Naming is a universal cultural practice and in every society, names are given to children at birth. According to Wegryn (2008), a name is of distinction, chosen, conferred and announced. However, the way names are given, reasons for choice of particular names and the rituals involved in naming, vary from society to society. Birth is regarded among most African societies as the beginning of the rites of passage, which comprise birth, puberty, marriage and death, and all these are celebrated to show their significance. Among most Ghanaian communities, the newborn baby is kept away from public view for seven days and brought out on the eighth day during what is called the “outdooring ceremony”.

The following comments, analysis, and guide grow out of publishing two editions of a reference book and teaching a course on the Bibliography of Africa for the past nineteen years at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. The course is required for all Masters students in African Studies.

Two major issues have emerged with compiling the following guide to the best online sources for the study of Africa. The first is the fast growth of digital sources, and the increasing need to have access to the Internet to do research on Africa. The second is the uneven mix between open access and fee-based access to these online resources, and therefore the growing gap between rich institutions and scholars and struggling organisations and individuals who are at a disadvantage in accessing knowledge.

African libraries at higher learning and research institutions have undergone a lot of transformation with the advent of the internet. The structural adjustment programmes introduced by the Bretton Wood institutions that emphasised cost sharing in higher education and reduced spending by governments on education resulted in the near collapse of African libraries since most could no longer afford to subscribe to journals due to reduced grant funding for institutions and subsequent cost cutting measures at these institutions (Banya & Elu, 2001; Teffera & Altbach, 2004). In the 1990s it became imperative that drastic measures needed to be taken in order to reverse the deteriorating situation in which most African institutions were becoming cut off from current research and thinking from elsewhere. Several initiatives to increase the availability of scholarly information in Africa emerged, mostly driven by donors and non-governmental / non-profit institutions.