ABSTRACT
Librarians from Britain, the USA, and those working through Unesco began to identify and propose solutions to the lack of libraries in developing countries in the 1950s and 1960s. Infrastructure was created by Unesco and library associations to undertake international library development work. Surveys and seminars were an important means for shaping what might be considered as the ‘library problem’. Yet these surveys and seminars were informed by the assumptions and cultural views of Western librarians and sometimes ignored the complexities and needs of individual countries. The library ‘expert’ also became a key part of the process of identifying the ‘library problem’ and proposing solutions. Ideas about expertise served to shape the ‘developmental subject’. This chapter explores how surveys and seminars imagined the needs and problems of developing nations in relations to libraries and information infrastructure, and how Western expertise was offered as part of the solution.
