"The papers from the seventh conference of the International and Comparative Librarianship Group of the UK Library Association, held in Birmingham in September 1989, which examined the book crisis, shortage of reading materials, and the funding of library services in the countries of the South, with many parts of the less developed world turning into virtually bookless societies." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1398)