Acquiring Official Publications from Developing Countries: A South Pacific Perspective

ABSTRACTStudies of the difficulties of acquiring official publications from developing countries have largely ignored the Pacific area. The author discusses five barriers to acquisition identified in the literature with respect to his experience of a recent collecting trip in the South Pacific. The five barriers all have validity for the Pacific region, but the significance of distribution systems and cultural and political factors have been underestimated. Given these obstacles, a personal collecting tour is necessary to acquire publications at first hand, to establish contacts with distributors and individual agencies, and to clarify bibliographic and administrative details.