the archival tradition in Ghana spans a period of five decades, there is no comprehensive guide to the total holdings of the Archives. This inadequacy has for a long time eclipsed the real value of the contents of the Archives.